Philip Roth Calls Trump an Ignorant Con Man With ‘Vocabulary of 77 Words’
By Dave Goldiner January 23, 2017
Novelist Philip Roth has lashed out at President Trump as an ignorant “con man” who could do untold damage to the country.
The retired “Portnoy’s Complaint” author told the New Yorker that Trump makes other polarizing Republicans like Richard Nixon and George W. Bush look angelic by comparison.
“Trump is ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency,” Roth told the magazine in a string of emails. He “wield(s) a vocabulary of seventy-seven words that is better called Jerkish than English.”
The emails from the 83-year-old Roth came in response to uncanny parallels between the Trump’s win and his famous 2004 alternate history novel “The Plot Against America”, in which Charles Lindbergh takes over as president.
Roth insisted he never dreamt of the novel as being a warning about the rise of a Trump-like figure to the pinnacle of power.
“It isn’t Trump as a character, a human type—the real-estate type, the callow and callous killer capitalist—that outstrips the imagination,” he said “It is Trump as President of the United States.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
