I purchased a blog site 5years ago, but I used it just once on July 21, 2017, and that was a copy of an email I sent to two friends on election eve when I was deeply concerned with Donald Trump being elected president of the United States – the only super-power in the world. The blog was not about politics but about Trump’s mental problems which were often mentioned as a Narcissistic Personality Disorder combined with Antisocial Personality Disorder. I checked with The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association which defines Narcissistic Personality Disorder as a personality characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an execessive need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. Other traits and behaviors include arrogance, callousness, envy and is associated with a preoccupation with power, prestige and vanity. This condition is also characterized by exploitation behavior to achieve personal gain, exaggeration of skills and accomplishments and intolerance of the views of others. Pathological narcissism is also associated with derogation and insults of others and an inability to tolerate disagreements and criticisms and even very minor humiliation – which means he is unable to admit making mistakes and misjudgments.
His Antisocial Personality Behavior disorder involves a pattern of disregard for, and violation of rights of others and also includes deceitfulness as indicated by continuous lying or conning and manipulation of others, aggressiveness and consistent irresponsibility. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual narcissistic and antisocial behavior can overlap in terms of lack of remorse and disregard for the wishes, rights and feelings of others and can even co-exist as in Megalomania.
Trump has openly displayed his mental disorders on a daily basis for more than three years – and probably because his mental problem is on TV and print media every day it seem to have become accepted as the norm and not at all shocking. And the elite White House Press Corps helps his image by continuing to treat him as just a normal and a bit eccentric president, who gets very angry with reporters who even indirectly question his response.
There is, however, a huge response from the Mental Health Community which may become increasingly difficult for even Republicans to ignore. Approximately 60,000 (a later report ups it to 70,000) mental health professionals have diagnosed President Donald Trump with a type of insanity that is often compared to an alchoholic’s lack of honesty and impulse control. The Psychiatric Community says that Trump suffers from “Malignant Narcissism,” which accordng to John T. Gartner, one of the country’s top psychologist, is basically a combination of three mental illnesses: Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
There has never been so many mental health professionals to collectively diagnose a living person. Their conclusion is based on the hundreds of hours of Trump’s on-camera dialogue and off-the-cuff public speaking. But why did tens of thousand mental health professionals abandon the long respected “Goldwater Rule” from the American Psychiatric Association which states that psychologists should not offer a diagnosis in the media of a living public figure they have not examined?” They were motivated by their knowledge of the seriousness of the mental illness and what Trump might do with all his power as president if he felt trapped and humiliated.
It must be crystal clear to Vice-President Pence, members of the cabinet, Mitch McConnell and members of the Republican leadership and Attorney General William Barr, and Trump’s senior staff that the president does have a serious mental disorder and his descent is noticeable. He has become more and more involved in the medical end of Coronavirus pandemic as Ducktor Trump releasing false and dangerous misinformation – culminating on April 23 on his nightly coronavirus briefing onTV suggesting that household disinfectants could be used as an “injection inside” to kill COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Federal officials, health officials and the Consumer Product Safety Commission immediately warned Americans not to try cleaning fluids as medicine: “Cleaning products are poisonous, America!” Warnings from Clorox, Lysol, Dettol , and the American Chemistry Council were also emphatic. In Maryland over 100 people called a hotline to ask about injecting or ingesting disinfectants according to the office of Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. The frantic chorus of corrections must reflect the deep concern about the president who refuses to trust medical experts and science over his own instincts. On TV recently, he admitted he was not a trained doctor – but had something more valuable and tapped his forefinger to the side of his head indicating his brain. Then looked directly at the camera and smiled knowingly. Nothing seems to faze him anymore. On April 24, the day after his disinfectant fiasco, the Food and Drug Administration warned that using two anti – malarial that Trump had repeatedly touted: hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, as a therapeutic could have potentially lethal side-effects, citing a new study that showed increased mortality among patients in an experimental trial. By the sixth day of treatment in Brazil, 11 patients had died leading to an immediate end to the high-dose segment of the trial. Also, 28% of US veterans with coronavirus who were treated with hydroxycholoroquine died of the infection, while only 11% of veterans who got standard care died.
Although his meddling and indecisiveness as Ducktor Trump is deadly serious, it is only a part of the major problem: HIS MENTAL ILLNESS. This made him bombard the country with lies from the beginning. His unceasing campaign to convince people of things that are not true. As of April 26, Fact Checking announced the President of the United States had made more than 10,000 false and misleading statements publicly since taking office. Others were less kind estimating over 12,000 and 15,000. It appears that practically everything he said that made the news were misleading, and mostly outright lies.
