It's gone beyond narcissism. He's having a psychotic break. UPDATED [View all]

[localroger]

Last edited Sat Jan 5, 2019, 09:28 AM - Edit history (2)

Trump has long said whatever he thought would sound best regardless of truth, but at the end of the day he had to manage to conduct business. Today's presser after the fruitless Pelosi-Schumer meeting was a full blown denial of reality though. He simply refuses to perceive anything that will stop his cool plan to use the shutdown to blackmail the Dems into giving him his wall. Every point of evidence is either invisible to him or he sees it as the opposite of what it really is -- like the out of work government employees who are "his biggest fans."

This isn't self-love, or even persuasion; this is a psychotic break. He knows this is his last stand. It's not Trump with his sanctions that should have been on that Game of Thrones poster, it's Mueller who is really coming. For Trump this is one roll all in, double or nothing, and he has convinced himself that losing is not a possibility not as a deliberate tactic, but because he cannot psychologically face the possibility of losing.

This is an extremely dangerous moment. I have no doubt Trump really would hold out forever on this demand. It's not that he doesn't care about the people he hurts; it's that in his reality they are not hurting, and are in fact cheering him on. You really can't negotiate with that. All you can do is pray the other Republicans realize what they have to do before too much damage is done.

UPDATE: For those who wonder if Trump's behavior can be classified as psychosis, I found this page:
https://www.psychguides.com/guides/psychosis-symptoms-causes-and-effects/
Trump would appear to be a textbook example of what it calls "delusional disorder," and lists as a form of psychosis.

For those who say it's just more of the same: Yes, he's always been a liar and somewhat evil, but in the past he has been capable of seeing when the lies aren't working any more and reversing course. This is not what we were hearing at the presser though; he appears to have closed himself off to any possibillity that he will not win. If lies were water, Trump has always been a spigot; but now his lies are freezing into ice. It makes a difference, as passengers of the Titanic found out.