This is superb. He is so sick you noted he loves the negative as well as the positive to get attention. But he doesn't. He throws the worst tantrums-all the time. Soon, someone will leak it. BY the way he is the biggest leaker in the WH. He is also a coward. Ask Putin and XI. The joke is on him. Time to throw the bum out. Notice the fizzures in maga?
Send to the seven Senators, who claim they are above the law,and beyond a court ordered subpoena for telephone records belonging to the phone company to determine whether they helped trump's efforts to steal the national election and obstruction the official count of electors in the Senate chamber. They suffer from the same disease as their fake hero.
It's true that he lives, to a large extent, in his own delusional version of reality. But tragically a great many Americans have been committed to endorsing his delusional self-image and making it real in substantive ways.
The GOP and most of "conservative" media organized themselves around ego service to a psychopath (a phrase I'm proud of inventing), because they've gotten some advantage from it. They'll keep propping up his delusions until it's too damaging to themselves.
He blamed Pelosi for supposedly refusing to bring in enough heavy force to beat back the great Patriots who were heroically standing up to Save America from the Communist Thugs and Lunatics and who have been horribly persecuted for nothing more than participating in a Day of Love.
It's a rhetorical tactic analogous to The Manchurian Candidate: Mrs. Shaw's instructions to her feckless husband, Sen. Iselin, to claim wildly varying numbers for communists in the federal government. Incoherent, conflicting claims are very difficult to adjudicate, especially in the court of public opinion. People get bogged down in all the arguing, truth becomes a mirage, and the con man escapes with the cash.
With Trump's efforts to stop any SNAP benefits he's the first American President to demand that people go hungry. Marie Antoinette may or may not have said of the French peasants and urban poor, "Let them eat cake." Trump has gone her one better: "Let them eat nothing."
My mom had a saying, when a person thought a little too highly of him/herself: she’d say that person was “flying high and looking back.” As a kid, it confused me, but now I love the subtle implication of impending doom in her statement. It applies perfectly to DJT.
This in a nutshell was why democrats could never win the shutdown fight. As long as republicans in congress stayed terrified of trump nothing was going to change, they all watched mutely as he threw a lavish party for rich folks on the same day he was taking food out of mouths of children, the optics were striking and he couldn't care less. He seems to have determined that republicans have the capability to steal the 2026 elections to hold congress and at least Mike Johnson believes it. As long as he has the supreme court trump believes he can simply ignore congress as he has been doing. No matter what he does, there wont be enough votes to remove him from office.In the meantime he continues to amass billions through every grift imaginable.
Will, As always, you see things with absolute clarity. Everything bad that has happened to our country over the last ten years is directly attributable to Trump, his enablers and the apathy and ignorance of the American electorate. With this latest betrayal of the resistance, the Democrats have let the Republicans literally get away with murder. They have rewarded their arrogance. If you think the last ten months have been bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. As you stated unequivocally, Trump is for himself, and the Republicans are for Trump. What's to keep them from doing anything that comes into their nefarious little heads? What's from keeping them from going after Social Security? Billionaires don't need it and they certainly don't want to pay for it. Everything is doable. Who now will stop it?
Grotesque self-centeredness is Trump's most obvious characteristic. What's most bewildering is the failure of so many people to notice it.
I suspect that some of his zealous defenders have noticed it, but as long as they can turn his amorality toward the service of their own interests and agendas, they'll keep painting him as a much better person than he clearly is
Although Trump's pathological selfishness, narcissism and lack of care for others has been well-known to any thinking person, this past week exemplifies it. So thanks Will, for capturing his continuing sociopsychopathology so well.
I wonder how many more times it will take hurting 99% of his remaining supporters just to help himself before those supporters wake up.
I have been thinking of the question of his supporters a lot lately, and I have decided that they (his real, hard-core supporters) will never abandon him. How many stories have you heard about the people who died from COVID and refused to the end to admit that it was a real thing? People will face death rather than face the possibility that they have been lied to and their entire world view has been a fraud.
Somewhere I heard, “It is far easier to con a man, than to convince him that he has been conned.” These people are the Trump Base: they will never let go, as that would be “admitting that they were conned.”
