At 8:15 this morning, the President of the United States began panicking in front of the entire world. For more than seven hours, he posted nearly 50 times. And when he finally slowed down, it would stand as one of the most revealing fits of rage of his presidency to date. Because what he shared was beyond any reasonable person's comprehension...
What a malignant narcissist fears most is humiliation and being called a loser; hence the grandiosity and lashing out at his perceived enemies over and over. The combination of malignant narcissism and cognitive decline is extremely dangerous.
I cannot understand why everyone around Trump is sitting back and letting this roll out in public. The man is seriously cognitively and mentally degenerating and degenerated. Why are the doctors lying. Why are they all so frightened of Trump. Is his family holding up the walls around him and insisting he stays in place ? That would be even more worrying as it means the republicans are not governing- the Trump family is ?
He obviously has a team of equally deranged helpers to put the posts together. Visions of a basement office with dotty teens putting all the nonsense together.
This is the USA a revered country literally being run by a madman. More worryingly a man who has a following happy to do his biding
November cannot come soon enough and I live in UK !!
Come on decent republicans man up and sort this out.
The primary reason is that they are afraid of being called out which would pit them against their base, some of which are inherently politically violent and mentally unstable. There are other reasons but I believe this is major factor.
Indeed, Mike! The Republican Party is filled with people who have been selling their souls for years and years. They are all afraid of their own constituents, as well they should be! Not only the fear of losing an election, but the actual real fear of the retribution well-deserved and truly coming, that so very very many Americans would be happy to visit upon these soul-less money-grubbing traitors! “Hey, Sinner-man, where ya gonna run to all on that day?”
If all Republicans want in the end is power and control they never get into any serious discussions with their constituents and they just go ahead and promise things that they can take away and then say other people are the cause of that. Nothing you don’t already know.
There are no decent Republicans in a position to do anything as Republicans and none of those still in office have the guts or will to cross the aisle and help put an end to the garbage flowing too freely from the unhinged conman in the WH.
Hippa rules indicate that medical info is between doctor and patient. Doctors and other medical personnel cannot discuss medical and other info about patients. Also with everyone focused on Trump’s medical status his cabinet and family can manipulate the system behind closed and open doors!
Good comment. I agree that Trump is being propped up by a shadow government and enablers who allow him to rave on while behind the scenes the real destruction happens. I think Natalie Harp, his loyal puppy, should be banned from the White House- but she won’t be. Short of another revolution (sorry, Brit!) I don’t know how this will change. I have my doubts about the midterms.
They’re hoping he holds out until he’s been in office two years, after which Vance will become President and will be eligible to stand for office twice.
Actually should Vance come in before the end of the term he gets only one more term legally not two. And VPs who took over before end of term have lost reelection every time.
The relevant section of the Constitution says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
If Trump makes it to two years, Vance can stand twice after the term he finishes as Trump’s VP.
Note that Vance's former boss and monetary support, Peter Thiel, has moved to Argentina including his husband and children! He's seeing the writing on the wall! More than likely the potential that Clarence THomas has raised about reviewing Same Sex marriages, as well as the threat of wealth taxes in California and other states. BTW that same sex marriage threat is also real for Treasury Secretary Bessent who also has a husband!
Also terrifying listening to Europe trying to keep Trump sweet at G7. Trump knows he has Europe underfoot as we want help for Ukraine and for him to stop pandering to his great mate Putin !!
All not good for a man who is positively deranged.
Maybe we’re just too far away (Australia) to understand or just too dumb, but … does anybody seriously believe Donald Trump can spell “obfuscation”, let alone “discombobulation”? And 50 posts - sometimes quite lengthy & argumentative (however batshit crazy) in 7 hours, some with clever, elaborate (& new?) memes? What? All by himself? Seriously!!!
There’s a battalion of incel DOGE minions cranking out hundreds of these execrable images and videos. We only see a small percentage of what they come up with.
