Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at

[babylonsister]

Keep laughing, my friends.


http://theweek.com/articles/702268/trumps-pathological-obsession-being-laughed

Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at
Paul Waldman
May 31, 2017


Send President Trump abroad to rub shoulders with a bunch of foreigners, and chances are somewhere around 100 percent that he'll come back thinking about whether anyone is laughing at us. "Russian officials must be laughing at the U.S. & how a lame excuse for why the Dems lost the election has taken over the Fake News," the president tweeted on Tuesday morning.

If you've been paying any attention at all over the last couple of years, you know this is a topic he returns to again and again. Search Trump's Twitter feed and you'll find that who's laughing at whom is an obsession for him, with the United States usually the target of the laughter. "The world is laughing at us." China is "laughing at USA!" Iran is "laughing at Kerry & Obama!" "ISIS & all others laughing!" "Mexican leadership has been laughing at us for many years." "Everybody is laughing at Jeb Bush." "Putin is laughing at Obama." "OPEC is laughing at how stupid we are." "Dopey, nobody is laughing at me!" I could go on (and on, and on), but I'll spare you.

This is nothing new for Trump; he's been talking about us being laughed at for his entire career in public life. In his first major foray into politics in 1987, he spent nearly $100,000 to buy full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, lamenting the fact that America helped defend countries like Japan without getting enough in return (sound familiar?). The last line of the ad was, "Let's not let our great country be laughed at anymore."

It is Trump's gift to future biographers that he makes so little attempt to hide his psychological issues, but the desire to avoid being laughed at truly stands out. Perhaps there was some childhood trauma that led to this obsession, a schoolyard incident in which a bully pulled down Donny's short pants to the guffaws of the other tots (particularly the girls!). It would be only fitting if Trump, the world's foremost avatar of anxious masculinity, lived in terror of women's laughter, but he seems concerned with everyone's laughter, whether it comes from people or governments. As much as he cares about winning and getting the better of someone, defeat is marked by the ultimate humiliation of being laughed at.

snip//

There comes a time for every president when they have to choose between doing the right thing and doing what will make them look good. If you have a powerful fear of being laughed at, your decisions will be shaped by avoiding the thing that scares you. The results may not be funny at all.

[Madam45for2923]

1. That fear makes him a very small little tiny man.

[Madam45for2923]

2. I forgot ...puny.

[TheBlackAdder]

14. Would another term for that be: Shrinky Dink

[Kleveland]

3. This is probably what is behind his constant roll-back of Obama's policies.

All as a result of that Press Corp dinner, where our beloved Obama ridiculed him.

A slow burning fire of evil resulted...

[Arkansas Granny]

6. That's exactly what I think. He was seething that night.

He is taking his revenge by trying to undo anything and everything that Obama accomplished.

I can't imagine how history will treat Trump or explain the Trumpian years.

[gratuitous]

4. His other obsession is with fairness

It's his go-to excuse for practically anything. Nobody ever seems to ask him what, specifically, is unfair about one thing or another, but it's Trump's standard complaint about life.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Does he even realize that the entire world is laughing at HIM?

Not us, but him? He's such a fucking joke. Most people in this country are laughing at him. Comedians are using his idiocy as a gold mine of laughs. If he's so worried about it, maybe he should stop being such a flaming fool.

[madokie]

8. Fools have no choice

but to be fools

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Correct. Does an earthworm know it's an earthworm? A dog howling at the moon, knows not why.

[dalton99a]

7. It's not like he didn't have advance warning

[loyalsister]

9. He seems to reside in a self constructed reality

How can anyone in the world- or at least in this country not know that the presidency is not only difficult, but that the person who occupies that position is also one of the most ridiculed people in the entire world?
I wonder what happens if an employee laughs at him?

[3catwoman3]

10. For someone who so dislikes and fears being...

...laughed at, he sure provides an abundance of material - an embarrassment of riches, so to speak.

[rock]

11. I'm pretty sure he's never had so many laughing at him as now

He sure made a stupid choice when he picked his current job if he likes adoration and respect but dislikes disrespect especially of the kind that is shown through derisory laughing! As I've said before: he was a joke, he is a joke, he will always be a joke.

[mikki35]

12. Pathological

Its the ONLY word that possibly explains his never-ending obsessions. He is obviously pathologically obsessed with destroying everything Pres Obama touched, no matter how many millions of people have to pay the steep price for his obsessions. When there is ample evidence, such as your own economists, your own 'experts,' and historical proof galore, and it matters not one whit - then the only possible conclusion is that the driving force for his actions are far from rational, sound, or intelligent. Plus, he cannot seem to make a single statement or tweet that doesn't involve trying to denigrate the previous administration or Hillary Clinton (or both).
He demonstrates daily his utter inability to act, at any level, with the requisite care, intelligence, or even the faintest whiff of gravitas appropriate to his position. Instead, he behaves with utter recklessness, then tries to label his overarching bombastic boorishness as "telling it like it is."
If he had the slightest clue how he is actually viewed by people, he'd be horrified. Every word, every action is generating the exact scenario he seems to fear the most - being laughed at the world over.
History will not be kind.
Which is most likely the understatement of the century.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Every chance, amp up this obsession of Republican Minority Pres. tRump.

He even has minority hands.

His minority of supporters is contracting daily.

tRump did not get the largest inauguration crowds, not by a long mile.

Republican Pres tRump lost the popular vote.

Mango Mussolini tRump uses makeup daily. Is that appealing to his macho supporters?

Republican President tRump has a Grade 5 vocabulary and language skills.

Minority President tRump couldn't make money in casinos! At at time when they were booming his were losing money and hosting a lot of oligarchs from Russia.

[world wide wally]

15. They ARE laughing at us.... For electing you as our "leader"

I know.
Theater of the absurd.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Stop Laughing at the size of my hands! That especially means you, Macron!

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