TRUMP’S NARCISSISM AND THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS CHALLENGE

Trump’s dreadful handling of the coronavirus crisis cannot be explained as a product of his persistent attempts to shore up his cult-like base, the machinations of his peculiar conservative ideology, or even of his stupidity. It can only be understood as another example of Trump being Trump.  His behavior is a reflection of his personality. He simply cannot help himself.

We've seen it all before: Trump repeatedly lying, spitting out misinformation and disinformation, spouting contradictory messages and answers, attacking perceived enemies, demonstrating ignorance and a complete lack of empathy, and congratulating himself for alleged accomplishments. In the familiar Trump style, he has refused to accept any responsibility for missteps, falsely blaming Obama, Democrats, governors, impeachment, the “deep state,” New York, China, the WHO, and healthcare experts for his failure to ensure that the country was prepared for an infectious disease pandemic, then compounding the problem with inept leadership when faced with a real health emergency.  If there were any lingering doubts about Trump’s mental health, his handling of the Covid-19 crisis has put them to rest: the president is mentally unfit to lead this great nation.  

I’m no clinical psychiatrist or psychologist, but several who are have observed Trump’s behavioral symptoms and diagnosed a man plagued by a variety of personality disorders, including extreme narcissism, hedonism, sociopathy, hypomanic grandiosity, paranoia, delusional and anxiety disorder. Clinical psychologist John Gartner sums up the potentially catastrophic danger this raises:

“Trump is a profoundly evil man exhibiting malignant narcissism. His worsening hypomania is making him increasingly more irrational, grandiose, paranoid, aggressive, irritable, and impulsive. Trump is bad, mad, and getting worse. He evinces the most destructive and dangerous collection of psychiatric symptoms possible for a leader. The worst-case scenario is now our reality.”

Gartner and many of his fellow mental health professionals were so concerned about the dangers the mentally-disturbed Trump poses to humanity, they chose to violate the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule,” which discourages professionals in the field from giving a professional medical opinion about public figures they have not formally examined. Citing a moral and civic “duty to warn,” many decided to speak out publicly. (The conclusions of 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts on Trump’s mental health were published in a 2017 book edited by Dr. Bandy Lee, titled The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. It represented a summation of opinions presented at Yale’s “Duty to Warn” conference.)

Donald Trump’s personality flaws are most discernible when he faces crisis situations. Think back to how he responded to extreme weather events, obstructed the Russian interference and Ukrainian investigations, and behaved during the impeachment process.  Now, under the spotlight of a real time crisis, which has separated true leaders from pretenders, Trump's dangerous narcissistic personality has been put on display for all the world to see.  With human lives hanging in the balance, the costs of his narcissism have never been greater.

In a previous post, I included a commentary by Peter Wehner, which argued that Trump’s temperament and intelligence were a poor fit for leading the United States, and the rest of the world, through the Covid-19 crisis. In this post, I’m including another guest commentary.  This one, by New York Times writer, Jennifer Senior, describes how Trump’s malignant narcissism has shaped, and continues to guide his disastrous handling of the pandemic.

Ronald T. Fox


This Is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis

By Jennifer Senior, New York Times, April 6, 2020

Trump’s catastrophic performance has as much to do with psychology as ideology.

Since the early days of the Trump administration, an impassioned group of mental health professionals have warned the public about the president’s cramped and disordered mind, a darkened attic of fluttering bats. Their assessments have been controversial. The American Psychiatric Association’s code of ethics expressly forbids its members from diagnosing a public figure from afar.

Enough is enough. As I’ve argued before, an in-person analysis of Donald J. Trump would not reveal any hidden depths — his internal sonar could barely fathom the bottom of a sink — and these are exceptional, urgent times. Back in October, George T. Conway III, the conservative lawyer and husband of Kellyanne, wrote a long, devastating essay for The Atlantic, noting that Trump has all the hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder. That disorder was dangerous enough during times of prosperity, jeopardizing the moral and institutional foundations of our country.

But now we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. The president’s pathology is endangering not just institutions, but lives.

Let’s start with the basics. First: Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities. They exaggerate their accomplishments, focus obsessively on projecting power, and wish desperately to win.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump says we’ve got plenty of tests available, when we don’t. He declares that Google is building a comprehensive drive-thru testing website, when it isn’t. He sends a Navy hospital ship to New York and it proves little more than an excuse for a campaign commercial, arriving and sitting almost empty in the Hudson. A New York hospital executive calls it a joke.

Second: The grandiosity of narcissistic personalities belies an extreme fragility, their egos as delicate as foam. They live in terror of being upstaged. They’re too thin skinned to be told they’re wrong.

What that means, during this pandemic: Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They have galleries of sycophants. With the exceptions of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, Trump has surrounded himself with a Z-team of dangerously inexperienced toadies and flunkies — the bargain-bin rejects from Filene’s Basement — at a time when we require the brightest and most imaginative minds in the country.

Faced with a historic public health crisis, Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.

Meanwhile, Fauci and Birx measure every word they say like old-time apothecaries, hoping not to humiliate the narcissist — never humiliate a narcissist — while discreetly correcting his false hopes and falsehoods. They are desperately attempting to create a safe space for our president, when the president should be creating a safer nation for all of us.

Third: Narcissistic personalities love nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division. It destabilizes everyone, keeps them in control.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than coordinating a national response. (“It’s like being on eBay,” complained Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York last week.) His White House is a petty palace of competing power centers. He picks fights with Democratic officials and members of the press, when all the public craves is comfort.

Narcissistic personalities don’t do comfort. They cannot fathom the needs of other hearts.

Fourth: Narcissistic personalities are vindictive. On a clear day, you can see their grudges forever.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is playing favorites with governors who praise him and punishing those who fail to give him the respect he believes he deserves. “If they don’t treat you right, don’t call,” he told Vice President Mike Pence.

His grudge match with New York is now especially lethal. When asked on Friday whether New York will have enough ventilators, Trump bluntly answered “No,” and then blamed the state.

And most relevant, as far as history is concerned: Narcissistic personalities are weak.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is genuinely afraid to lead. He can’t bring himself to make robust use of the Defense Production Act, because the buck would stop with him. (To this day, he insists states should be acquiring their own ventilators.) When asked about delays in testing, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” During Friday’s news conference, he added the tests “we inherited were “broken, were obsolete,” when this form of coronavirus didn’t even exist under his predecessor.

This sounds an awful lot like one of the three sentences that Homer Simpson swears will get you through life: “It was like that when I got here.”

Most people, even the most hotheaded and difficult ones, have enough space in their souls to set aside their anger in times of crisis. Think of Rudolph Giuliani during Sept. 11. Think of Andrew Cuomo now.

But every aspect of Trump’s crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die, he crows that he’s No. 1 on Facebook, which isn’t close to true.

But it is true that all eyes are on him. He’s got a captive audience, an attention-addict’s dream come to life. It’s just that he, like all narcissistic personalities, has no clue how disgracefully — how shamefully, how deplorably — he’ll be enshrined in memory.