I agree. He is just too stupid to create all this stuff. His vocabulary is quite limited, judging from his campaign speeches, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a low-level lackey post most of his diatribes because typing them on a tiny phone keyboard isn’t easy (unless he uses a voice-to-text app). I often type longer text messages on my iPad then copy/paste to my iPhone.
He is slipping further into dementia and is a liar and a vindictive petty loser. I would feel sorry for him if he weren’t such a dangerous person with vast resources to cause harm to our country and the world.
He is so vile and abusive that I cannot imagine the circumstances in which I would feel sorry for him. But I get your point. Perhaps I’d feel sorry for him if he had some cataclysmic personal loss and he experienced appropriate emotions and he expressed true remorse. But because he doesn’t know love, he can’t feel those deep emotions.
All these vanity projects are a projection and a metaphor of his broken, worn out self. His ego may no longer be dominant with respect to his behavior. The id, the unconscious source of raw, primal drives, instincts and gratification appears to make the dominant role in his personality which includes poor impulse control, poor delay of gratification, psychological imbalance. In other words, things are about to get crazier.
I agree entirely Mike. I had to drag my narcissist books out to get all the nomenclature right. I shared the title of 'Witchfinder General - sub class Narcissist' with my adorable neighbour, who also grew up under an oppressive narcissist. We could spot a narcissist a mile off.
Trump is a psychologist/writer's wet dream. Who could have imagined finding such a well-formed example of the malignant narcissist in freefall collapse.
Same here, Ken. Thankfully this stage of the game will soon be over. The word “Trump” should be synonymous with something we experienced, unique in the animal world. I propose we use the word “Dodo” as in the bird with extreme characteristics that became extinct and as a synonym get it into the Thesaurus.
Yep. You said lt. I know we are seeing the beginning of the end finally but it will get worse before it gets better. He is beyond out of control. Well said Mike.
Another great post Heather. I am in awe of your ability to summarise the orange buffoon's rantings. He has no right to put Judge Cooper's life in danger, who only said what all reasonable people have been saying a out the unauthorised naming of the Kennedy Centre. I believe Trump is jealous of Judge Cooper's educational achievements. Donald, what did you achieve academically?
As for Trump's medical results, if he weighs 225 lbs, then I can sing grand opera. Don't insult our intelligence please.
As for all the artists who've turned down the invitation to perform at your 250th anniversary, has it ever occurred to him that they don't want to participate in an event that Trump will make any celebration all about himself? The World Cup starts next month in the US. Will he also turn that event about himself?
Well said, Janet. And yes, he will absolutely make the World Cup about himself. The self-centered arrogance and grandiosity is astonishing and appalling.
OK, so thanks to Heather's chronicling and analyses we have a consensus about Trump's continued decline inside his insane bubble, the enabling willingness of his sycophants, and some evidence of their incompetence. We are seeing some heroism among the judiciary stepping up to resist where they can. We know the mid-terms are at this point the surest antidote but not soon enough. We need to know more about any planned prevention of further military disasters, about why named individuals in his coterie are not acting to save us. And we need Heather to continue connecting the dots.
Look behind the curtain! Trump is the distraction, the colorful sideshow grabbing our attention and, while we gasp in horror, Miller and DOGE and all the loyalists are quietly stealing our democracy. By the time we peel Trump’s fingers off his keyboard, our democracy will be gone. Get him out now. Keep shining the light Heather!
A loser once always a loser. But with billions stolen thru scams and emptying the government coffers. His abject corrupt Gaza peace council is another welcome failure. Just a few millions and no billions. Lmao
Here in GREAT Britain (it always has been) we are flummoxed and flabbergasted (Donald won’t know such words) by the fact that fair-minded and reasonable Americans are finally making their voices heard about the madness of their ‘great’ leader. We could see what was coming but it still happened a SECOND time! WTF were you all thinking? How did it come to this?
