A hundred days is the traditional measure of a new presidency. But sufficient for this president is the biblical metaphor for infinite woe. Each day evokes the Cat scan of a disordered brain, encasing President Trumps psyche in an endless dormitory of mirrors. And now his maladies are ours 😛 TAGEND
Grandiosity. Lies. Impulsiveness. Anger. Unreasoning defensiveness. Devouring self-involvement. Craving for appreciation. Lack of empathy. An inability to distinguish reality from his own wants. So striking is his behaviour that numerous mental health professionals publicly opined that Trumps mental state attains him incapable of serving safely as president.
Little wonder. According to The Washington Post, two-thirds of his factual assertions have been completely false. Transparently, the concept of objective fact threatens his sense of self. And so Trump pits lies against truth in a Darwinian struggle to reshape our communal reality.
Some of this is risible. Much is not: He claims that 3 million illegal immigrants voted. He humiliates our intelligence agencies. He asserts that the media encompass up terrorism. He claims that immigrants run unvetted. Little matter if he believes his own lies, or simply wants us to. Trump is transforming the presidency into a soundstage for mendacity and paranoia.
Never has honorable journalism been more essential or more fraught with challenge and complexity.
In reprisal for challenging his falsities, he casts the media as the foe of the American people. But merely the media can serve as the purveyor of his lies and validator of his primacy. In the confused and needy tangle of his narcissism, they are the indispensable foe and enabler. Never has honorable journalism been more essential or more fraught with challenge and complexity.
This dilemma is captured by Trumps attack on leaks. Merely through anonymous sources do we know about his disturbing connection to Russia: its intrusions on Trumps behalf in the 2016 campaign; the contacts between his campaign and Russian intelligence; Michael Flynns lies about his a discussion with the Russian ambassador; or Trumps concealment of Flynns misstatements. The more reality threatens Trump, the more he must obliterated it.
For Trump cannot accept our institutions as separate from himself. Take special courts. First he vilified Judge Gonzalo Curiel for his decision in cases of fraud case is attributable to Trump University; then James Robart, the so-called magistrate who enjoined his seven-country Muslim ban; then the disgraceful Court of Appeal that upheld him. If anything happens, Trump announced, blame him and the court system. Thereby does respect for statute erode.
This contempt for larger outcome is pervasive. Does his Muslim ban abandon our friends, strengthen our foes, and endanger our intelligence personnel? No matter. Is climate change an existential menace? Not to Trump. Are we dismissing our moral obligation to refugees displaced by our policies in the Countries of the middle east? We have none. A solipsistic spirit perceives no one but itself.
Thus Trumps White House is a Hobbesian state of nature warring factions terrified of their abusive leader. The apparatchik Reince Priebus seems powerless to check the novice Jared Kushner, the self-promoting Kellyanne Conway, the rabid Stephen Miller, or the obsequious Mike Pence. At whatever expense, Trump enjoys minions fighting for his favor.
The man with no loyalty attracts none, spawning the leaks he deplores. Merely the Russophile Steve Bannon thrives in his role as Rasputin to the czar, spreading dissension as he grasps for power beyond his abilities by advancing an ethno-nationalist mysticism that estranges our friends. The chaos spreads to all Trump touches.
To curb his pathology is imperative. For instance, “were supposed to” unearth the truth about Trump and Russia. Was he party to Russias efforts to influence our election? Why were campaign officials in touch with Russian intelligence? What are his financial ties to Russia, and why has he withheld his tax returns? Why did Trump conceal Flynns lies from Pence and Priebus? Is his affinity for Putin psychological or based on something even more disturbing?
Excepting Senators McCain and Graham, congressional Republican seem less expressed their concern about investigating these questions than with stifling the leaks that uncovered them. In return for helping suppress the truth, they want Trump to sign off on their agenda: gutting Obamacare, entitlements, financial regulation, and consumer protection, while enacting tax cuts for the wealthy contradicting much of what he promised his blue-collar base. Thus do myopia and narcissism collude.
Often at great expense. A disturbed and amoral leader, history has shown, can nauseate a country whose institutions falter. Trump will not save America from himself. Nor will his party or, by themselves, the Democrats. That burden falls on the news media, the courts and every citizen who cares.
Read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
