@Ringham7@SkylineReport His niece @MaryLTrump describes him as having ‘a black hole of need’ which I think is a good way of putting it. There’s something deeply disturbing about this pathological craving for attention, flattery and credit.
TRUMP SUCCESS STORIES🤭
1-Bought the Trump Plaza hotel for $400 million. Repossessed by the bank.
2-Bought his yacht for $29 million. Repossessed by the bank.
3-Built 4 Casinos at a cost $3 billion Filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. Stiffed contractors and employees.
4-Started Trump Airlines. Never made a profit. Planes and Helicopters repossessed by Citibank.
5-Trump Mortgage, Trump Vodka & Trump Steaks. All went out of business.
Tell me why you thought this man was able bodied to lead a whole damn country you MAGA idiots?
@DmJ43@tgnl63@JoyceCarolOates He’s such a desperately insecure and unhappy man. Hence all the bragging , the exaggerating , the obsession with his crowd sizes,poll numbers etc. Nobody secure in themselves needs to do that.
@DmJ43@tgnl63@JoyceCarolOates Even in 2024, having won the popular vote and the electoral college, he still claimed states like California and Minnesota were rigged.
Trump is unique among malignant narcissists in being of below average intelligence, inarticulate, and poorly read. We almost never see this.
Even many non-political malignant narcissists (Ted Bundy) had high IQ's. And "cult of personality" malignant narcissists (Jim Jones, David Koresh), are especially literate and sharp. The pervasiveness and persuasiveness of cult leaders is usually enhanced by their intelligence and articulacy, repartee and even wit.
Yet Trump is such a loud, boorish, and obvious con, that his political rise speaks as much to our celebrity culture, our consuming of media in echo chambers, his craven enablers, and our aggrieved society. This convergence has created a phenomenon that's made too much of our electorate ... I'll just be nice and call them "susceptible."
BUT - and this is the point of this tweet - BECAUSE he's so flawed, so owned by his disorders, and so enfeebled, he can't navigate the very chaos he inflicts. He's become too old, too desperate, too fearful and too unable to process his own mortification. He has no strategic thought or inclination to play from behind.
All he has now are his cravings, fantastical desire to reclaim grandiosity, panicked fear of humiliation, and toxicity. He has no smarts, no patience, no craftiness. And not enough incoming narcissistic nutrition, no matter how often they give him the North Korea treatment. You can see that this is all he has more clearly now, because he keeps making mistakes and screwing up everything, everywhere, all at once.
His decline is unmistakable. His demise will be spectacular.
Imagine the amount of propaganda it took to convince millions of people that healthcare, food assistance, social programs, clean water, clean air, good wages, housing, equal rights, diversity and a healthy planet for all people was somehow a threat to America and to Christianity.
These quick thoughts by Michael Jochum on the disturbing reason Trump gets as much support as he does is a must-read 👇
I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.