NOW it is time to take to the streets on ‘No Kings’ Day in your MILLIONS (a few 100,000s won’t affect him) and let him KNOW that he does not have the power he believes he has to take YOUR country down the road HE is taking it!
If you wait until November he and his cronies will, as likely as not, have manipulated the electoral system and rallied his lunatic supporters to prevent enough Democratic voters from even being able to vote!
And, as for 4th July celebrations- perhaps the best that could happen is that HE calls off the 250th anniversary celebrations due to lack of (his) interest. You should all stay at home and enjoy a celebration with your FRIENDS and FAMILIES!
BTW Please don’t tell TanTrump that America would need renaming to be ‘Great’ (again?) because he’d probably do that too (and he’d find a way to incorporate his own name into it) so he could be immortal in name at least. You wouldn’t put it past him!
Good luck this summer. It’s going to get HOT! 🥵 ☀️🤪🇺🇸
You are right, Chris, that July 4th has suddenly lost its meaning for many of us. What should have been a banner year milestone has become Uncle Sam on his deathbed. What’s to celebrate when our hard-won constitutional republic is on life support?
There will be parades and fireworks, yes. But all in my circle of friends, neighbors, and family will be taking the day off, having quiet gatherings and avoiding the hoopla of red-white-and -blue and all that.
Like many of us on both sides of the pond, I feel your pain at a time when this should be a massive e celebration for the REPUBLIC of USA - seems ironic that the reason it is all going pear-shaped is The Republicans and their bizarre administration of the country. Is their idea of a healthy society really based on making as much money as they can for themselves and their sycophants? Notwithstanding the fact that President TanTrump believes himself to be bigger than the Beatles, sorry, than Jesus, the rest of his 'enablers' are clearly only in it for personal gain and aggrandizement - but fortunately their distraction and obfuscation tactics are clear for everyone to see - except by those already brainwashed by the 'promises' Mr T and his crew have made a long time ago. I've already made my suggestion that black flags are waved at 'No Kings Day' protests and through the 'celebrations' so that the administration cannot make claims that 'the people waving the star spangled banner are showing their support for this administration' which of course is exactly what they WILL do
Thank you for your empathy, Chris. I would say that the wealthy who are subjugating us are not at all interested in a healthy society. All they care about is the health of their own obscene piles of money. How do they not see that by crashing the world’s economies, they kill their own feeder roots?
The Bible is correct in stating that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” We see the truth of that every day. Evil is taking over and yet we must not stop fighting it. I like the black flag idea. I’ll be out there demonstrating again on No Kings Day. We will not give up!
No Kings protests were EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE! The reason the birthday celebration for him is jinxed is we all wake up each day wondering if he's going to make it to then...
8 million is what Trump would call chicken feed - The country needs EVERY reasonable person (of ALL political colors) to show him their disdain for the corruption and incompetence of the whole administration. It has to be so big that EVERY TV News channel has to cover it - especially those in Trump’s pocket!!
Every city and community across the nation must take this opportunity to say clearly “NO MORE MR TRUMP”.
As a retired doctor, I am ashamed of my profession. Going back to Harold Bornstein, who put out a deranged tape and written statement certifying that Trump would be “the most fit man” ever to serve as president (apparently dictated by Trump himself), to Ronnie Johnson and the parade of military doctors who have covered for him over the years. This is a man who surrounds himself with sycophants who don’t tell him the truth. I wonder if that extends to the consulting room as well? I would suspect that there in private he hears some version of the truth, perhaps dumbed down, but what he passes on to the public is the usual bluster of self-aggrandizement and lies. This is “the emperor has no clothes” writ large.
Thank you Heather. For some who didn’t decide this course for the second time nor in the field of medicine and have either googled or reached out to all those mental health experts he’s hitting on all those cylinders laid out when a narcissist is backed into a corner of their own making, they often react in ways that are consistent with their personality traits and coping mechanisms. There are a number of them.
1. **Denial**: Narcissists may deny any wrongdoing or responsibility for the situation. They often refuse to acknowledge their role in creating the problem.