They richly deserve it for doing this to themselves willingly, even eagerly. I only hope they have to answer for it someday and are met with immovable coldness, scorn, and rejection. Maybe iron bars as well for what they've done.
It's disheartening in a way. We are watching the entire Republican Party commit suicide. It's kind of like watching a Japanese warlord commit suicide by sepuku. It is truly painful to watch!
Meanwhile there are some very wealthy people scheming on how to perpetuate a reactionary Christian nationalist agenda without Trump. Remember that he didn't cook up Project 2025. He's just a sufficiently soulless and ruthless agent to get it pushed forward.
I think it was 40 years ago this month I first saw that pathetic narcissist on "60 Minutes." I did not know, or care, where he stood on any issue. In just a few minutes he proved himself unfit for any public office.
I first really observed Donald Trump in the first Republican primary debate in 2015. Like Old Chemist, I was appalled to watch Trump demonstrate how little he knew, how obnoxious he is and his utter unfitness for the presidency. My opinion of him has never changed.
I knew little about him before 2015, and what I did know was not positive. Very soon into his campaign, I could see that he's a sociopath who should never be given great power and responsibility.
It's been gobsmacking to see so much reverence heaped on someone so deeply unworthy of it.
"This is a big and growing problem for the GOP: Trump doesn’t really care about his party. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself."
That has been obvious to many of us old timers for decades. Certainly by 2016 there was no excuse for not knowing that. If anything, Trump voters know that at least as well as Never-Trumpers. But they don't care, and many of them wouldn't have it any other way.
This is superb. He is so sick you noted he loves the negative as well as the positive to get attention. But he doesn't. He throws the worst tantrums-all the time. Soon, someone will leak it. BY the way he is the biggest leaker in the WH. He is also a coward. Ask Putin and XI. The joke is on him. Time to throw the bum out. Notice the fizzures in maga?
Send to the seven Senators, who claim they are above the law,and beyond a court ordered subpoena for telephone records belonging to the phone company to determine whether they helped trump's efforts to steal the national election and obstruction the official count of electors in the Senate chamber. They suffer from the same disease as their fake hero.
They are running for their lives now
He was on the ballot. That’s why Democrats kicked ass. Aside from all his other faults he is delusional.
It's true that he lives, to a large extent, in his own delusional version of reality. But tragically a great many Americans have been committed to endorsing his delusional self-image and making it real in substantive ways.
The GOP and most of "conservative" media organized themselves around ego service to a psychopath (a phrase I'm proud of inventing), because they've gotten some advantage from it. They'll keep propping up his delusions until it's too damaging to themselves.
He never loses, it's never his fault. He blamed Pelosi for Jan 6.
He blamed Pelosi for supposedly refusing to bring in enough heavy force to beat back the great Patriots who were heroically standing up to Save America from the Communist Thugs and Lunatics and who have been horribly persecuted for nothing more than participating in a Day of Love.
It's a rhetorical tactic analogous to The Manchurian Candidate: Mrs. Shaw's instructions to her feckless husband, Sen. Iselin, to claim wildly varying numbers for communists in the federal government. Incoherent, conflicting claims are very difficult to adjudicate, especially in the court of public opinion. People get bogged down in all the arguing, truth becomes a mirage, and the con man escapes with the cash.
With Trump's efforts to stop any SNAP benefits he's the first American President to demand that people go hungry. Marie Antoinette may or may not have said of the French peasants and urban poor, "Let them eat cake." Trump has gone her one better: "Let them eat nothing."
I kinda like "Let them eat ballrooms." (I don't recall where I first heard it.)
My mom had a saying, when a person thought a little too highly of him/herself: she’d say that person was “flying high and looking back.” As a kid, it confused me, but now I love the subtle implication of impending doom in her statement. It applies perfectly to DJT.
This in a nutshell was why democrats could never win the shutdown fight. As long as republicans in congress stayed terrified of trump nothing was going to change, they all watched mutely as he threw a lavish party for rich folks on the same day he was taking food out of mouths of children, the optics were striking and he couldn't care less. He seems to have determined that republicans have the capability to steal the 2026 elections to hold congress and at least Mike Johnson believes it. As long as he has the supreme court trump believes he can simply ignore congress as he has been doing. No matter what he does, there wont be enough votes to remove him from office.In the meantime he continues to amass billions through every grift imaginable.
