Trump's Worsening and Consequential Narcissism

When the World's Most Powerful Leader Is Repugnant in Word and Far Too Many Deeds

Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler

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Who does this sound like?

Has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success or power, believes in their superiority, and has a constant need for excessive admiration. Feels entitled to special treatment, exploits others interpersonally, and displays arrogance or haughty behaviors.

Yes, it’s our President. And the description is that of a narcissist. It comes care of Perplexity:AI. Does this LLM think President Trump has NPD — Narcissistic Personality Disorder? I asked after Perplexity assured me it has no political affiliation.

Trump displays grandiosity (e.g., "best ever" claims), seeks constant admiration via rallies and media, and shows low empathy in rhetoric—hallmarks of narcissistic tendencies. His sensitivity to criticism often triggers defensiveness or retaliation, fitting NPD patterns. … Over 41,000 mental health experts signed petitions in 2017 asserting he is psychologically unfit due to narcissism mixed with antisocial and paranoid traits. But no formal diagnosis confirms President Trump has NPD.

Les Nouvelles, C'est Moi

Louis XIV also lacked a formal diagnosis, but

The Sun King displayed many traits associated with narcissism, such as an inflated ego, love of grandeur (Versailles), and belief in divine right.

Louis is famous for proclaiming L’Étate, C’est Moi - The State Is Me. For Trump it’s Les Nouvelles, C’est Moi — The News is Me. Staying at the top of our news feed satisfies his constant need for attention.

Doing so in a manner consistent with his brand of NPD means flaunting power, ridiculing people, and making threats. The latest example, of course, is staging a coup in Venezuela and laying claim to that country’s massive oil reserves. It fulfills two NPD needs — to reify the absolute power fantasy and to grab attention. (Not to mention moving the Epstein files off the front page.) Threatening, at the V-V (victory over Venezuela) Day presser to annex, by force if needed, Greenland, target the President of Columbia, and make Cuba “fall” did the same. The next day’s headline Trumpline was the immediate heist of 30 to 50 millions barrels of Venezuelan oil, already barreled and ready to be stolen.

These are just the latest Trump attention getters. Past LOOK AT ME!s include locking undocumented children in cages, separating supposedly illegal immigrant parents from their children, organizing the January 6th attempted domestic coup, claiming the 2020 election was stolen, deporting immigrants to El Salvador’s brutal mega prison, using the “Justice Department to indict the former FBI Director and the former National Security Advisor, imposing extreme tariffs, screaming at President Zelensky in the Oval, abusing power producing his first impeachment, cutting off essentially all grants of military aid to Ukraine, insulting NATO partners, declaring Canada the 51st state, eliminating foreign aid, ordering an end to birthright citizenship, firing tens of thousand of federal workers without cause, renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, engaging in massive conflicts of interest, purloining and concealing state secrets, undermining the rule of law, defunding basic research, freezing grants to Harvard and other leading universities, pardoning criminals, including January 6th rioters, extorting tribute from companies and countries, demanding the Nobel Peace Prize, eliminating three-fourths of US foreign aid, appointing a cabinet full of unqualified sycophants, threatening to primary any Republicans who voices a word of disproval, threatening to use force to take Greenland, and, well, ask your favorite LLM to extend the list.

The message is the message. Trump says crazy-thing X one day and then the opposite the next. Example: Call the president of Columbia a “sick man,” an "illegal drug dealer," an "international drug leader," and a "lunatic” and then invite him to the White House. The X and the not X are messages to keep Trump in the news. They can’t be ignored because they contain clues about what he’s actually going to do. But for all the reporting of thing X and not thing X, not a single reporter, as far as any LLM can recall, has asked Trump this simple question: “Are you are narcissist?” and “Is your self-admiration and self-adulation impacting your decision making?)

Instead, we have the tailors in the Emperor’s New Clothes fighting to be first in line to kiss the emperor’s feet. An example straight out of South Park is his cabinet meetings, which are actually hours-long, worship sessions. The devotion goes on even when Trump is asleep for fear he might wake up and fail to hear full throated groveling.

Normalizing Trump

There are a couple of grownups in Trump’s inner circle. But almost all are toadies whose main job is to out-crazy Trump and, thereby, normalize his behavior. Stephen Miller is the most unhinged. He’s a ten-year-old auditioning to play a five-year-old auditioning to play Trump. But his Trump impression out-trumps Trump. Das könnte böse enden as the Germans say. Stealing the limelight is not part of Miller’s deputy staffer job description. Young Stephen will likely to be shipped off to, say, Monaco, to serve as ambassador. Two thirds of the public disapprove of this President’s job performance. Despite his best efforts, it took Joe Biden four years to hit the same skids. If things don’t turn around for Trump, someone will need to take the blame. Miller Time!

