THIS is the real, true, massive problem with Trump

I tried to get former MAGAts talking in my earlier thread but it’s not happening… But it did bring me around to my overriding issue that I think should be everybody’s overriding issue that sweeps everything else off the table to the floor where it doesn’t fucking matter…

Because it isn’t the list — the misogyny, the assaults, the cruelty, the corruption, the selfishness. That’s all real, but that’s not the core of it. The core is this: he is genuinely, profoundly not well.

He does not think, feel or behave anything like a normal, functional adult human being. And people keep acting like this is just “his style” or “his personality quirk.” It is not. This is not eccentricity.

Eccentric is wearing mismatched socks and collecting marbles.

This is a total inability to recognize others as real or meaningful.

Forget politics. He certainly does. He has no ideology, no beliefs, no values — only himself. His entire inner world is me me me me me, on loop, every minute. There is no “we.” There is no shared reality.

And here is the part that everyone keeps glossing over:

What we are seeing is wildly abnormal.

Not flawed. Not weird. Wildly abnormal.

This is not a “difference of opinion.”

This is a person with no empathy, no emotional maturity, no self-awareness, and no capacity for genuine human connection. He reacts to the world with the emotional range of a panicked, enraged child — one who will burn down anything he can’t control.

That should not be framed as “interesting,” “unconventional,” or “refreshingly honest.”

It should be frightening.

Because when someone like that holds power, the damage spreads — not from strategy, but from pure instinctive need. A need that never ends.

If he were just some guy on the street, I would genuinely feel sorry for him. Because he seems to have no concept of what it is to be human — to love, to care, to connect. He is missing those pieces entirely.

And that’s why treating this like a normal political preference — “left versus right,” “agree or disagree” — is surreal. This is about whether the individual with power over millions of lives, indeed billions of lives, the entire planet, is a functional human being in the most basic psychological sense.

He is not whole. He is not well. He is wildly abnormal.

Calling it “personality” is denial.

Calling it “eccentricity” is cowardice.

This is not a political choice. It is a reality test.

You are completely disconnected from reality if you can find one or a dozen reasons to choose him to lead a choir practice, much less the most powerful nation on earth.

And it is that which leaves me completely aghast that anyone supports him.

That’s like 5 problems.

It’s 1 million problems all springing from one: he’s broken. His psyche is smashed up like it got run over by a truck

Maybe you should read Mary Trumps book on Donald. It is his niece. She is a clinical psychologist who has laid it all out.

I personally think he’s narcissistic. He couldn’t be otherwise.

I did.

And he is the most extreme narcissist I can imagine actually existing. He’s the pinnacle of what narcissism can be.

Not just a narcissist, a malignant one:

(The counter-argument in the second article against this idea is that Trump doesn’t show the “distress” that typically comes with this disorder. But I feel like Trump exists in a constant state of distress.)

I dispute the premise of question.

The problem with 45/47 is that his approval today has “slumped” to only 37%.
As comparison Keir Starmer’s approval is now 19%, down from nearly 70% when elected a year ago. Without him threatening to invade Ireland or defund the NHS.

So it’s axiomatic, despite the howls of indignation from progressives, that a viable electoral block of American remain blissfully sanguine about current affairs. “Roll on a 3rd term”.

Despite damming the swamp rather than draining it: “Well what can you do?”
Despite the economic unorthodoxy of the Keystone Cops: “Surely the tariffs paid by China will be sufficient to bail out the losses incurred by our farmers and industries?”
Despite gross moral turpitude, monumental grift and corruption: “How can I get a piece of that action?”
Despite loss of American international status: “America first and only. USA, USA!, USA!”

The problem is not 45/47, it’s why the people who put him there thought, and continue to think, it’s a good idea. The progressives managed to piss them off that much?

The problem is not Trump. He just IS.

The problem is (D) leadership who cling to power like a Soviet oligarch. Except they are older than any Soviet apparatchik ever got to be. They think there are enough voter on their side who will vote for (D) all while running candidates that would be thrown out our Reagans GOP for being too deep in corporations’ pockets.
In the US today you have a choice between a side that is in the pocket of Wall street and the other side that’s owned by a bunch of billionaires.
The voters the (D) side needs to win see that very clearly and will not vote for someone they believe will not make a difference. Nothing to do with racism or misogyny: the voters Harris didn’t get just didn’t believe (very understandably, maybe even rightly) she wouldn’t have stood up for them.

An important example: US liberals love to mock republicans for complaining about the price of eggs. Except during the Biden administration there WAS an huge egg-scandal: a bunch of egg producers made an ad hoc cartel and manipulated prices. This got out. Did they get serious punishments? Nope, a light slap on the wrist. Was this because some lobby group had the responsible officials bought and paid for? You decide. The image that prices went through the roof because Biden was a doddering, ineffective corporate puppet was not so devastating because it was made up by the MAGAs. Running his VP against this background was always a losing proposition.

Do these voters now enthusiastically support Trump? Off course not, they just don’t think it matters for them who is ripping them off.

To win the (D) side needs to convince a group of voters (10M or so) that will always vote (D), but will only come out if they believe the candidate is worth it. (Obama was, Hillary wasn’t, Trump convinced them to give Biden a chance, Biden convinced them Harris wasn’t worth their trouble)

So he’s Making Abnormality Great Again?

The point of comparison is not with normal adult human beings, but with fellow elected strongmen and dictators.

Compare him to Kim Jun Un, Rodrigo Duterte and Jair Bolsonaro.

Sure they aren’t all the same. No two humans are. But they are all abnormal in roughly the same direction.