CNN started counting from July 8, 2019. As of March 15, Trump has made 2,062 false claims in all, averaging 57 false claims per week. According to CNN, “Trump began March with a barrage of false claims about the coronavirus pandemic — understating the extent of the crisis, overstating the availability of tests, inaccurately blaming his predecessor, the governors, the World Health Organization, and wrongly insisting that the crisis was unforeseen.” There were 33 false claims from March 2 through March 15 (his misleading claims as well as well as false and misleading claims from members of his administration were not counted).
In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s longtime pimpress, called Trump “The Health Care President” three times in a very recent Fox News Interview. Obviously, those who still remain close to Trump have absorbed his ability to lie and mislead comfortably without shame or embarrassment. It’s almost beyond belief watching the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Attorney General William Barr do the same.
So how did this all happen? How could Trump openly expose his serious mental problems and continue to gain acceptability and expand the power of his office?
There were many factors that contributed towards his rise to an unprecedented level of tyrannical strength: a) For the first two years of his administration Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and Trump was basically left unchecked and allowed to pretty much do as he pleased. And soon it became known as the Trump Republican Party, and he believed it was and seem to demand loyalty and obedience from members of His party. b) the major responsibility of keeping Trump and his Republican Party under surveillance and serving as the watchdog belonged to the Democrats.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party was weak, disorganized, and powerless and timid under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer in the Senate. It was a matter of “What can we do when the Presidency, Senate and House are all controlled by the Republicans. Meanwhile, the president was growing even bolder and getting really wild as the most powerful person in the world unchecked and unopposed. In 2018, the voters showed they wanted his free-wheeling callous and arrogant actions checked — and armed the Democrats with a clear majority in the House of Representatives. And the Democrats celebrated this big win as a mandate to challenge Donald Trump and convert his authoritarian style government back to a democracy.
After two years of excruciatingly frustrating failure in dealing with an opponent who is free to lie continuously, which allows him say whatever people want to hear and demean and insult anyone he wants with fake news (which is simply news not based on fact), Nancy Pelosi must know the upcoming battle cannot be won with traditional tactics. Because even a ten year old tennis player knows to change tactics when losing. So her first order of business as Speaker was obviously to gather bold and innovative minds to do strategic planning to counter and frustrate a person with Trump’s mental illness. And a good place to look was the ladies in the newly elected freshman class. I was proud and impressed at how well-prepared they were at the open hearings with their sharp questions and their straight – backed, confident demeanor. The Republicans seemed unsure on how to deal with them, and looked apprehensive — like “how do we get rid of them?” It made me want to become an active Democrat. I recalled Will Rogers saying humorously — and with some pride, “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” Yeh, I think Democrats until now pretty much accepted mavericks as an integral part of the party to prevent even temporary inbreeding of thought and stagnation.
As the much anticipated January 2019 arrived, Speaker Pelosi appeared almost giddy with her new power to deal with crazy Donald Trump. But as the weeks flew by it didn’t look like her priority was the president. Instead her sometimes vicious attacks were focused on members of her own party – the four freshmen females who had gotten the attention of Republicans and the media, who she disparaged as “The Squad.” She appeared intent to completely squash their enthusiasm and energy which the anemic Democratic Party desperately needed – and isolate them from the rest of the Party. A wiser and more party-oriented leader might have tried to recruit senior Democrats with experience to advise members of the “Squad” of more effective ways to promote their views. Instead, the Speaker strongly supported the much larger group of freshmen Democrats whose single platform was to get reelected in districts that were split or Republican. So they pleaded with the Speaker not to attack the President too hard as to provoke Trump supporters in their districts. And they would, obviously, not support harsh measures against Trump. This was fine with her as she likes to support moderates because they protect her from taking strong action against Trump and Republicans. Whereas the actions of the four young members of the “squad” seem to highlight the obvious fact that she has not been adequately aggressive in confronting Trump and his authoritative actions.
“Pelosi is really tough and determined.” This was her projected image in calling for the release of the President’s tax return. This is what the current Democratic leadership seem to do best: Posture and Pose. From early on Pelosi liked being branded as “Trump’s worst enemy” — although the results of her actions made her Donald Trump’s “Indispensable Enemy.”
The Speaker took leadership in strongly condemning the Attorney General for his attempt to clear Trump using his own Mueller Report summary. At the same time, she also adamantly stopped any attempt by the Democrats, who had finally come together as a team after their big victory, to bring about impeachment proceedings. Whereas Barr was openly known as a Trump flunky appointed to protect him from the Russia accusations, Pelosi was known as “Trump’s Worst Enemy” — and her well publicized action to quell any attempt by Democrats to introduce impeachment proceedings was factual proof that the president was in fact innocent and talk about Trump wrongdoings were being promoted by the Fake News Media. Later, when Trump’s actions and behavior had worsened to make the public demand action from the Democrats, Pelosi made her grand announcement on national TV that she would lead the House of Representatives in impeaching the president. The media made the announcement a really big thing – like “Now that the Speaker’s on board.” And on the surface the impeachment movement was on a roll. But it also felt like the enthusiasm and timing had passed. And then she ordered all Democrats to focus on a single issue for impeachment. So forget about the dozens of other impeachable charges, the only one we will bring forward is Trump’s Ukraine debacle, which contains a number of impeachable offenses. Unfortunately, the large majority of Americans have never heard of Ukraine, know where it is, or even spell it. The public is interested in the charges – and equally important is where it happened. And Ukraine seems totally insignificant, and what happens there is of little interest. So Pelosi’s grand strategy did nothing to generate the huge emotional public outcry needed to weaken the partisan stranglehold in the Senate. Instead, this mindless strategy emboldened Mitch McConnell to ask the Speaker with cocky confidence to hurry and send the House impeachment vote to the Senate so the impeachment cloud over the president’s head could be quickly removed.
