This humble spirit has often spoken of Trump’s ploy of using ridiculous “shiny objects” to distract us from his substantive failures. I’ve also expressed concern over his using the presidency as one great big grift, an opportunity to enrich himself, his family, and his endless parade of oligarchs —high tech, crypto, and sundry others—until American democracy is a hollowed out kleptocracy. But lately I’ve begun to question whether these observations, accurate as they may be, explain the essence of his presidency.
The core of Donald Trump and his presidency is pure anger, as evidenced by his obsession with “grievance” and “retribution.” Maybe all the bigotry and hatred that’s apparent in his targeting of the “other” is secondary to Trump’s sociopathic cruelty. Perhaps the entire MAGA movement is nothing but a clever ruse to camouflage the narcissistic rage that is the essence of who/what/whatever in hell Donald Trump really is. I fear that Trump is more than a narcissist in the usual sense, he’s a narcissistic entity disguised as a human being, like something out of science fiction (The Narcissism that Ate Manhattan; or rather, The Evil Narcissism that Destroyed American Democracy).
As Peter Wehner said in his excellent piece in the Atlantic entitled “Trump’s Inferno of Hate Is Intensifying”
Heraclitus taught that character is destiny. In Trump’s case, his sociopathy is destiny. His narcissism; his lack of conscience, remorse, or empathy; his pathological lying and grandiosity; his sense of entitlement, impulsivity, and aggression; his cruelty, predatory behavior, and sadism—these are the forces that drive him. If we don’t understand that, we understand almost nothing of importance about him.
Maybe It’s True that You Get the Face Your Deserve.
How can the administration address the affordability crisis in a meaningful way when it’s consumed with vengeance and retribution? Maybe blowing up boats in the Caribbean isn’t so much about regime change or even taking Venezuela’s oil as it presents an opportunity to kill people (under the guise of stopping drugs from entering the country, of course.) His fascistic rounding up and deporting of non-white immigrants is an ongoing embarrassment to the country that many MAGAs don’t even approve of. Then there’s the Presidential “Walk of Fame,” his gallery of nasty thoughts about other presidents, hostile rants that are no more factual or grammatical than his usual hateful, bombastic Tweets.
Trump’s primetime speech last week was unlike anything in the history of the presidency. Putting aside that it was filled with almost nothing but lies, distortions, and self-serving exaggerations, did you ever see someone so angry and aggrieved? What an unhinged, insensitive rant! How dare the American people not appreciate how wonderful he is and what a great job he’s doing for the country? How dare they put his magnificent grift machine at risk? If you can’t afford rent, healthcare, or groceries, well, go eat cake! Can’t you see that America is great again because of ME, ME, ME?
“I Ate His Liver with Some Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti.”
As Mary Trump said to her uncle in reaction to his comments about the slaying of Rob Reiner and his wife, “Once again, you have gone out of your way to prove, to anyone who doesn’t already know, that you are a depraved, deviant, damaged little man who cannot bear the thought that there are people in this world who are talented, valued, and loved—three things you are not.”
If the Epstein files finally reveal the very worst about Donald Trump, could it really be much worse than what we already know?