One more thing about Trump's "malignant narcissism": Yes, like some other narcissists Trump wants people to like and admire him. And his feral instinct guides him to a person's hot button. But Trump DOES NOT want the adulation of others because he is insecure or needy. Quite the opposite: Trump is cruel. He wants the adulation of others because that means he has successfully conned them. They like (or fear) Trump even while Trump despises them for that. He really gets off on that. He is cruel and without conscience - this is the "malignant" part of "malignant narcissist".
I had a very minor quibble with this post when I first saw it, but I had a weird glitch in my desktop and couldn't post till yesterday. as I was trained in psychiatric diagnosis about 35 years ago (and have no truck with DSM-V, which is nothing but wretched excess), I may not quite be in the contemporary understanding of such things, but I disagree with your either/or position of Trump's malignant narcissism. yes, he is cruel and has no conscience, but this in no way negates the fact that he is also insecure and needy. it's entirely possible to be both, and he is. I think he suffers from incredibly low self-esteem and has never felt loved. and I'm pretty sure that he hears the voices of his defective mother and rejecting father all the time. and always has. the malignant part (as you so correctly state) is what he does with it. from the same background, it's possible that someone else would play out a different scenario (as his siblings seem to have done, in their different ways), and there is no doubt that his response, considering the possibilities, SUCKS. but I do think that his wickedness (which I am in no way trying to excuse or explain away on ANY level) comes from a place of profound unhappiness. and I still hate him as much as anybody does.
Excellent reponse David. Thanks for your additional insights. Between us I think we now have the whole picture. Trump was a victim of evil done to him when he was too young to resist it. But now he owns it. I did research into narcissists because they were sometimes the root cause of problems for my corporate clients. I found the work of M. Scott Peck quite helpful.
"Panicked at the prospect of losing the Trump base,..."
This sums up the GOP at present.
Every morning I wake up and check the news, hoping to hear that the former guy has permanently checked out or stroked out on his golden throne.
What will happen when he's gone? Will the fever break? Will the party consume itself with internal strife? Since his narcissism will never allow him to endorse a successor, the scramble to become the next "Maximum Leader" will be quite a spectacle.
And if he manages to hang on and keeps the cult intact, look out. They'll be coming for us eventually.
So far, I'm not seeing anyone who could become Maximum Leader II, nor do I see an heir apparent arising, at least not while Maximum Leader I is still around. This is a chronic problem with autocrats: they mistrust (often with good reason) anyone with the potential to succeed them, and those potential successors tend to wind up dead or in exile. Like Louis XIV they say "L'état, c'est moi" (I am the State), but unlike Louis XIV they have no clear line of succession.
Trump isn't the whole story, but he's what's holding Trumpism together. Its constituent parts have been around at least since the end of the Civil War, but B.T. (Before Trump) they weren't able to coalesce on a national scale the way they're doing now. My best guess -- or maybe it's just my fervent hope -- is that with Trump out of the picture, what we'll be left with is Clown Car 2.0 -- a new iteration of the hapless, at best mediocre hopefuls that ran in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries.
Which is absolutely not to say that we can then return to business as it was B.T. We can't. The constituent parts will still be out there, waiting for a new head.
I hope you're right. But no one saw Trump ascending to cult leader either. He was a blowhard, a playboy, and a buffoon. Remember the Obama birther nonsense?
I agree with you about the constituents. I've been around a while. Saw the Birchers and KKK in the 60s, Larouchies in the 90s, conspiracy theorists always. We have a large population of assholes in our country with all sorts of grievances. Now that they have had a taste of power (and blood), who knows what they are willing to do to keep it going?
If the GOP wins in 2024, there are any number of ruthless, cunning people (smarter than Trump) who would do anything - including pandering to the Trumpian base - to become the next Maximum Leader (Tucker Carlson, anyone?). We could end up with an American version of Putin - unlikable, yet in control of everything.