I hope the Commanders do name their new stadium after him, Felony Field. Put it in big gold letters behind black bars.
excellent name !
Well said!…:)
Will, As always, you see things with absolute clarity. Everything bad that has happened to our country over the last ten years is directly attributable to Trump, his enablers and the apathy and ignorance of the American electorate. With this latest betrayal of the resistance, the Democrats have let the Republicans literally get away with murder. They have rewarded their arrogance. If you think the last ten months have been bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. As you stated unequivocally, Trump is for himself, and the Republicans are for Trump. What's to keep them from doing anything that comes into their nefarious little heads? What's from keeping them from going after Social Security? Billionaires don't need it and they certainly don't want to pay for it. Everything is doable. Who now will stop it?
Grotesque self-centeredness is Trump's most obvious characteristic. What's most bewildering is the failure of so many people to notice it.
I suspect that some of his zealous defenders have noticed it, but as long as they can turn his amorality toward the service of their own interests and agendas, they'll keep painting him as a much better person than he clearly is
“The 60 Minutes interview of Donald J. Trump, on CBS, Sunday night, was the highest rated 60 Minutes IN YEARS!”
Is this true? Anyone know?
Doubtful
Although Trump's pathological selfishness, narcissism and lack of care for others has been well-known to any thinking person, this past week exemplifies it. So thanks Will, for capturing his continuing sociopsychopathology so well.
I wonder how many more times it will take hurting 99% of his remaining supporters just to help himself before those supporters wake up.
I have been thinking of the question of his supporters a lot lately, and I have decided that they (his real, hard-core supporters) will never abandon him. How many stories have you heard about the people who died from COVID and refused to the end to admit that it was a real thing? People will face death rather than face the possibility that they have been lied to and their entire world view has been a fraud.
Somewhere I heard, “It is far easier to con a man, than to convince him that he has been conned.” These people are the Trump Base: they will never let go, as that would be “admitting that they were conned.”
He wants his name on the stadium? Let him do it like everyone else does, cough up millions for the naming rights!
Not a chance. He’s greedy too.
I guess we'll get to see the ego vs greed ratio.
Yep!
"And that includes his party."
They richly deserve it for doing this to themselves willingly, even eagerly. I only hope they have to answer for it someday and are met with immovable coldness, scorn, and rejection. Maybe iron bars as well for what they've done.
It's disheartening in a way. We are watching the entire Republican Party commit suicide. It's kind of like watching a Japanese warlord commit suicide by sepuku. It is truly painful to watch!
Meanwhile there are some very wealthy people scheming on how to perpetuate a reactionary Christian nationalist agenda without Trump. Remember that he didn't cook up Project 2025. He's just a sufficiently soulless and ruthless agent to get it pushed forward.
Carol, I agree. Trump is the figurehead, needed to keep the MAGAs in line. Miller, Vought and (probably) Vance are the real brains of the operation.
You just realizing that now?
Great read, Will, but it's not like this is breaking news to anyone actually paying attention.
I think it was 40 years ago this month I first saw that pathetic narcissist on "60 Minutes." I did not know, or care, where he stood on any issue. In just a few minutes he proved himself unfit for any public office.
I first really observed Donald Trump in the first Republican primary debate in 2015. Like Old Chemist, I was appalled to watch Trump demonstrate how little he knew, how obnoxious he is and his utter unfitness for the presidency. My opinion of him has never changed.
I knew little about him before 2015, and what I did know was not positive. Very soon into his campaign, I could see that he's a sociopath who should never be given great power and responsibility.
It's been gobsmacking to see so much reverence heaped on someone so deeply unworthy of it.
Will Saletan, you are truly a gift to us all.
Thank you for always being able to show this blowhard for exactly what he is.
"This is a big and growing problem for the GOP: Trump doesn’t really care about his party. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself."
That has been obvious to many of us old timers for decades. Certainly by 2016 there was no excuse for not knowing that. If anything, Trump voters know that at least as well as Never-Trumpers. But they don't care, and many of them wouldn't have it any other way.
And my conundrum is that he still gets a 30+ approval rating?