2. **Blame-shifting**: They are likely to deflect blame onto others, accusing them of causing the issue. This helps them maintain their self-image and avoid accountability.
3. **Rage**: Narcissistic rage can emerge when they feel trapped or exposed. This can manifest as anger, aggression, or verbal abuse directed at those they perceive as threats.
4. **Victimhood**: They might play the victim, seeking sympathy and support from others to regain control of the narrative.
5. **Manipulation**: Narcissists may use manipulation tactics, such as gaslighting, to confuse or control the situation and the people involved.
6. **Retreat and Stonewalling**: Some narcissists might withdraw and refuse to engage, effectively stonewalling any attempts to address the issue.
7. **False Apologies**: They might offer insincere apologies or promises of change to placate others and defuse the immediate tension, without any real intention of altering their behavior.
These reactions are driven by their need to protect their self-esteem and avoid the vulnerability that comes with admitting fault or failure. These traits will continue to escalate as we’ve already seen. Fear it’s only going to get uglier and even worse in many ways. Those “loyalists” of his are just as bad if not worse…
Remaining optimistic because seeing a number peeling back their devotion and turning their back on this cult yet not naïve that the future will not come easily due to those sycophants who have the power and wealth to destroy anything they touch as well. Think Plato was correct about the “Penalty of Inaction”. While not exclusively about democracy, his famous warning on political apathy is highly relevant to his view of citizen duty: "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
Think there are many in this nation no longer apathetic..
Your writing continues to inform and inspire. I think Boss of the house should be the next president. You know since the Whitehouse has gone to the dogs.
What a malignant narcissist fears most is humiliation and being called a loser; hence the grandiosity and lashing out at his perceived enemies over and over. The combination of malignant narcissism and cognitive decline is extremely dangerous.
I cannot understand why everyone around Trump is sitting back and letting this roll out in public. The man is seriously cognitively and mentally degenerating and degenerated. Why are the doctors lying. Why are they all so frightened of Trump. Is his family holding up the walls around him and insisting he stays in place ? That would be even more worrying as it means the republicans are not governing- the Trump family is ?
He obviously has a team of equally deranged helpers to put the posts together. Visions of a basement office with dotty teens putting all the nonsense together.
This is the USA a revered country literally being run by a madman. More worryingly a man who has a following happy to do his biding
November cannot come soon enough and I live in UK !!
Come on decent republicans man up and sort this out.
The primary reason is that they are afraid of being called out which would pit them against their base, some of which are inherently politically violent and mentally unstable. There are other reasons but I believe this is major factor.
Indeed, Mike! The Republican Party is filled with people who have been selling their souls for years and years. They are all afraid of their own constituents, as well they should be! Not only the fear of losing an election, but the actual real fear of the retribution well-deserved and truly coming, that so very very many Americans would be happy to visit upon these soul-less money-grubbing traitors! “Hey, Sinner-man, where ya gonna run to all on that day?”
If all Republicans want in the end is power and control they never get into any serious discussions with their constituents and they just go ahead and promise things that they can take away and then say other people are the cause of that. Nothing you don’t already know.
That’s right, Mike. Anyone who dares to speak up gets a target placed on their back. He rules by fear.
Can anyone say Mafia.
Cosa Nostra absolutely 👍
So anyone with serious mental health issues can remain at large because no one is allowed to tell. !
There are no decent Republicans in a position to do anything as Republicans and none of those still in office have the guts or will to cross the aisle and help put an end to the garbage flowing too freely from the unhinged conman in the WH.
Hippa rules indicate that medical info is between doctor and patient. Doctors and other medical personnel cannot discuss medical and other info about patients. Also with everyone focused on Trump’s medical status his cabinet and family can manipulate the system behind closed and open doors!
Good comment. I agree that Trump is being propped up by a shadow government and enablers who allow him to rave on while behind the scenes the real destruction happens. I think Natalie Harp, his loyal puppy, should be banned from the White House- but she won’t be. Short of another revolution (sorry, Brit!) I don’t know how this will change. I have my doubts about the midterms.
