On one website that I visit once in a blue moon or two, there’s a silly little internet game you can play where you type a string of characters (it’s supposed to be a name, but what’s stopping you from putting almost anything you want in?) into a text box and the algorithm behind it produces a graphic of what’s in the person’s head. One of the names I typed in on my most recent visit was “Donald J. Trump,” and this is what it returned.
It’s almost too perfect. For those who can’t read Japanese, here’s what the characters mean:
- 嘘: “lie,” “falsehood”
- 遊: “play,” but also “run wild,” “go to waste”
- 幻: “illusion,” “phantasm”
- 秘: “secret,” or by extension, something sexual
So this little random kanji generator tells us that the interior of Donald J. Trump’s mind is a morass of illusions, wasteful self-entertainment, and secrets, wrapped up in a shell of lies. It’s so on-the-nose that I couldn’t resist sharing.