Donald Trump, theatre critic

US commentators are amused and slightly alarmed that President-elect Trump is wasting his time and his self-imposed Twitter ration on going after the cast of the Broadway musical Hamilton, for supposedly harassing Veep-elect Mike Pence.  See this piece from Slate, for example.

Should anyone really be surprised by Trump's behaviour here?  I'd say not.  In the first place, the man is remarkably thin-skinned, a trait which is unlikely to do him any favours once he actually assumes office.  More importantly, though, I suspect Trump is setting a precedent for how he will behave in the White House.  

It's difficult to imagine a less Trump-friendly crowd than the people attending a hip-hop musical on Broadway: aside from Mike Pence and his party, you could probably count the number of GOP voters in the house on Friday night on the fingers of one hand.  Criticizing people like this plays really well with Trump's electoral base, and he's not about to stop.  The more he can portray his opponents as sore losers, the easier it will be for him to blame them when the wheels start coming off his administration -- which, given the Cabinet of Deplorables he seems to be putting together, may not take long. 

The precedent here, as it has been for much of the US election cycle, is the Brexit vote.  Leave campaigners have wasted no time in rounding on the Remain voters,  or on anyone they deem insufficiently keen to leave the EU:  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, for example.  The tabloid press has demanded that the "Bremoaners" shut up, and one Tory MP has even suggested that opposing Brexit should be a treasonable offence.  This all sets things up for a nasty bout of finger-pointing (or worse) when the UK economy starts to feel the negative impact of the Brexit vote, as it inevitably will.  

Populists always have to smear their foes at every turn in order to keep their supporters riled up.  For Donald Trump, the Hamilton cast is a convenient early target.  It surely won't be the last.