A few years ago Trump asserted that Iowa voters are stupid (his choice of words). He’s spent a lot more time there than I have so we’ll just leave it at that. He certainly treats them as though they’re too stupid to see through his bullshit and— judging by the polling— it’s working incredibly well. The latest polls all show his support continuing to grow:
Yesterday he concluded his Iowa campaign offering a predictable “grievance-laden and defiant closing pitch in suburban Des Moines in which he lashed out at his main rivals as disloyal, derided the state’s Republican governor and made slashing attacks on his critics… [said] that death was worth the risk because his voters would be caucusing to save their country. And he warned Iowans to act as if he were behind in the polls… He described D.C. as a ‘rat-infested, graffiti-infested shithole.’ Trump took credit for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status and claimed that ‘nobody took better care of the farmers than Trump.’ And he sought to portray himself as an outsider, despite having been president for four years. He also leaned into a frequent theme of victimhood, reiterating his allegations of a weaponized judicial system as he faces 91 criminal charges and four indictments.”
I suppose a case can be made about how putrid the alternatives are. And they are putrid… but not more putrid than Trump, who Iowa Republicans seem very enthusiastic about. I wouldn’t bet that they’re just playing the pollsters for fools and intend to shock everyone today by voting for Asa Hutchinson.
Funniest thing yesterday was that only 23% of Nikki Haley’s Iowa supporters plan to vote for Trump in the general. A strong plurality (43%) say they’ll vote for Biden. I bet the Ramaswamy voters will have no problem voting for Trump. In fact, except for Indian expats, I can’t figure out why anyone is voting for Ramaswamy to begin with. But Trump wants his 4-8% tonight and he let loose with this over the weekend:
“[D]on’t waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA,” must sting. At least he still has a misanthrope just like himself in his corner, Elon Musk, who endorsed him and agreed with a fan boy that Ramswamy will “shock the world” tonight. Ramaswamy is still counting on Trump giving him job so he responded to Trump’s attack with some typical ass-licking:
DeSantis, on the other hand— fighting desperately for second place— has finally stopped, or almost stopped, his own Trump ass-licking, telling Jonathan Karl yesterday that if Trump is the nominee, the whole race will be about his trials and that the campaign will be a referendum of Trump instead of a referendum on Biden. “Obviously, the distractions of everything that's going along with all these legal issues has been a huge thing for [Trump]. You're gonna have criminal trials, you're gonna have a lot of focus on things like Jan. 6 by the media, and I think that ends up focusing the election on things that are going to be advantageous for Democrats. The notion that somehow all this stuff that's swirling around him is going to be a positive in a general election, that's just not true... I've delivered on 100% of my promises. Donald Trump, obviously, didn't build the wall, didn't drain the swamp and didn't reduce the debt. I've also taken on and beaten the Democrats and the left. And in reality, Donald Trump, as president, oftentimes got beat by the Democrats.” He also predicted victory tonight.
At one point, he thought his endorsement for Gov. Kim Reynolds would turn the caucuses in his favor. Trump went to work on her and pretty much destroyed her reputation, even this weekend defining her as the “least popular” governor in the nation. “So I don’t blame her for then picking somebody because we wouldn’t let her go to any rallies or anything. But here’s the thing I’m most proud of: She went from the most popular governor in the United States in two weeks to the least popular governor. She’s the least popular governor in the United States. But I just thought it was very disloyal,” Trump said at his rally in Indianola, Iowa. He called her “disloyal” to him after his endorsement of her for governor “saved” her campaign. He said he would not let her campaign with him in the 2024 primary campaign after she told him she wanted to remain “neutral” and campaign alongside all the GOP presidential candidates in the state. “I ended up doing two rallies and giving her a very big endorsement, and she ended up beating a very rich, I don’t know who this guy is. All they said is he’s a rich, very good looking farmer. Well, those are good credentials for Iowa right: rich, good looking farmer. And he was going to win. And I came in, I saved her,” the imbecile told the imbecile fans who went to see him.
