Reading Trump’s mind and subconscious. Be ready to be surprised.
Puzzled by President Trump? Can’t figure him out? Maybe the following can help. I won’t go into psychoanalytic babble. My aim it to stop the exaggerations about him. For the good cause, fake news is not helpful.
con artist You must understand that when Trump said that he’s going to protect LGBTQ rights and then proceeded whacking transgenders, he was just lying. But when he said he was going to stop all Muslims from coming into the country “until we have figured out what the hell is going on” he was not lying. It’s crucial to detect when he’s just pretending and when he means it. Con artists know the difference between truth and lies. They also know that almost all people believe (and forgive) you, as long as you go on to tell them what they desperately wanted to hear. He may change what he says but he seldom changes his mind. He has no respect for people who are upset by something so innocent as his words.
heartless Empathy means that you can imagine what someone else is feeling and feel for them. Trump is not bothered by that too much. That doesn’t mean that he’s insensitive. He feels perfectly when he’s slighted. He only doesn’t care that much about other people’s feelings. That lack of compassion makes him freer and faster than people who are restrained by being more socially inclined. He’s also cut out showing his vulnerability. When attacked, instead of crumbling or feeling wounded, he counter-attacks – which gives away that he is (over)sensitive. Don’t see him as a fighter; see him as his may see himself, as a boxing champ. You are not going to blame him for hitting his opponent – that the game.
bigot He believes that if you “like” women, Jews, Blacks, workers etc. around you, like he does, that you then are not hateful. He believes that meaning well should suffice. And he is warm with people who he feels close to. That he harbors oppressive feelings or spews ditto remarks, for him is immaterial. To call him a bigot really pains him, because he does not understand such intricacies, feels that such attacks are undeserved.
speaker In terms of techniques and dynamics – but not on content – he’s a truly great orator, as I mentioned the other day in detail. It’s all propaganda and manipulation, though. No authenticity. Speech as a tool not to inform, connect or share but rather to confuse, pretend and win. His high ambition, optimism and enthusiasm are truthful, though.
spy He likes and admires all kinds of head of states who are fellow bullies, including Putin. It’s lonely at the top; it’s nice to have buddies. Putin, though, twists him around his little finger, but Trump does not see that. The fraud hoist with his own petard. He’s Putin’s useful idiot, (silly) putty in his hands. He’s also the Republican Party’s useful idiot as long as he’ll make the rich richer and keep the socialists out of the White House. But when he doesn’t deliver or gets too wacko, they’ll surely dump him.
criminal Did you notice that he said that the Democrats in Congress obstruct, not resist? “They don’t resist. They obstruct. It’s all they’re good at.” Now, obstruct is such an un-Trumpian rare fancy word — why did he not use block or frustrate or in the way or kept the word resist? He’s just turning the tables (as always), giving away that he’s scared of being found guilty of obstruction of justice.
crazy Trump has no neurological, psychiatric or psychological illnesses beyond anything else listed here. Of course it’s attractive to put all kinds of labels on people who shock you, but I think that the above and below cover and explain it all, without exaggeration. One could say that hyperbole is in order when fighting immorality, but while his reign may be destructive, I would not name him wicked, because he isn’t. More importantly, by calling him evil you glue his nice fans stronger to him.
stupid Dyslectic, illiterate, ignorant and shielded from reality by his rich upbringing and lifestyle do not equal stupidity. To the contrary! He’s brilliant. That’s why he’s lazy. He gets away most of the time with improvising, thus why use discipline or diligence? He’s a genius when he’s in selling mode (constantly), but socially he is a fool. He’s easily bored so he has little patience for anything but practicalities.
rich He does behave like the nouveau rich — people who climbed the social ladder dramatically and then feel that they have to continuously flaunt their wealth and put down others to seem great in comparison. He might simply forget that his opponent has brain cancer, forget to wish him well. That does not mean he’d wish him dead — that would make him a monster. His attacks are strategic, nothing personal.
stubborn Well, his strategy is pretty simple. He won election against all negative predictions, even surprising himself. So he wants to constantly please the crowd who gave him victory, certain that this will work again next time, no matter what anyone says (they were wrong before). So, everyone can go to hell who disagrees with him, except sometimes his wife, daughter and son-in-law. He’s mainly interested to continue winning, which means high priority to pleasing his supporters.
control He’s not going to give up or lose control, not of his reign and not of his emotions. Some speculated that he was tweeting controversial stuff while Texas was hit by a category 4 hurricane to compete, jealously aiming to stay in the news. Others suggested the opposite, that he tried using the cover of the disaster to sneak in troublesome announcements. Yet, I think that both ideas are too contrived. He simply wanted to show that no hurricane can take away his twitter storm and no amount of downpour can flood his brain. In any case, he does not apologize ever because he thinks that that makes him look weak and that is to him unattractive. (Besides, if you’re “flexible enough about the truth” you never need to utter sorry – you just say something else next time.)
tyrant Last but not least, we’re going to give you one peek into his subconscious mind. But it won’t be through tea-leaf reading. Rather, it’s from a recent Freudian slip of his. When he got really tired, enthusiastic but tired, he seriously misread a word from the teleprompter. Nobody heard it but me (at 1:17:17!) and the CNN’s transcriber. He said: “This is our opportunity to recapture our dynasty like never before!” My guess is that he probably was supposed to say “… to recapture our destiny like never before!” But then, is it really a secret that he’s dreaming of being king and tyrant? He’s honestly incensed when people contradict him. He’s El Presidente, no? As exposed by one of his favorites: You’re fired!