They’re hoping he holds out until he’s been in office two years, after which Vance will become President and will be eligible to stand for office twice.
Actually should Vance come in before the end of the term he gets only one more term legally not two. And VPs who took over before end of term have lost reelection every time.
The relevant section of the Constitution says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
If Trump makes it to two years, Vance can stand twice after the term he finishes as Trump’s VP.
Note that Vance's former boss and monetary support, Peter Thiel, has moved to Argentina including his husband and children! He's seeing the writing on the wall! More than likely the potential that Clarence THomas has raised about reviewing Same Sex marriages, as well as the threat of wealth taxes in California and other states. BTW that same sex marriage threat is also real for Treasury Secretary Bessent who also has a husband!
Unfortunately I fear there are no decent Republicans in office and the rest are cowering in the wings.
Also terrifying listening to Europe trying to keep Trump sweet at G7. Trump knows he has Europe underfoot as we want help for Ukraine and for him to stop pandering to his great mate Putin !!
All not good for a man who is positively deranged.
Maybe we’re just too far away (Australia) to understand or just too dumb, but … does anybody seriously believe Donald Trump can spell “obfuscation”, let alone “discombobulation”? And 50 posts - sometimes quite lengthy & argumentative (however batshit crazy) in 7 hours, some with clever, elaborate (& new?) memes? What? All by himself? Seriously!!!
There’s a battalion of incel DOGE minions cranking out hundreds of these execrable images and videos. We only see a small percentage of what they come up with.
I agree. He is just too stupid to create all this stuff. His vocabulary is quite limited, judging from his campaign speeches, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a low-level lackey post most of his diatribes because typing them on a tiny phone keyboard isn’t easy (unless he uses a voice-to-text app). I often type longer text messages on my iPad then copy/paste to my iPhone.
Good on you, John!
He is slipping further into dementia and is a liar and a vindictive petty loser. I would feel sorry for him if he weren’t such a dangerous person with vast resources to cause harm to our country and the world.
He is so vile and abusive that I cannot imagine the circumstances in which I would feel sorry for him. But I get your point. Perhaps I’d feel sorry for him if he had some cataclysmic personal loss and he experienced appropriate emotions and he expressed true remorse. But because he doesn’t know love, he can’t feel those deep emotions.
All these vanity projects are a projection and a metaphor of his broken, worn out self. His ego may no longer be dominant with respect to his behavior. The id, the unconscious source of raw, primal drives, instincts and gratification appears to make the dominant role in his personality which includes poor impulse control, poor delay of gratification, psychological imbalance. In other words, things are about to get crazier.
I agree entirely Mike. I had to drag my narcissist books out to get all the nomenclature right. I shared the title of 'Witchfinder General - sub class Narcissist' with my adorable neighbour, who also grew up under an oppressive narcissist. We could spot a narcissist a mile off.
Trump is a psychologist/writer's wet dream. Who could have imagined finding such a well-formed example of the malignant narcissist in freefall collapse.
Played out in real time, with receipts.
Glad I'm a long way away.
Wish I was further away.
Same here, Ken. Thankfully this stage of the game will soon be over. The word “Trump” should be synonymous with something we experienced, unique in the animal world. I propose we use the word “Dodo” as in the bird with extreme characteristics that became extinct and as a synonym get it into the Thesaurus.
Dodo ….. See Trump
Trump….. see dodo bird.
I have too much time on my hands
Sorry but that's an insult to the dodo!
Yep. You said lt. I know we are seeing the beginning of the end finally but it will get worse before it gets better. He is beyond out of control. Well said Mike.
Another great post Heather. I am in awe of your ability to summarise the orange buffoon's rantings. He has no right to put Judge Cooper's life in danger, who only said what all reasonable people have been saying a out the unauthorised naming of the Kennedy Centre. I believe Trump is jealous of Judge Cooper's educational achievements. Donald, what did you achieve academically?