Acting Out One’s Narcissism

Being a nasty piece of work and even being in love with yourself doesn’t preclude performing well in the presidency. And Trump’s bark is often worse than his bite. The TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out — trade applies to more than starting with ridiculously-high tariffs and settling on stupidly high tariffs. Removing Maduro from power may be a masterstroke in changing Venezuela’s future. But it sounds more like one of Trump’s dummest moves, which is saying a lot. The price of oil is too low, the potential for future nationalizations is too high, and the costs of investing are too large for private oil companies to deliver Trump’s dream of black gold. And how do you “run” Venezuela without boots, i.e., targets, on the ground? Trump suggests threatening reprisals will suffice. I think he should test this notion by appointing Miller ambassador to Caracas. Jake Tapper can kick start the process by getting young Stephen back on CNN and asking him if he’d take the job were it offered.

Performance Lying/Exaggeration

Normalizing Trump requires normalizing lying and exaggeration. But, again, going overboard steals limelight. It also pisses people off big time, even Republicans.

Take young Stephen’s claim that the abduction of Maduro was “One of the Greatest Military Victories in US History.” How does that fall on the ears of current, ex-military, and descendants of members of the military. Chances are they paid attention during history class in high school. Chances are they remember the names Saratoga, Yorktown, New Orleans, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Midway, and D-Day. We lost 2,500 soldiers, sailors, and airmen on D-Day, Stephen, to end the madness of the world’s worst-ever narcissist. Watch the movie, Stephen. Spielberg is not making one about grabbing Maduro.

Then we have Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claiming that Renee Good, mother of three, was killed by an ICE agent while “weaponizing her vehicle.” Kristi, the public can see the videos. The videos show Renee trying to leave the scene, not intentionally trying to hit the agent. If she was trying to do so, her wheels would have been turned left, not right. Maybe let an independent commission investigate? Otherwise, you look like you’re hiding something. I know you want to look tough and sound tough, but lying, not overlying is your job. I’d also lose the makeup, earrings, and cute cap. They don’t play well when your people have just produced three orphans and killed a US citizen in cold blood. If you don’t learn to lie professionally and do so while pretending to be a human being (example: express sympathy for Renee’s children), you too will likely be sent to run Venezuela.

One other thing, Kristi. When you and young Stephen and JD and Pete and the rest of the crew overdo it, you make all of MAGA complicit in your uber lies and exaggerations. They are forced to defend you at pickleball or wherever they meet their non-MAGA friends, co-workers, and relatives. So, saying obviously stupid and indefensible things is likely losing MAGAs by the hour.

The Whole Word Is Watching

This was the chant of Vietnam anti-war protesters. It applies in spades to Trump and Co. Most of the world, particularly the world that buys American products and vacations in America, are not MAGA. They are adults with adult values and sensibilities. They used to love and respect the United States. Now they see our country as an autocracy, no better on human rights, rule of law, and democracy than, gee, Russia. And they see the coup in and alleged possession of Venezuela as no different from Russia’s attempt to grab Ukraine.

This is surely going to lead to an even larger Boycott America movement than we’ve seen to date. We export 11% of our GDP. This figure includes the value of foreign tourism to the US. It’s too early to say whether Trump’s words and actions are materially impacting overall exports. But one good gauge of the potential Trump backlash is the roughly one third decline in Canadians visiting the US since the Narcissist in Chief took power and started referencing Canada as the 51st state.

The whole world also includes China and Russia. As so many commentators have observed, Trump’s arms-length supposed takeover of Venezuela has just legitimatized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s future invasion of Taiwan. If China takes Taiwan, including it chip production, the cost of Venezuela will turn out to be far higher than it already seems.

Trump’s Disease is Getting Worse

This, at least, is my opinion. But my LLM told me the following.

Narcissistic traits often intensify with age due to declining ability to maintain a facade, accumulated grievances, loss of power or enablers (like a parent's death), and honed manipulation skills from experience. Vulnerable narcissists may grow more aggressive or fearful without adequate admiration, while some double down on grandiosity amid life setbacks.

What can the press do? It can start naming that which can’t be named — narcissism. It can ask Trump directly whether his incessant need for attention and adolation is affecting his decision making. Doing anything less is, well, being another lying toady in the Trump administration.

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