IMO with Trump it was a case of "right place, right time." He was an outsider, and that was/is a big plus with the "mysterious stranger rides in to clean up the town" crowd. As was the "Obama birther nonsense" -- the base-in-waiting was just itching for someone to claim that Obama was illegitimate.
My biggest fear is of that hypothetical "ruthless, cunning [person] (smarter than Trump)," because our institutions and most of our current liberal leaders are having a hard enough time dealing with the stupid version.
Want to hazard a guess who it might be? With Trump, Putin lucked out beyond his wildest dreams (assuming that Putin has dreams). With Trump, Putin had leverage: Trump's grand ambitions for a Trump Tower in Moscow, and the fact that he was lying about it. Putin most definitely deserves credit for Trump's election, but let's not forget the people, from the news media on down, who were suckered by Russian machinations on social media and elsewhere.
More important -- it's not Putin who's maintaining Trump's popularity now that he's out of office. Putin could disavow Trump completely and it wouldn't change a thing.
"Will the party consume itself with internal strife?" Can you imagine those who would be lining up for their turn on the "golden throne"? DeSantis. Cruz. Hawley. Noem. Haley. Abbott. What a mess of garbage. The "debates" would be highly entertaining, but that's about all that could be said about these possible contenders. And would there be a real "platform"? Hah.
Trump's desire for power does make him like Mao or Stalin. But Trump lacks their determination and competence, which is either terrifying, or reassuring. Or both. Trump's malignant narcissism means that everything must be about his ego.
He did not see the surging pandemic as a challenge to be solved. Rather, he saw it as a threat to his ratings that he monitors obsessively. So he simply waved it away, denied it, suggested quack remedies. The pandemic spread and thousands died unnecessarily.
His dealings with Putin and Kim Jong Un were disasters. They played Trump by stroking his desire for adulation. They must be laughing at us now.
What I am getting at here is that Trump's narcissism makes him great at keeping the nation's attention focused on himself, but he is dangerously incompetent at anything else. So is that terrifying, or reassuring, or both?
I would say both. His narcissism and Mafia "skills" make him able to keep the cult followers enthralled and the sycophants terrified, but his incompetence allows him to be manipulated completely by Putin and others who are smarter than he.
What is critical to remember is that Both Mao and Stalin were rejected by the next generation. Deng Xiaoping famously said that it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice. (Wikipedia) This statement was the end of Mao orthodoxy and the start of China becoming a modern business state and with capitalist themes. Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 party congress speech liberated the Soviet Union from Stalinism and allowed a degree of change. Perhaps after republicans lose the 2022 house and senate midterms, a new leader, more rational, less bigoted and more graceful will appear. Trump is too much a carnival barker than a thoughtful leader. Like Mao's noisy last wife Jiang Qing the party rebelled and prosecuted her. Perhaps a republican prosecutor will come after Trump as a new party leader appears.
"Rejected by the next generation" brings to mind Hegel's good ol' dialectic: thesis -> antithesis -> synthesis. And it doesn't stop there: old synthesis becomes the new thesis, and on it goes. Despite the fall of the USSR and the rise of Russia, Stalin evolved through Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, et al. to Putin, who has a few things in common with his predecessors -- including the tsars.
Similarly, what "the end of Mao" has led to in China is nothing to write home about. Capitalist or communist, it's still a totalitarian state, committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other minorities while threatening Taiwan in a manner that would make Mao proud. We here in the U.S., who are living with the endgame of the "modern business state," should be wary of any country headed in the same direction, especially one that lacks the democratic tools to keep capitalism in check.
Short version: Trump didn't come out of nowhere, any more than Lenin, Stalin, Putin, Mao, or Xi, did. At several points in the last few decades, most recently when Barack Obama was elected and then re-elected president, many of us really thought that the "next generation" had rejected the racism and xenophobia of the old. In a way we had. Each generation helped create a new synthesis. But history doesn't stop there.
