By now we’ve all seen the Current Leader be stymied when asked — about his “favorite musical,” Les Miserables, which he attended at his own personally hijacked Kennedy Center — whether he identified more with Javert or Valjean? (If you haven’t seen it, click on the link. Oy.)

Well. Okay. I know that Trump’s Razor (a variant of Occam’s Razor) says that when faced with multiple explanations of his behavior, it’s a safer bet to go with the stupidest reason. But I think I have to disagree with Stephen Colbert’s assessment, that his “brain is wet bread.”

Yes, the man is stupid, vain, and incurious, but I think it’s more than his encroaching dementia.^[1]

Let us review the facts, and let us also then assume that contrary to everything else we know about the man, he has actually seen the show — and a bunch of other shows — enough for it to be his “favorite.”

CONTEXT:

Jean Valjean is the main character in Hugo’s novel and in the musical. As the novel opens, Valjean has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. After his release, he is shunned by society for his criminal past. He is given refuge and a meal by a kindly bishop, but he steals a set of silverware when he leaves. He is caught by a local patrol and hauled back to the bishop’s house to be accused of his new crime.

But the bishop recognizes Valjean’s essentially blameless spirit and when shown the stolen silver simply exclaims that he was disappointed when Valjean left and had not accepted all the bishop’s gifts, and he hands over two additional silver candlesticks to the astonished man.

Long story: Valjean uses his new wealth to build a new life, one of virtue and benevolence.

However, Inspector Javert is determined that this criminal, this man who stole a loaf of bread, is going to face justice and be returned to his slave labor. He pursues Valjean from place to place, from decade to decade, never relenting in his righteous fury that the Law Is ETERNAL KENNETH.

It ends only during the Revolution when Valjean, behind the barricades, volunteers to kill Javert, who has been spying on the revolutionaries for the government. He takes Javert out of sight, then fires his gun into the air and frees Javert.

More long story, but Javert is so rattled by Valjeans clemency, opposed to his unwavering version of the Law, that his moral underpinnings come loose and he commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Seine.

So everyone’s mocking Turmp for not being able to say which character he identified more with (and let’s face it, it was a cheeky question). As someone on Bluesky put it, “Of course he can’t choose between a convicted felon and a vindictive prick.”

It’s worse than that, though.

I think he must sense that Valjean is the “hero” of the piece. He doesn’t get it, I mean, all the guy does is give his money to other people and endanger himself (AND HIS BUSINESSES KENNETH), but Valjean seems to have the most lines and stage time, so that’s a good thing, amirite? Still, he’s a criminal, isn’t he, stealing that loaf of bread all those years ago? He should be in prison.

But that Javert guy — he’s an Inspector, one of the good guys, LAW & ORDER KENNETH, not like all those fupping liberal students and prostitutes and street urchins, filthy, you wouldn’t believe how filthy those people are. Javert knows what’s what. He just screwed up that one time, letting his “feelings” get the better of his bedrock knowledge that the Law Is Unchanging! He was so close, though, to throwing that criminal Valjean back into prison for life.

So you can see Turmp’s dilemma. On the one hand, the star of the show, always in the spotlight, takes the final bow, standing ovation. On the other, a virtuous law-abiding government officer, loyal to his ideals to a fault.

What’s an amoral Philistine to do?

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^[1] Not that I can completely discount it. Nor can I discount the idea that he in fact had never seen the show when he tried to bluff his way through the interview. But I think my explanation is part of the answer.