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A VIEW FROM HERE - Some people are born with great delivery. Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and others share a common trait – their innate delivery connects with their audience in a way unique to them. Why? It’s their basic personality. In silent screen days, Clara Bow was the “it girl” as she had that undefinable essence which connected with people. Even today when people say that a person has “it,” they are referring that same quality. Trump had “it” in 2016 which is why he was elected President.
Trump in 2016
People forget that Trump entered the 2016 GOP Primary for a couple reasons; (1) The Dem primary was closed as it would anoint Hillary Clinton, and (2) the GOP had a gaggle of contending, weird candidates so that Donald could invite himself in. Trump’s intention was not to become President, but to increase his celebrity profile to enhance his bargaining power for his TV shows. Thus, his iconoclastic personality was perfect.
No one including Trump himself foresaw that he had “it” for the disaffected White Americans, whom the Dem Party was in the process of abandoning. Whites in the Rust Belt had a simmering resentment from Obama’s giving $15 Trillion to the bankers who had crashed the economy in 2008, while Obama relegated Main Street USA to foreclosure, bankruptcy, and joblessness. Obama shipped their jobs overseas, while their children went to prison due to the Opioid epidemic created by Big Pharma.
What Was Trump’s “It”?
Usually, one cannot explain why a person has “It,” but in Trump’s case, we do know. Trump has two personality disorders – Histrionic and Narcissistic with paranoid features. Everyone has a personality, but it is coincidental that Trump came along when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) had identified certain personality orders, which are permanent personality traits. In Spanish, the words “modo de ser” are used meaning “mode of being.” From my perspective, using modo de ser seems better than the DSM which stigmatizes personalities as abnormal, or a disorder, or crazy. Everyone has a modo de ser, but presently our society is stuck with describing only negative personalities. As a result, people in general dislike the DSM’s labeling as it is always pejorative. In fact, psychology has gone so far as to pass the Goldwater Rule which prohibits psychologists from diagnosing a person without their consent and without personal interviews which often include psychological testing such as the MMPI 2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2). This myopic rule arose when pundits were claiming that Barry Goldwater was seriously mentally ill. See Wikipedia re Goldwater Rule
The essential problem with the DSM and the Goldwater Rule is that both accept the false premise that a particular modo de ser is bad, rather than adopting a neutral position that everyone has a personality which may be beneficial or harmful depending on a variety of factors. Another flaw is the silly belief that a diagnosis may not be given without the person’s consent and without a personal interview. Whether a person can be diagnosed depends on the amount of reliability data and not on their consent, which should have nothing whatsoever to do with a diagnosis. Some public behavior is seen so much and over such a long period of time, that a personal interview is unnecessary. Personality Disorders, such as Trump’s, are especially susceptible to diagnoses from afar since they were on constant public display for decades. Unlike, psychopaths (Antisocial Personality Disorder), histrionics and narcissists do not attempt to conceal their traits.
Histrionic Personality Disorders
The characteristic features of histrionics are a compulsive desire for attention, easily influenced, impulsive, plus manipulative behavior. See Histrionic traits which were crucial in the 2016 Presidential campaign. When Trump criticized Obama and the Dems for the way they treated the White working class, Trump got tremendous roars of approval. The more extreme Trump’s words, the louder the cheering. McCain, in contrast, had corrected the elderly woman who said that Obama was an Arab, while Trump would shout that Obama was not born in the USA. McCain missed the woman’s fear and thought that it was a factual matter, while a histrionic would respond to the woman’s emotion and would cry out, “Let’s see his birth certificate.” McCain and other Dems thought the campaign was about issues, when it was about lower class Whites’ rage at betrayal. Trump used no intellectual calculations – he merely echoed those fears and grievances. This ability is similar to other great talents such as great opera singers; they open their mouth and out it comes.
Because angry people at the extremes cheer the loudest, the more extreme Trump’s rhetoric, the louder the cheering. Even Trump himself noticed that his supporters were so ardent that he could shoot some one on Fifth Ave and they would still support him. The fact that Trump used crass, sexist, and racist memes increased their support as it showed that Trump despised their enemies as much as they did. Trump’s often incoherent emotionalism had complete congruence with his themes. Trump was not following any campaign strategy in 2016; in fact, he was following the Alt Right as they cheered the most and the loudest. That is how a histrionic behaves.
While Trump’s narcissism was also on display in 2016, his narcissistic personality disorder was not driving during the 2016 campaign. His narcissistic behavior stepped forward later. Kellyanne Conway called them Alternative Facts. Under Trump’s narcissistic grandiosity, if he said something, it had to be so, e.g., more people attended his inauguration than Obama’s -- that becomes “the truth.” Accusations of that he is lying are rejected out of hand. How can a person act in such a fashion? That is a feature of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder!
Hillary’s Great Gift to Trump
While Trump’s disaffected base wiped out rivals in the GOP primary, it was not large enough to win the 2016 election. When Hillary Clinton thought she was riding in her royal coach to her coronation, she called her peasants “a basket of deplorables.” When Hillary used “Deplorables,” she mocked the White working class in vital swing states. The Deplorables rushed out and voted in overwhelming numbers for Trump so that he won the electoral college even though he lost the national popular vote. To this date, Dems refused to acknowledge the impact of Hillary’s blunder which must be one of the most horrific in any election anywhere ever. Rather than attuning herself to the anger and resentment of the White workers, she was catering to Pelosi’s anti-white Identity Politics, which we now call Wokeism.
2024 is Not 2016
After Trump lost the 2020 election, his Narcissistic Personality Disorder became his predominate modus operandi. His loss was a huge narcissistic injury which his mind was unable to accept. Trump demands that everyone agree with him that the truth is that 2020 election was stolen; anyone who does not agree commits personal treason. The MAGA crowd became a bona fide sect, similar to Jim Jones’. They believe things which all reasonable people know is false. While Trumpers share in Trump’s delusions, people outside his devotees will not abdicate their minds.
In 2024, the Presidential Race Will Be Won by Capturing the Center
While the MAGA crowd genuflects at the sight of Trump and accepts whatever he says as gospel, his personality disorders alienate Centrist voters. As long as Biden was a befuddled octogenarian, Biden was a greater danger to the Republic. The attempted assassination and the unity at the GOP convention galvanized the Dem to replace Biden with Kamala Harris.
Although the attempted assassination unified the GOP party, the second part of Trump’s acceptance speech showed that he was deep in delusional territory. Paranoia has been defined as systematic delusions of grandiosity and/or persecution. While Trumpers will eat it up, Centrists will not. When Trump grandiosely claims that everything was perfect when he was President and that everything will be perfect after he is again President so that there will be no need for future elections, Trumpers lap it up. While Trumpers cheer nasty calling, Trump’s crude attacks on Kamala Harris alienate Centrists. The Centrists know virtually nothing about Kamala Harris, but she is charismatic. Trump’s treatment of Kamala is vastly premature and Centrists see nothing in her to justify Trump’s bombastic memes. He calls her “low IQ,” which she is not, and “evil,” which may or may not be correct, but such nastiness only turns off the Center. As we learned during his Presidency, Trump’s advisors draft sane policy speeches, but Trump always goes off-script with unhinged tirades. They may come a day later, but they always come. That is the nature of his personality disorders; they control Trump’s behavior. Trump is unable to comprehend the mentality of anyone outside his MAGA sect. Thus, for the Centrists, Trump does not have “it.”
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])
