DONALD TRUMP alias “AGENT ORANGE”
What astonishes me is that no one is discussing Trump’s mental illness – it is clear he has full-blown narcissistic personality disorder – the signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and the severity of symptoms vary. People with the disorder have the following characteristics:
1. Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
2. Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration.
3. Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it.
4. Exaggerate achievements and talents.
5. Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.
6. Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people.
7. Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior. 8. Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations.
9. Take advantage of others to get what they want.
10. Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.
11. Be envious of others and believe others envy them.
12. Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious.
13. Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office.
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:
1. Become impatient or angry when they don’t receive special treatment.
2. Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted.
3. React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior.
4. Have difficulty regulating emotions and behaviour.
5. Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change.
6. Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection.
7. Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation
I am a retired medical doctor but one does not need a medical degree to recognize that Trump has this disease and manifests all of the above although does not outwardly show #5, 6 and 7. We all have personality traits, some good and some negative – traits by definition are not destructive, but disorders are, and Trump is rapidly destroying the USA. Combine an illness with Trump’s intelligence, power and woeful ignorance of how the world works, and you have a recipe for the toxic situation in which America finds itself.
A majority of the US population must be horrified at what is happening. I am surprised that there are not riots in the streets. The GOP controlled Senate and Congress are complicit in tolerating him, the Evangelical right is hypocritical in supporting him and big business and the top 10% are doing just fine at the cost of the lower 90%. All this reinforces the reality – AMERICA IS NOT A COUNTRY, IT IS A BUSINESS. And it will take decades to undo the damage as Trump aggressively appoints a conservative judiciary. China will eclipse the US.
US politics are skewed by gerrymandering, voter registration, voting machines, the ability to win the presidency without winning the popular vote, lobbyists, campaign financing and the amount of money needed to win an election in the USA. It is obvious that the USA is not a democracy (read ‘America is Not a Democracy by Yascha Mounk in the March 2018 issue of Atlantic)
I get personally nauseous when I hear “USA – the leader of the free world”. We can only hope that Robert Mueller will do his job and end the embarrassment.