It’s been said that launching an illegal war without authority and without any help, then losing it, is Donald Trump’s singular act of crazy. Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said threats to destroy Iran’s civilization were not tough rhetoric but “insanity.” Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said the Iran War, the dead-of-night social media posts, the deranged public remarks – these add up to “a man who is clearly insane.”
But perhaps nothing sums up crazy like this moment in South Carolina. The president introduced Karoline Leavitt, who is leaving the White House after giving birth. He said, “I just learned she loves the baby more than she loves Donald Trump, and I’m very angry with her.”
If you know something about Trump’s malignant narcissism, you know he means it. If you have even the vaguest notion of Erich Fromm’s definition of the term, coined in 1964, you know Trump’s statement arises from a mix of paranoia, dominance and sadism – “the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity,” the social psychologist and Holocaust survivor said, adding that it’s “the quintessence of evil.” You know that Trump really does believe that anyone who works for him should love him more than their kids. Because you know he really believes it, you know “I’m very angry with her” is true.
But most people are not that well informed. They tend to laugh at these “jokes” because they can’t believe the most powerful man in the world would really mean it, and they can’t believe he would really mean it, because if he did, that would mean he’s insane. And if the most powerful man in the world is insane, what are we supposed to do with that? It’s one of the many ways by which malignant narcissists exploit our bias toward normalcy. No one can possibly be mad at a mom for loving her newborn! That would be insane! Well, guess what?
Even to those of us who are paying close attention, Donald Trump’s pettiness – his insane pettiness – continues to have the power to shock, because it’s still so difficult to believe.
For instance, over the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said trade negotiations with the US fell apart, because, according to the Times, the US insisted Canada roll back “efforts to promote Canadian and French language content in online streaming services, subsidies for industries like publishing and film production and even mandatory labeling in French, an official language in Canada, as well as English on packaging.”
This derailed everything, Mark Carney said, in French. “We were close to reaching a comprehensive agreement with the US, but they made changes, including threats on French language and culture and Canadian culture that would never be acceptable for that reason.”
“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Carney said, with the result being mutually assured taxes on imports that are as high as 50 percent. This morning, Trump threatened to go farther by imposing levies on cars, car parts and steel from Canada. Doug Ford, the premier (or governor) of Ontario, the most populous province, said Carney should escalate by cutting off electricity and critical minerals. (Carney hasn’t gone that far yet.)
Why did Trump do this? Because he doesn’t like Canadians behaving like Canadians?
Yeah, that. Plus he’s insane.
The main story right now is that workaday Americans are sick and tired of the crazy. USA Today reported this morning that his net job approval rating is underwater in 47 states, according to a new YouGov poll. The exceptions are states like West Virginia, Idaho and Wyoming. The Independent reported that White House staffers are quitting in waves, a sign that they see “the writing on the wall.” Even the president himself seems resigned to his fate. “I’m going to be impeached,” he said repeatedly during that South Carolina rally I mentioned, listing it as one of the many consequences of Republicans losing the Congress.
But no matter what the Democrats do with their newfound powers, presuming they have them in November, Trump will still run the government. There will still be two more years of this. It’s a reminder that despite the complexity of politics, one lesson stands above the rest:
Never put a mad man in the White House.
Over the weekend, the president was asked what he’s going to do about bond yields. The Treasury Department tried bringing them down by selling short-term debt. The gambit backfired. They kept going up, a strong indication that a recession might be coming. When asked if there might be another intervention, Trump said: “We have many types of intervention. The ultimate intervention is our military and if we have to use that, we will.”
No one knows what he was talking about. Was he going to bomb finance markets if he didn’t like the results? The best theory seems to be that an aide told him bonds are being manipulated by foreign governments. In any case, it was a kind of moment of clarity. As Liberal Currents’ Samantha Hancox-Li put it: “You can write a lot of think pieces about the structural problems with American governance, but also ‘don’t elect Grandpa Cheesebrain.'”