DMR: President Trump’s Interview With TIME on Truth and Falsehoods

Have you seen/read the President’s interview with Time magazine?

​Honestly, I just don’t know what to say anymore. He clearly has some sort of psychological issues that simply are not normal. The symptoms of it are everywhere:
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-Extreme obsession with publicity
-Infatuation with himself
-No apparent qualms with indiscriminate lying
-Overbearing arrogance
-Sensitivity on a level generally seen in children
-Robust sense of entitlement
-Elevation of loyalty to himself personally over capability (even at risk of ethics violations)

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that he displays a number of character flaws that, frankly, would cause me tell my kids, “Don’t be like him; don’t be like the President.”

In many ways, he doesn’t seem to have developed mentally beyond childhood. His vocabulary appears to be quite small, and the way he thinks about himself and expresses his thoughts is very simple and basic. (He simply doesn’t know how to speak publicly without using the same adjectives–“great,” “huge,” “stupid,” etc.–over and over again. When describing North Korea’s leader, he said that Kim is “behaving very, very badly,” which is how children generally think. Kim’s issues are far more complex than just “behaving badly,” but this is the very simple-minded way Trump views complex problems that he doesn’t understand.) To top it all off, he brags about not reading–again, something one generally sees in junior high and high school students.
He takes everything personally and simply cannot help but to respond to insults. Again, that’s what children do. His own responses to insults frequently involve criticizing one’s weight, appearance, intellect, etc. I feel as though I’m repeating myself here, but that’s how children criticize each other. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he whines and lashes out on Twitter, and I honestly do see that more frequently in people under the age of 18 than over it. Even this article itself contains a lot of evidence of this: saying, “I’m the President, and you’re not” reminds me of “you’re not my mom, so I don’t have to listen to you!” This is the very simple way he sees things. He sees things so simply that he actually can’t see that he sees things simply–even that escapes him.
I think he hasn’t ever matured because he simply hasn’t had to: he’s always been rich. He doesn’t understand the lower or middle classes because he’s never been in either. He’s been rich since he was born. He was occasionally dropped off at school in a limousine, which is very, very odd even for people far wealthier than he.
I feel as though he was always taught that he was special because he was a Trump and has always been taught to take what he wants–so he does. It’s not clear to me that he’s really ever earned anything himself. Someone else makes decisions at his company for him. Someone else wrote his books. Someone else wrote The Apprentice. Someone else negotiates on his behalf. Recently he’s decided to take credit for using the tax code to his advantage, but, lo and behold, someone else (his CPA) does that for him too. I could go on and on, but it appears that someone else is responsible for most of what’s behind his brand, while he sits by profiting from their efforts and from the name “Trump” and lives a lavish lifestyle. The few times when he appears to have taken real, major initiative, his efforts have led to fraud (Trump University) or bankruptcy (SIX times). Several people who’ve worked with him have said that he simply doesn’t have an attention span at all. He just cannot stay focused. Others have said that he’s just a “sign on the bottom line” kind of guy. When you consider all of this, it makes sense: he signs papers put in front of him. He’s not a “thinker.” Maybe it’s an extreme form of ADD. Maybe not. It’s certainly odd though, and it would be hard to argue that it’s been an effective style so far. After all, his executive orders have either had no impact or have tossed out by the courts, and he’s had exactly zero bills pushed through Congress.

Pointing to his wealthy, entitled background is only part of the cause though. After all, there are plenty of people who have always been fabulously wealth (e.g., Bill Gates–many, many times wealthier than Trump) who are wonderful people. In fact, MOST rich people are not like Trump. So there’s something more–something chemically simply different about Trump’s brain. What is it? Who knows. It’s obvious though.

So I really just don’t know. I could speculate all day long right here and never know the answer. It’s clear that it’s more than just fighting to put America first though. Something’s being put first, but I’m not sure that it’s America.

I hope no one interprets this as maliciousness. It is not. It’s just an objective assessment of what I’m observing each day.

​Editor’s Note: Yes, it’d still be horrible with Hillary at the wheel as well!