Incredible comparison. Yet, it insults Mao and Stalin followers who were beaten, imprisoned and poisoned into submission. The fat head in front of the curtain merely snaps his fingers and they fall at his feet. All Repugnican politicians slither through life. And…are so forgetful that they called out the Giant Ego for what he was…until he was elected. After Jan 6th, their tunes changed again. Not as if we were waiting for the Pony Express to deliver their messages. We had them in realtime AND on video tape. Enlightenment is apparently not worth a damn when you’re drunk with power and have SuperScum on your side.
So, I wonder what can be done about Trump and his near fascist followers. Are we done for in the US? How can a man of average or low intelligence command such loyalty? Well I dunno, but obviously he brought to out-of darkness those among us who are anti-Semitic, anti-Black, anti-Muslim. They have been part of our country forever. Now, while not the majority, I heard on NPR this morning that a long-time reporter just about compared Biden with Trump as he has not conquered COVID which the reporter claimed Biden ran-on to defeat Trump. Really that was what Biden ran-on and nothing else? So keep it up NPR and we surely might get a new Trump more intelligent and the America will surely be over. So once again, Lucian, what can we do about it. You can and have done things about it, but I don't hear you on NPR, CNN, or MSNBC.
No you don't hear me on MSNBC or elsewhere because they don't invite me. I'm ready to speak out at any moment. Do you know anyone at NPR or CNN or MSnBC? I'm ready if they are.
El Blobbo del Mar A Lardo…my new FAVORITE! As I am really pro-“life” (we who are pro-choice, anti-gun, pro voting rights, pro safety net for the under represented, pro immigrant) i cannot wish for his demise out loud. I am saving for his celebration of death, however. There is nothing of his life worth even a dud firecracker.
One more thing about Trump's "malignant narcissism": Yes, like some other narcissists Trump wants people to like and admire him. And his feral instinct guides him to a person's hot button. But Trump DOES NOT want the adulation of others because he is insecure or needy. Quite the opposite: Trump is cruel. He wants the adulation of others because that means he has successfully conned them. They like (or fear) Trump even while Trump despises them for that. He really gets off on that. He is cruel and without conscience - this is the "malignant" part of "malignant narcissist".
I had a very minor quibble with this post when I first saw it, but I had a weird glitch in my desktop and couldn't post till yesterday. as I was trained in psychiatric diagnosis about 35 years ago (and have no truck with DSM-V, which is nothing but wretched excess), I may not quite be in the contemporary understanding of such things, but I disagree with your either/or position of Trump's malignant narcissism. yes, he is cruel and has no conscience, but this in no way negates the fact that he is also insecure and needy. it's entirely possible to be both, and he is. I think he suffers from incredibly low self-esteem and has never felt loved. and I'm pretty sure that he hears the voices of his defective mother and rejecting father all the time. and always has. the malignant part (as you so correctly state) is what he does with it. from the same background, it's possible that someone else would play out a different scenario (as his siblings seem to have done, in their different ways), and there is no doubt that his response, considering the possibilities, SUCKS. but I do think that his wickedness (which I am in no way trying to excuse or explain away on ANY level) comes from a place of profound unhappiness. and I still hate him as much as anybody does.
Excellent reponse David. Thanks for your additional insights. Between us I think we now have the whole picture. Trump was a victim of evil done to him when he was too young to resist it. But now he owns it. I did research into narcissists because they were sometimes the root cause of problems for my corporate clients. I found the work of M. Scott Peck quite helpful.
Excellent column! Convincing and terrifying, both.
Hoping the first months of 2022 continue the Cheney led assault on Former's attempt to destroy our Democracy.
"Panicked at the prospect of losing the Trump base,..."
This sums up the GOP at present.
Every morning I wake up and check the news, hoping to hear that the former guy has permanently checked out or stroked out on his golden throne.
What will happen when he's gone? Will the fever break? Will the party consume itself with internal strife? Since his narcissism will never allow him to endorse a successor, the scramble to become the next "Maximum Leader" will be quite a spectacle.
And if he manages to hang on and keeps the cult intact, look out. They'll be coming for us eventually.