As a result of the Speaker’s weak leadership and her strong preference for Moderates, who can be best described as”elected officials who are neither here or there,” the New Democrat Coalition (NDC) can now boast that it is the largest ideological House caucus, making up more than 40% of the Democratic Caucus and 2/3 of the freshman class. The NDC’s major governing belief is that the challenges ahead are too great for Members of Congress to refuse to cooperate purely out of Partisanship — and believe leaders of both parties should work together to find common cause solutions for the American people. The NDC was founded in 1997 by centrist Democrats who supported moderate pro-growth and a balanced budget. But today it sounds like moderate Democrats who want to cooperate with Trump and his Republicans.
The most significant and proudest accomplishment of the NDC was in helping to bring House Democrats and the Trump Administration together to pass the North American Trade Treaty (USMCA), which is widely seen as a crucial win for President Trump going into the 2020 election. The NDC Chair Derek Kilmer said he is proud of the critical role his members played in getting an agreement that can serve as a template for bipartisan consensus in future agreements. Vice chairs Susan Delbene, Terri Sewell, Ann McLane Kuster, Scott Peters, Susan Delbene, Pete Aguilar, Kathlene Rice, Ami Bera, Chrissy Houlahan, Miki Sherril — all shared the Chair’s sentiment in helping Trump succeed. After three years, this was the first major agreement struck by the Trump Administration, and it also fulfilled his campaign promise to do away with the worst trade deal ever made — though the actual terms of NAFTA is largely intact. Speaker Pelosi has repeatedly made clear that passing USMCA goes beyond partisan politics — and proof that they could pass legislation that benefit American workers. “And if the President wants to take credit? So be it.” The tough, wise words of an experienced strategist and political leader.
The reputation of the Speaker and her useless gang of moderates may be saved by the devastating pandemic and Trump’s mental illness which prevents him from saying he messed up — and instead doubling down by publicly giving himself a perfect score for his handling of the pandemic — which is ridiculous since all his past statements are on tape. This allows Pelosi to become a fearless and courageous leader confronting Trump (finally.) And the public is buying it. Ordinarily, this would be so comical and funny, except this is all about saving “America, the Beautiful.
There may be a question of why the other half of the “Posture and Pose” Democrat leadership, Chuck Schumer, has not been mentioned: A week before the confirmation hearing of Trump’s nominee as Justice to the Supreme Court, Bret Kavanaugh, Schumer cut a deal with Majority Leader McConnell to approve another 15 Trump nominated judges without a hearing, in exchange for allowing red state Democrats to return home and campaign – which these Democrats could have done by just excusing themselves. Another painful fact was that Elizabeth Warren was the only member of the Caucus to reject the deal made by Schumer. I spent weeks chewing on Schumer’s justification for the deal. But I could not swallow it. Although my reflux medical problem started at least five years earlier, Schumer (and watching Barr and Pompeo destroy the grand reputation of their office) made my condtion much worse.
Other factors that allowed Trump to continue in his madness was the drastic change in Republican women who were once the backbone of the Party’s “Family Values.” On June 1, 1950, Margaret Chase Smith became the first senator to denounce McCarthy’s tactics with her “Declaration of Conscience” speech on the senate floor. Would Nancy Reagan be admired today? Can you imagine Republican women who in the majority support Trump scolding their children: “Don’t worry about others, and stop telling the truth or you’ll never be President.”
Well, whatever the reason for Trump’s survival and strength is the puzzling inability of the Democrat Party leadership to recruit more effective surrogate voices and salespersons for their policies, and to keep the public regularly informed as to Trump’s dangerously deteriorating mental health. It’s crazy but the American public as a whole doesn’t seem to have connected his erratic behavior with mental illness. The Democrats and media have to greatly improve their ability to reach out to the public. Especially his cult-like supporters, who the liberal community dismisses as ignorant. That’s false. “The trouble with most Trump supporters isn’t their ignorance. It’s from knowing too many things — that are not true.”
Well, that’s it for now. My next overly long blog will be out in three years.