Twelve days in

[veronica_rich]

The numbness of Election Night is just now wearing off, and so I thought I might try to keep some thoughts here when they come to me on the state of the nation. I did this somewhat irregularly back in the mid-Bush years but didnt see it as recording history at the time - not the facts of dry legislation and happenings, but the fact of the overall mood of people and the air ... for lack of a better way to put it.

So the cast of Hamilton makes Pence sit and listen to a 30-second plea to treat everyone equally, and Trump thinks THIS is disrespectful? Not that I'm surprised, I suppose - but I think it speaks to the fundamental optimism in my nature that I had sort of hoped actually going to the White House and hearing from Obama his work in person, would humble him enough to realize he needs to shut the fuck up with petty bullshit and focus on making up the tremendously steep learning curve doing this job will be. I mean, shit, even Dubya seemed to realize the job was serious even if he wasn't good at it.

But this is what happens when you gift the White House to a literal loser, isn't it?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

He has no intention of bring "presidential." This is just a gigantic photo op for him. It's obvious that he plans to hand everything over to his children to run. Very tellling that it was Ivznka meeting foreign dignitaries and not his wife. The playbook is out the window. He will not act presidential. Ever. He is incapable of acting any other way that a narcissistic bully, end of story.

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

But this is what happens when you gift the White House to a literal loser, isn't it?

Sadly yes... not that politics over here is much better right now.

[roguedemon.livejournal.com]

You are watching someone with a severe personality disorder in action. Hell, he probably qualifies for all of the cluster B personality disorders -- narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial PD, and you could probably make a case for borderline as well. There's also something called the Dark Triad that seems eerily accurate. He's also working with major cognitive deficits -- I honestly can't tell if he has ADHD, the typical onset of garden-variety senility, early signs of dementia, or he's simply on some sort of prescription stimulant (and maybe coke). I would bet real cash money that he snorted some sort of stimulant before the first two debates. Probably a mixture. It's also possible that his personality disorder is so extreme that he can't focus. But the upshot is that he's never going to listen to reason. Remember all those conversations we had back in the day about personality disorders and irrationality as it related to certain people in PotC fandom? Well, this is have the most toxic, irrational, mentally incompetent person you could find running the country. Or not running it, as the case may be.

People with severe personality disorders operate on the edge of psychosis, and when under stress, can slip over that edge. Or well, I'm not sure if Trump is under stress, per se, but he has created a inner world that depends on delusion. He needs to feed his emptiness constantly, although he doesn't have the insight to understand what's happening in his psyche. He honestly believes the things he says. The magical thinking and grandiosity is off the charts. And the projection, etc. -- name a primitive defense or a cognitive distortion and he haz it. A while ago I read that a psychology professor was showing clips of Trump to his class as examples of Narcissistic PD. I mean, sure you can't diagnose a celebrity you haven't met, but wow, go down the list of symptoms and it's all there, clear as day.

One thing about people like Trump is that they constantly need to feed off other people to satisfy their unceasing need for attention. Something I've heard about Trump that is eerily on point for Personality Disorders is that he can't bear to be alone and his son-in-law is there talking to him *all* the time. The scary thing about people with Narcissistic PD and the other cluster B disorders is that they need constant attention and validation and they can be eerily good at working people, a crowd, etc. in a way that feeds their need. They can be perceived as very charismatic or charming, seem to have good emotional intelligence even if they really don't know what they doing. Trump is so low functioning he doesn't really seem to have a plan, but via feedback he has worked out an extremely scary way of getting the validation he needs. And witness how he can't deal with the slightest criticism and holds grudges for years -- classic. Narcissism and Antisocial Personality disorder are common traits found in CEOs and politicians. Two higher functioning examples are 1) George W. Bush --seemingly good at relating to people, at least dumb people; he convinced half the nation to have a beer with him, and 2) Bill Clinton -- I think more Narcissism there, he's preternaturally good at charming people. He comes from an abusive family background, and I think that probably had something to do with his sex addiction. I think he has a conscience, his compulsion just made him act in self-destructive ways. More high functioning than Trump or W, obviously, because the man is brilliant. He just learned how to appeal to the "common people" which in American politics always involves hiding how smart you are.

[roguedemon.livejournal.com]

(I had to break this up because of the character limit.)

So, in conclusion, it would take way more than some meetings with Obama to change Trump, I honestly don't think anything can. I'm pretty pragmatic about human nature. I think people are on a spectrum running from exceptional to waste of oxygen-- guess where Obama and Trump are on that scale, lol. My training enables me to see people like Trump coming a mile off, and watching this election was pretty excruciating because we elected a clinically insane person and people just ignored that little problem. I think the best we can hope for is that someone on his staff stands between him and the button at all times, and that people will vote him out when it's clear that he's done nothing but make things worse. Those legendary members of the WWC are really in for a shock.