As for Trump's medical results, if he weighs 225 lbs, then I can sing grand opera. Don't insult our intelligence please.
As for all the artists who've turned down the invitation to perform at your 250th anniversary, has it ever occurred to him that they don't want to participate in an event that Trump will make any celebration all about himself? The World Cup starts next month in the US. Will he also turn that event about himself?
Well said, Janet. And yes, he will absolutely make the World Cup about himself. The self-centered arrogance and grandiosity is astonishing and appalling.
OK, so thanks to Heather's chronicling and analyses we have a consensus about Trump's continued decline inside his insane bubble, the enabling willingness of his sycophants, and some evidence of their incompetence. We are seeing some heroism among the judiciary stepping up to resist where they can. We know the mid-terms are at this point the surest antidote but not soon enough. We need to know more about any planned prevention of further military disasters, about why named individuals in his coterie are not acting to save us. And we need Heather to continue connecting the dots.
👏👏👏👏👏
Look behind the curtain! Trump is the distraction, the colorful sideshow grabbing our attention and, while we gasp in horror, Miller and DOGE and all the loyalists are quietly stealing our democracy. By the time we peel Trump’s fingers off his keyboard, our democracy will be gone. Get him out now. Keep shining the light Heather!
The medical report was pure fiction.
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with great pleasure” - wrongly attributed to Mark Twain but still reads well.
Clarence Darroow.
A loser once always a loser. But with billions stolen thru scams and emptying the government coffers. His abject corrupt Gaza peace council is another welcome failure. Just a few millions and no billions. Lmao
Here in GREAT Britain (it always has been) we are flummoxed and flabbergasted (Donald won’t know such words) by the fact that fair-minded and reasonable Americans are finally making their voices heard about the madness of their ‘great’ leader. We could see what was coming but it still happened a SECOND time! WTF were you all thinking? How did it come to this?
NOW it is time to take to the streets on ‘No Kings’ Day in your MILLIONS (a few 100,000s won’t affect him) and let him KNOW that he does not have the power he believes he has to take YOUR country down the road HE is taking it!
If you wait until November he and his cronies will, as likely as not, have manipulated the electoral system and rallied his lunatic supporters to prevent enough Democratic voters from even being able to vote!
And, as for 4th July celebrations- perhaps the best that could happen is that HE calls off the 250th anniversary celebrations due to lack of (his) interest. You should all stay at home and enjoy a celebration with your FRIENDS and FAMILIES!
BTW Please don’t tell TanTrump that America would need renaming to be ‘Great’ (again?) because he’d probably do that too (and he’d find a way to incorporate his own name into it) so he could be immortal in name at least. You wouldn’t put it past him!
Good luck this summer. It’s going to get HOT! 🥵 ☀️🤪🇺🇸
You are right, Chris, that July 4th has suddenly lost its meaning for many of us. What should have been a banner year milestone has become Uncle Sam on his deathbed. What’s to celebrate when our hard-won constitutional republic is on life support?
There will be parades and fireworks, yes. But all in my circle of friends, neighbors, and family will be taking the day off, having quiet gatherings and avoiding the hoopla of red-white-and -blue and all that.
The present USA is nothing to be proud of.
Like many of us on both sides of the pond, I feel your pain at a time when this should be a massive e celebration for the REPUBLIC of USA - seems ironic that the reason it is all going pear-shaped is The Republicans and their bizarre administration of the country. Is their idea of a healthy society really based on making as much money as they can for themselves and their sycophants? Notwithstanding the fact that President TanTrump believes himself to be bigger than the Beatles, sorry, than Jesus, the rest of his 'enablers' are clearly only in it for personal gain and aggrandizement - but fortunately their distraction and obfuscation tactics are clear for everyone to see - except by those already brainwashed by the 'promises' Mr T and his crew have made a long time ago. I've already made my suggestion that black flags are waved at 'No Kings Day' protests and through the 'celebrations' so that the administration cannot make claims that 'the people waving the star spangled banner are showing their support for this administration' which of course is exactly what they WILL do
Thank you for your empathy, Chris. I would say that the wealthy who are subjugating us are not at all interested in a healthy society. All they care about is the health of their own obscene piles of money. How do they not see that by crashing the world’s economies, they kill their own feeder roots?