So far, I'm not seeing anyone who could become Maximum Leader II, nor do I see an heir apparent arising, at least not while Maximum Leader I is still around. This is a chronic problem with autocrats: they mistrust (often with good reason) anyone with the potential to succeed them, and those potential successors tend to wind up dead or in exile. Like Louis XIV they say "L'état, c'est moi" (I am the State), but unlike Louis XIV they have no clear line of succession.
Trump isn't the whole story, but he's what's holding Trumpism together. Its constituent parts have been around at least since the end of the Civil War, but B.T. (Before Trump) they weren't able to coalesce on a national scale the way they're doing now. My best guess -- or maybe it's just my fervent hope -- is that with Trump out of the picture, what we'll be left with is Clown Car 2.0 -- a new iteration of the hapless, at best mediocre hopefuls that ran in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries.
Which is absolutely not to say that we can then return to business as it was B.T. We can't. The constituent parts will still be out there, waiting for a new head.
I hope you're right. But no one saw Trump ascending to cult leader either. He was a blowhard, a playboy, and a buffoon. Remember the Obama birther nonsense?
I agree with you about the constituents. I've been around a while. Saw the Birchers and KKK in the 60s, Larouchies in the 90s, conspiracy theorists always. We have a large population of assholes in our country with all sorts of grievances. Now that they have had a taste of power (and blood), who knows what they are willing to do to keep it going?
If the GOP wins in 2024, there are any number of ruthless, cunning people (smarter than Trump) who would do anything - including pandering to the Trumpian base - to become the next Maximum Leader (Tucker Carlson, anyone?). We could end up with an American version of Putin - unlikable, yet in control of everything.
IMO with Trump it was a case of "right place, right time." He was an outsider, and that was/is a big plus with the "mysterious stranger rides in to clean up the town" crowd. As was the "Obama birther nonsense" -- the base-in-waiting was just itching for someone to claim that Obama was illegitimate.
My biggest fear is of that hypothetical "ruthless, cunning [person] (smarter than Trump)," because our institutions and most of our current liberal leaders are having a hard enough time dealing with the stupid version.
The ruthless, cunning person behind tRump's throne was and is Putin. There will be a successor.
Want to hazard a guess who it might be? With Trump, Putin lucked out beyond his wildest dreams (assuming that Putin has dreams). With Trump, Putin had leverage: Trump's grand ambitions for a Trump Tower in Moscow, and the fact that he was lying about it. Putin most definitely deserves credit for Trump's election, but let's not forget the people, from the news media on down, who were suckered by Russian machinations on social media and elsewhere.
More important -- it's not Putin who's maintaining Trump's popularity now that he's out of office. Putin could disavow Trump completely and it wouldn't change a thing.
"Will the party consume itself with internal strife?" Can you imagine those who would be lining up for their turn on the "golden throne"? DeSantis. Cruz. Hawley. Noem. Haley. Abbott. What a mess of garbage. The "debates" would be highly entertaining, but that's about all that could be said about these possible contenders. And would there be a real "platform"? Hah.
There would be only two items on their platform: (1) White grievance; (2) Own the libs
Trump's desire for power does make him like Mao or Stalin. But Trump lacks their determination and competence, which is either terrifying, or reassuring. Or both. Trump's malignant narcissism means that everything must be about his ego.
He did not see the surging pandemic as a challenge to be solved. Rather, he saw it as a threat to his ratings that he monitors obsessively. So he simply waved it away, denied it, suggested quack remedies. The pandemic spread and thousands died unnecessarily.
His dealings with Putin and Kim Jong Un were disasters. They played Trump by stroking his desire for adulation. They must be laughing at us now.
What I am getting at here is that Trump's narcissism makes him great at keeping the nation's attention focused on himself, but he is dangerously incompetent at anything else. So is that terrifying, or reassuring, or both?
I would say both. His narcissism and Mafia "skills" make him able to keep the cult followers enthralled and the sycophants terrified, but his incompetence allows him to be manipulated completely by Putin and others who are smarter than he.
