I do believe quite strongly that Trump is all-in on an overheated version of Peale’s “Positive Thinking” schtick. Not as a coherent, articulable philosophy, but as a reflection of his absolute narcissism. He really does think that if he wills something strongly enough, he can make it manifest. This is not because of “magical powers,” not exactly, but it’s close, because it comes from a pathologically warped view of the world. He literally perceives himself as the center of existence, with other people as functional components who either serve or oppose him and his purposes. The cosmos exists to revolve around and either validate or repudiate him, personally, depending on his strength of will.
It explains a lot about how he operates.
For just one example, it clarifies his obstinate opposition to COVID testing. If one believes the virus isn’t that bad and is stingy with government money, one could try to make a case for it being not a good allocation of resources. If one believes in the private market, one could say that it’s not an appropriate government service and that those who want to be tested can and should pay for it themselves.
Trump never tried to make either of these arguments. Instead, he dribbled out a word salad about how testing makes the numbers go up, which people rightfully mocked as incoherent. Unless you realign your thinking to his “positive thinking” perspective, and suddenly it comes into greater focus. If you do a lot of testing, it means you’re worried that you might be surrounded by the virus, and that worry — that negative thinking — may cause the virus to manifest. On the other hand, if you want the virus to disappear, you have to believe that it’s disappearing, and one concrete way to do that is to not look for it because you don’t think it’s worth worrying about.
It sounds bananas, and it is bananas. It’s not rational, at all.
But that’s the thing — that’s the mistake most people make when they try to understand Trump, what he does and why he does it and what he’ll do next. He is not a rational person. His mental and emotional processes are broken to a degree that most people simply don’t grasp, or aren’t willing to acknowledge. The way he sees the world is totally alien to most normal people with normal cognitive function. When we try to analyze him, we project our own normalcy, and that’s a mistake.
Consider, for example, the discourse that happened when the news broke on Trump having COVID.
There was a ton of speculation that Trump didn’t really have it — that he had manufactured his illness as yet another in his long line of cons and scams, as a distraction to get people to stop talking about his taxes and horrifying debt situation, and a handy excuse to get out of the next debate. From the perspective of a person who is a rational political actor, this did make sense. It would have served his purposes to make up an illness, and use it to play against his opposition.
As it turned out, he did have the virus, and he really was sick. That early speculation about how it could have been some sort of cover story faded away in the face of facts. But if you really understand Trump, you knew that speculation was nonsense from the very first moment. For Trump, it would have been literally impossible to fake being sick.
Yes, it’s true that he lies, constantly. His whole life is a parade of dishonesty. Out of every five words from his mouth, four are obvious, transparent lies, and the fifth has its fingers crossed behind its back.
But here’s the thing. Every single one of those lies has been a positive exaggeration of his conditions at the time. He lies to make himself appear richer, stronger, healthier than he is. He never, ever lies to feign weakness. Because weakness is the worst possible failure. He is the charter member of his own cult of pretended strength.
That makes sense only in the context of that “positive thinking” zealotry. The lies always go in one direction. Always. He belief in this principle goes down into his bones. In a real sense, this is his religion.
Which is why he couldn’t have been claiming to be sick when he wasn’t. Not even if it would have been useful, bringing him clear political or other advantage, as it could have done under his circumstances. Because he believes that if he says he’s sick when he isn’t, he will be inviting the sickness to him.
He lies to inflate himself. Period. He will never, and I mean never, lie to diminish himself. I defy you to find a single example of this.
Trump’s dysfunction is, in an abstract sense, extremely fascinating. And his emotional framework, in which he defiantly opposes and regularly defeats a world that opposes him, because he’s seeking the love and approval from a monstrous father who shredded his soul at a young age, is deeply pathetic and invites sympathy, or pity even. Or it would, if these neuroses hadn’t manifested as a soulless, greedy sadism that seeks fulfillment in the destruction of everyone and everything around him.
So, yeah. Trump believes in his own version of The Secret, if you want to call it that, but it’s so warped and personalized within the context of his towering pathologies as to be barely recognizable.