The Bible is correct in stating that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” We see the truth of that every day. Evil is taking over and yet we must not stop fighting it. I like the black flag idea. I’ll be out there demonstrating again on No Kings Day. We will not give up!
No Kings protests were EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE! The reason the birthday celebration for him is jinxed is we all wake up each day wondering if he's going to make it to then...
Wondering or hoping?
8 million is what Trump would call chicken feed - The country needs EVERY reasonable person (of ALL political colors) to show him their disdain for the corruption and incompetence of the whole administration. It has to be so big that EVERY TV News channel has to cover it - especially those in Trump’s pocket!!
Every city and community across the nation must take this opportunity to say clearly “NO MORE MR TRUMP”.
Arrest. Arrest. Arrest.
I just want him in jail (or dead) so we can at least start the semblance of sanity.
And peace. And freedom.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏💙💙💙💙💙💙
As a retired doctor, I am ashamed of my profession. Going back to Harold Bornstein, who put out a deranged tape and written statement certifying that Trump would be “the most fit man” ever to serve as president (apparently dictated by Trump himself), to Ronnie Johnson and the parade of military doctors who have covered for him over the years. This is a man who surrounds himself with sycophants who don’t tell him the truth. I wonder if that extends to the consulting room as well? I would suspect that there in private he hears some version of the truth, perhaps dumbed down, but what he passes on to the public is the usual bluster of self-aggrandizement and lies. This is “the emperor has no clothes” writ large.
Thank you Heather. For some who didn’t decide this course for the second time nor in the field of medicine and have either googled or reached out to all those mental health experts he’s hitting on all those cylinders laid out when a narcissist is backed into a corner of their own making, they often react in ways that are consistent with their personality traits and coping mechanisms. There are a number of them.
1. **Denial**: Narcissists may deny any wrongdoing or responsibility for the situation. They often refuse to acknowledge their role in creating the problem.
2. **Blame-shifting**: They are likely to deflect blame onto others, accusing them of causing the issue. This helps them maintain their self-image and avoid accountability.
3. **Rage**: Narcissistic rage can emerge when they feel trapped or exposed. This can manifest as anger, aggression, or verbal abuse directed at those they perceive as threats.
4. **Victimhood**: They might play the victim, seeking sympathy and support from others to regain control of the narrative.
5. **Manipulation**: Narcissists may use manipulation tactics, such as gaslighting, to confuse or control the situation and the people involved.
6. **Retreat and Stonewalling**: Some narcissists might withdraw and refuse to engage, effectively stonewalling any attempts to address the issue.
7. **False Apologies**: They might offer insincere apologies or promises of change to placate others and defuse the immediate tension, without any real intention of altering their behavior.
These reactions are driven by their need to protect their self-esteem and avoid the vulnerability that comes with admitting fault or failure. These traits will continue to escalate as we’ve already seen. Fear it’s only going to get uglier and even worse in many ways. Those “loyalists” of his are just as bad if not worse…
Remaining optimistic because seeing a number peeling back their devotion and turning their back on this cult yet not naïve that the future will not come easily due to those sycophants who have the power and wealth to destroy anything they touch as well. Think Plato was correct about the “Penalty of Inaction”. While not exclusively about democracy, his famous warning on political apathy is highly relevant to his view of citizen duty: "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
Think there are many in this nation no longer apathetic..
Thankyou, so clearly put. Waiting for those with the power to DO something!
Your writing continues to inform and inspire. I think Boss of the house should be the next president. You know since the Whitehouse has gone to the dogs.