Excellent read that I’m bookmarking for future reference. If this doesn’t stop you in your tracks, you’re not paying attention.
What is critical to remember is that Both Mao and Stalin were rejected by the next generation. Deng Xiaoping famously said that it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice. (Wikipedia) This statement was the end of Mao orthodoxy and the start of China becoming a modern business state and with capitalist themes. Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 party congress speech liberated the Soviet Union from Stalinism and allowed a degree of change. Perhaps after republicans lose the 2022 house and senate midterms, a new leader, more rational, less bigoted and more graceful will appear. Trump is too much a carnival barker than a thoughtful leader. Like Mao's noisy last wife Jiang Qing the party rebelled and prosecuted her. Perhaps a republican prosecutor will come after Trump as a new party leader appears.
"Rejected by the next generation" brings to mind Hegel's good ol' dialectic: thesis -> antithesis -> synthesis. And it doesn't stop there: old synthesis becomes the new thesis, and on it goes. Despite the fall of the USSR and the rise of Russia, Stalin evolved through Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, et al. to Putin, who has a few things in common with his predecessors -- including the tsars.
Similarly, what "the end of Mao" has led to in China is nothing to write home about. Capitalist or communist, it's still a totalitarian state, committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other minorities while threatening Taiwan in a manner that would make Mao proud. We here in the U.S., who are living with the endgame of the "modern business state," should be wary of any country headed in the same direction, especially one that lacks the democratic tools to keep capitalism in check.
Short version: Trump didn't come out of nowhere, any more than Lenin, Stalin, Putin, Mao, or Xi, did. At several points in the last few decades, most recently when Barack Obama was elected and then re-elected president, many of us really thought that the "next generation" had rejected the racism and xenophobia of the old. In a way we had. Each generation helped create a new synthesis. But history doesn't stop there.
Excellent. You nailed it. Thank you.
Consider the consequences of a second Trump term in 2025.
The Horror...
Incredible comparison. Yet, it insults Mao and Stalin followers who were beaten, imprisoned and poisoned into submission. The fat head in front of the curtain merely snaps his fingers and they fall at his feet. All Repugnican politicians slither through life. And…are so forgetful that they called out the Giant Ego for what he was…until he was elected. After Jan 6th, their tunes changed again. Not as if we were waiting for the Pony Express to deliver their messages. We had them in realtime AND on video tape. Enlightenment is apparently not worth a damn when you’re drunk with power and have SuperScum on your side.
So, I wonder what can be done about Trump and his near fascist followers. Are we done for in the US? How can a man of average or low intelligence command such loyalty? Well I dunno, but obviously he brought to out-of darkness those among us who are anti-Semitic, anti-Black, anti-Muslim. They have been part of our country forever. Now, while not the majority, I heard on NPR this morning that a long-time reporter just about compared Biden with Trump as he has not conquered COVID which the reporter claimed Biden ran-on to defeat Trump. Really that was what Biden ran-on and nothing else? So keep it up NPR and we surely might get a new Trump more intelligent and the America will surely be over. So once again, Lucian, what can we do about it. You can and have done things about it, but I don't hear you on NPR, CNN, or MSNBC.
No you don't hear me on MSNBC or elsewhere because they don't invite me. I'm ready to speak out at any moment. Do you know anyone at NPR or CNN or MSnBC? I'm ready if they are.
I’m far more worried about his followers than I am trump. He will die. They will continue and teach their children.
Yes they will. This is how the Lost Cause has endured so long.
The Washington Post has an opinion piece from three generals who fear a 2024 insurrection WITH MILITARY HELP. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/eaton-taguba-anderson-generals-military/
El Blobbo del Mar A Lardo…my new FAVORITE! As I am really pro-“life” (we who are pro-choice, anti-gun, pro voting rights, pro safety net for the under represented, pro immigrant) i cannot wish for his demise out loud. I am saving for his celebration of death, however. There is nothing of his life worth even a dud firecracker.
I would pay to piss on his grave