On Sunday, WhoWhatWhy writer Klaus Marre noted that “Trump is seriously mentally ill. From being a pathological liar to a textbook example of malignant narcissism, the former president displays a cluster of disorders that, in other circumstances, might not get him institutionalized, but would definitely justify some form of treatment. So why aren’t we talking about that? The GOP seems intent on making President Joe Biden’s age an issue in the upcoming election (although Trump is only four years younger), and that is perfectly appropriate in light of the fact that the incumbent would be 86 at the end of a second term.It is important that experts— rather than Fox News pundits, who interpret every one of Biden’s verbal slips as a sign of advanced dementia— weigh in on this topic. After all, being president is a stressful and highly demanding job, so is it possible for an octogenarian to do it well? That is a valid question, and it seems as though voters deserve an answer. But they should also know whether one of the candidates is very likely completely nuts. Yet, while Biden’s age is fair game, not just in the right-wing mediaverse but also among mainstream news outlets, Trump’s mental health, or lack thereof, is largely a taboo topic, even though it is a much bigger problem.”
A big part of the reason why [Trump’s] mental health is not more of a topic of conversation is the so-called Goldwater Rule of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics. It states that “it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion [about someone’s mental health] unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.”
That might seem fair in most circumstances, but it is arguably even less ethical to allow a seriously mentally ill person to become president— in particular if that mental illness could negatively impact their performance, which it arguably did during Trump’s first term.
After all, there are exceptions to the attorney-client privilege; e.g., a lawyer is allowed to divulge relevant information if doing so prevents death or serious injury.
Another part of the problem is that, as a society, we do not talk much about mental health, and these disorders are not as easy to diagnose as physical ailments.
If an X-ray reveals a fracture, the bone is broken; a biopsy showing malignant cells is clear evidence of cancer. In these cases, no doctors are going to disagree with another doctor’s diagnosis.
It’s somewhat different with mental illness, especially in mild or mainly benign cases which might be open to some interpretation or differences of opinion.
For example, it takes a special kind of person— specifically, someone with a very high opinion of him or herself— to decide that he or she wants to be president of the United States. Therefore, every commander in chief probably has a narcissistic streak.
However, there is nothing mild or benign about Trump’s narcissism.
The Mayo Clinic website lists 13 symptoms for narcissistic personality disorder plus another eight that describe how narcissists react to criticism.
Keep in mind that displaying any number of these can make you a narcissist, but we challenge anybody to look at this list of 21 symptoms and find even a handful that don’t apply to Trump.
It’s an impossible task for any fair-minded person.
That’s precisely the reason why the former president’s mental health must be part of the national conversation. Voters need to know what someone suffering from this disorder (and others) is capable of in a position of power, just as they need to know whether an 82-year-old (or a 78-year-old, for that matter), can handle the rigors of the presidency for four years.
And it’s not just his malignant narcissism and compulsive lying. Look up the APA’s symptoms for “sociopathy,” and it is difficult not to think of Trump.
But who is actually looking up the definitions of “malignant narcissism” or “sociopathy?” Clearly not enough people.
And this is where it would help if mental health professionals spoke out. They could point out that Trump is a poster child for several serious disorders. And then, responsible journalists could cite these opinions when they write about the former president’s latest rant or spate of lies.
In fact, most stories about him should include that information, e.g.,
“Former President Donald Trump, who experts say is mentally ill,…”
‘“As per usual, Trump, a diagnosed compulsive liar, did not stick to the truth in his remarks…”
“As a result of his malignant narcissism and sociopathy, Trump did tremendous damage during his first term, and experts say he has only gotten worse since then.”
Granted, it would have been better to have had these conversations eight years ago. Take his narcissism, for example. People like Trump need adulation and attention like ordinary people need oxygen.
Now, you probably could not have headed off the adulation from his most fervent supporters, but you could have deprived the former president of much of the attention he craves so much.
Instead, media executives with an eye on the bottom line showered him with billions of dollars of free airtime, which constituted one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in history.
Now, we can’t do anything about what happened eight years ago, but it is high time for experts to weigh in on Trump’s mental state and how it would jeopardize the United States should he be elected again.
