Did you hear that crack this morning? Trump’s tweet:
Jun 16, 2017 07:23:08 AM – The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media – over 100 million people! I can go around them
First, this is false as it is reported as much as half of Trump’s Twitter followers are “bots,” and not real people, but fake accounts creating false statements that help dis-inform the public. Furthermore, media have more to report whenever Trump tweets, so where’s the logic on their “hate” response? There is none.
What this particular tweet means is we’ve crossed a threshold. We’re into the second stage of Trump’s malignant narcissism. Caused by a steady stream of criticism, a crack developed in DJT’s "narcissistic supply" of adoration. Indeed, he later tweeted the Rasmussen poll stating his 50% approval rate. (Seriously, he’s bragging about 50% from a pollster which is known as being the most inaccurate of the national pollsters). Psychologists generally conclude that various fears in a young person’s life are the lump sums causes for the later narcissistic personality disorder. For whichever psychological causes existed during Trump’s growth, his narcissism is a driving force that compels him to further vilify all perceived enemies. His narcissist rage inflames him. Yet consider when it does: early morning tweets – the “hour of the wolf” when the “sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears.”
First stage: Criticism produces a feverish effort to protect his ego. Trump claims his own social media is more powerful than the free press. Seriously? He’s saying that one man’s tweets can offset and even best all the vitality, integrity, energy and responsible journalism that exist? Did you hear that crack in those wee hours? We’re so used to Trump’s rants, that perhaps this tirade escaped you. It is a last-ditch effort to keep his supply of self-adoration from dangerously leaking too low.
Trump neither has nor will he ever take criticism. Yet he has the delusion that as President, he would be and should be the recipient of thanks and praise, even while he dishes out his own criticism of others. Watch how he tweets about Democrats in the House/Senate. Trump sees himself as perfect (consider his views on his own genetics and his views on his diet). Thus, criticism from MSM and all points on the compass doesn’t produce an introspective effect in Trump’s ego, but a “narcissistic rage."
Dr. Seltzer wrote this of NPD in 2011:
“Another way of putting this is that, exquisitely susceptible to criticism because it endangers their frail sense of internal validation, they take great pains to devalue or invalidate the person criticizing them. To achieve such dismissal of the threatening other, they'll do everything possible to negate their viewpoint. And this can include much more than blaming or indignantly challenging them. For narcissists, when their position has been exposed as false, arbitrary, or untenable, will suddenly become evasive, articulate half-truths, lie (actually, as much to themselves as others), flat-out contradict themselves (and to a degree that can leave the other person gaping!), and freely rewrite history (literally--and audaciously--making things up as they go along).”
This could literally be a prophecy of Trump’s presidency!
Second stage: Wait for Trump’s severe depression in the coming weeks/months as the federal investigation tightens its noose around Trump and Trump’s associates, the forever lionizing team of loyal sycophants Trump has assembled. Trump has never in his life faced such criticism; and as POTUS he must stand and take it, as there’s nowhere to run or hide. His overinflated ego is vulnerable in the open terrain of free speech. His depression will, though, cause him to hide or to become less accessible. His tweets will repeat, his erratic world-changing decisions will become more unreasonable, as they will also become more intense. Nothing will dent his sense of self. Indeed, he will think himself more lovable, benevolent, and reasonable – in short, perfect.
These statements here may confuse a few readers as Trump, like all successful narcissists, on his surface appears confident, self-assured. See how he boasts! However, deep inside lurk fears of unworthiness. Better, see the type of boasts, such as “Look, I’m President now!” The content of the boast is his outer cocky-self attempting to convince his inner flawed-self of the truth of such bluster. No one else is convinced by such hyperbole and over-blown statements.
This early morning’s bragging tweet is nothing more than Trump’s lying attempt to convince Trump, himself, he’s solidly right. Nothing in that tweet is going to convince others that he’s right.
Third Stage: When Trump’s ego is drained to this low point of adulation, where his reactions are so fanciful and pretend, with Trump’s compulsion to see himself as perfect (perhaps, immortal), he will be brutal as Trump always does. His actions on Cuba, Qatar, DAPA, and more today echo the early morning crack in his narcissistic shell. The next stage is a platform of extreme and unreasonable suspicions, which produces even more disruptive lies, focused upon systematized delusions, usually of persecution. In other words, full-blown paranoia.
As Michael Samsel, said, “There is some over-lap between narcissism and psychopathy, but they are not the same. Psychopathy is composed of strong vitality and self-interest and a functional lack of feeling. That is, unlike narcissism, where feeling is denied but continues to have some sort of 'shadow' or 'reactive' effect, in psychopathy, the person is 'freed' from any guidance function of emotions. In psychopathy dominance and getting one's way are paramount, and how one is viewed by others is not important for its own sake, but only as a tool. Psychopaths are most upset by not getting their way, while narcissists are most upset by being devalued or ignored.”
Here is our danger:
“Narcissism can be present with depression or 'collapsed states,’ while this never happens with psychopathy. But psychopathy and narcissism may occur together and form 'malignant narcissism', which is the florid form of narcissism most recognized (and feared) in popular culture.”
Remember that when the reality confronts the “extreme Narcissist,” the first response (first stage) is anxiety and a re-writing of the situation as a defensive and even greater restructuring of reality. If more evidence confronts the narcissist, the self-absorbed personality retreats into severe depression (second stage). Then, extreme paranoia in the White House (third stage).
Mind you, I don’t want to “fix” the unfixable Trump. His personality disorder is pathological, and in this position of leadership, he is disrupting world order. He must go. I’m writing to convey that as Trump tweets his pomposity and grandiose self-love, his need for admiration just hit a fragile point. As the stage he stands on is collapsing, a collapse from within is coming. Even in the end, he will block out all negative feedback, and so will his loyalists. It is the coming “cost” of Constitutional chaos, autocracy and ego driven wars, other social evils, which I’m truly concerned about. Again, consider the facts stated in this particular tweet. It is very much unlike others.
Adapted from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201507/is-what-really-makes-narcissists-tick
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201110/the-narcissists-dilemma-they-can-dish-it-out
http://michaelsamsel.com/Content/Difficult_Styles/narcissism_interpersonal.html