There are some strongman leaders who are more calm in their speeches, like Xi Jinping. Javier Milei would get a higher grade in a MIT intro to economics final examination. But it isn’t unusual for dictators, whether fully consolidated or wannabe, to make over the top speeches.

Is Trump crazy? I guess, although a lot is performative. Here is the perception problem:

Yeah, choosing your ego over the future of humanity is perfectly normal and healthy. Disgusting.

Re last post: Healthy for humanity, no.

But the mostly true phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely” is worth considering.

The presidential form of government invests a dangerous amount of power in one individual. The U.S. Constitution does try to limit this. For example, it deprives the president of the power to impose tariffs or to start a war.

Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws giving away much of its power to the executive. The Supreme Court recklessly lets Congress do this without requiring the supermajorities needed for constitutional amendments. SCOTUS also refuses to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 requirement that the president must respect his oath of office to be eligible for a second term. So, due to the other branches of government wussing out, we have an elected dictator with personality traits far from unknown when you give one person that much power.

Strong disagree. See:

PBS: A look at the real reasons behind soaring egg prices

Democrats cannot out-do the Republicans on populism. I would not try.

This is a key component. A huge part of the public takes it for a given that The System will f&)# them over no matter who/what.

And they will then vote for the alternative that at least gives them permission to rage, to know someone will get kicked in the nuts about it, never mind if it doesn’t fix it or if that’s an innocent bystander or even themselves.

“The future of humanity”? At best they believe that once we burn it all down then rebuild it right it will be worth the billions of casualties. Or Jesus will show up. Or they just figure that anyway they’re not going to be around for “the future” and it’s just to be more f&)#ing over generation after generation so what do they care, but gimme the satisfaction of NOT telling me I’m wrong for wanting what I want.

(my ellipsis)

They’re wrong. All too often, it really DOES matter who’s ripping you off. You can lose more than some of your money, for one thing. A lesson learned in Louisiana 34 years ago, when beleaguered, scandal-ridden Edwin Edwards ran for a fourth term as Louisiana governor against white supremacist David Duke.

A popular bumper sticker of the 1991 campaign. Today, we’d say this sentiment “went viral”:

You misunderstand: I’m not talking about MAGAs. I really don’t believe there is a large group of people who voted for Obama that is now voting for Trump. I’m talking about the voters that (D) candidates need to win, ~10M voters that will happily stay at home if they don’t see enough difference, the people the (D)’s need to win will only vote for people who they think ISN’T going to rip them off.
They will not vote for anyone (R), but the (D) candidate must convince them they are not just another Wall street puppet. So anyone backed by Pelosi and Schumer will LOSE.
Thinking voters are stupid or are voting against their own interests is not going to win anyone any election.

Trump being the obvious exception among many.

He in fact presents all the behaviors of what is known in psychology as: Malignant Narcissist.

A malignant narcissist is a person who exhibits extreme traits of narcissism, combined with antisocial and sadistic behaviors. This term is not a recognized clinical diagnosis, but it is used by some psychologists and mental health professionals to describe a particularly severe form of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

Characteristics of Malignant Narcissists:

  • Grandiose sense of self-importance: They believe they are superior to others and entitled to special treatment.

  • Lack of empathy: They show little or no concern for the feelings or well-being of others.

  • Manipulative and exploitative: They use others to achieve their own goals, often without remorse.

  • Aggressive and violent: They may engage in physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.

  • Paranoia and suspicion: They believe that others are out to get them and may exhibit defensive or hostile behavior.

  • Lack of remorse: They do not feel guilty or ashamed for their actions

He’s also a moron. That may actually be good for everyone else.

But people like Miller can just point him in any direction as long as he kisses his ring. The GOP figured this out long ago.

I’m not entirely convinced that he’s actually mentally ill, so much as he grew up in a wealthy bubble, and had some right asshole parents and mentors (Roy Cohn) who didn’t do much in the way of guiding him and instilling anything close to normal behaviors and outlooks. In other words, I’m fallling on the “nurture” side of nature vs. nurture for him.

So we’ve basically got a spoiled rich kid who grew up into a spoiled adult, and who’s essentially never had to work for anything, never been told “no” in a meaningful way, and never had to suffer the consequences of any of his actions in any meaningful way.

It’s made him venal, narcissistic, callous, and all the other bad stuff people point out.

As for why people vote for him? There are a small handful of reasons which tend to reinforce each other. One, he’s got that “R” after his name. A huge chunk of the GOP voter base has been essentially groomed for decades that the Democrats are not only bumbling, but actively working to subvert the American way of life with various socialist and pro-immigrant/minority/LGBTQ/whatever policies at the expense of everyone else. So they won’t ever vote Democrat.

Two, the popular myth around Trump is that he’s fantastically rich. The first celebrity billionaire even. So in their minds, he obviously is wildly successful and powerful, and someone to be emulated and held up as something to be aspired to.

Three, Trump’s blustery, never suffered any consequences, assholish style appeals to them. Not only does he say what many of them are thinking, he says whatever the hell he wants, and suffers no consequences. So when that happens, they’re like “Yeah, our guy told them to fuck off, and nobody did anything!” which they are somewhat proud of, in that it validates that they’re backing a strong and powerful candidate who’s on their side.

So from their perspective, you’ve got a wildly rich, powerful guy who talks relentless shit to his enemies and generally looks like he gets his way due to force of personality, and he’s on their side with that “R” after his name. What’s not to like from their perspective? That’s the guy you want- he gets (your) stuff done, after all.