Trump Trumps Trump

​Trump’s infantile, needy insecurity of malignant narcissism has gone into such hyperdrive this week that it’s oozing out of his pores and dripping out of TV screens.

Okay, yes, that's hyperbolic.  But only the "oozing" part. 

First, there was the White House putting up plaques for each of the U.S. presidents, for which Trump apparently helped write some of the text, most notably the childish material about President Biden, President Obama and President Clinton, trashing them like a 12-year old having a tantrum.  It references “Sleepy Joe Biden,” as well as autopens and that the 2020 election was stolen.  Barack Obama is described as being “one of the most divisive political figures in American history”.  (Note: A recent Gallup Poll showed President Obama’s favorability the highest of any living president.”).   And the success for Bill Clinton’s legislative programs is given to the Republican Congress – and adds superfluously that Hilary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016. 

Although those three leap out the most by far, there’s more for other presidents, including that the plaque for Gerald Ford suggests he lost re-election “probably because of his brave pardon of Richard Nixon.”  (One wonders, gee, why in the world that might be on Trump’s mind…)  And President Reagan’s plaque states “he was a fan of President Donald J. Trump before President Trump’s historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!”  (For the record:  The Reagan Presidential Foundation has stated that quotes Trump has attributed to Reagan about him are false.  In fact, there is no known record of Ronald Reagan ever saying anything publicly about Trump)

It's incredibly creepy – not just for the ignorance, ignoring reality, and effort to undermine history by defacing the walls of the White House, but also for what it shows about Trump’s delusional mental state.

And then yesterday, the Trump-appointed board of the Kennedy Center -- named, of course, in honor and memory of the generational president who promoted fine arts and culture as a centerpiece of his social agenda before being tragically assassinated -- voted to change the name to the “Trump Kennedy Center.”  Yes, really.  Not only did Trump (who had previously made himself chairman of the Center) add his name to something he had zero connection with its creation or at any point later in his life developed further as a personal interest, but he put his name first.  News stories on the change noted that when the vote was taken, Trump was on the telephone with the board.  (This is known technically as "Gee, no kidding" superfluous information.)

FUN FACT:  The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts was created by federal law as a "living memorial" to President Kennedy. Its name cannot be changed by the vote of its board.  It can only be changed by an act of Congress.

Trump taking over the chairmanship of the Kennedy Center (something no other U.S. president has ever even considered doing, figuring that being President of the United States was enough of a full-time job) has already caused a devastating hemorrhaging for the performing arts facility – from a massive drop in ticket sales, a huge decrease in donations, and cancellation of artists and productions refusing to perform there.  One can only imagine how putting his name on the organization will pummel it even further.

What shocks me about this, though, is that Trump agreed to leave the “Kennedy” name on the Center.  I was going to say that that must have taken a lot of soul-searching by him, but it implies Trump being able to find where his soul is buried.

From sources I’ve gotten, other names that had been considered were:

The Trump Kennedy Center of the Universe

The Donald J. Trump Made America Great for All-Time (and Kennedy) Center

The Trump Grand Ballroom Overflow Annex and Kennedy Center

The TRUMP Kennedy TRUMP Center

The TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP Kennedy Center

The Donald J. Trump Kennedy Center.  Presented by Saudi Arabia

The Trump Kennedy Center and Casino

The Donald J. Trump and Ken Nedy Center

The FIFA Peace Prize-winning Donald J. Trump Center dba Kennedy

The only good things about all this are: 1) The White House plaques and Kennedy Center name will be easily and immediately changed back after the next administration, and 2) Trump's name is not only on the Center now during this period of its disastrous economic collapse, but his name attached will make the economic problems palpable and near-impossible to ignore.

If only it was as easy to fix Trump destroying the East Wing of the White House.

Not having any medical training, I have no idea if malignant narcissism can be affected by dementia, which many expert psychologists have long said Trump shows symptoms of.  But it would seem that since dementia is degenerative and Trump has been appearing worse the past couple of months -- to the degree that the press is now, finally, talking about this “mental decline” (the polite term), while some are even referencing dementia – such a debilitating cognitive disease would diminish at least some controls the sufferer might otherwise have been able to employ protectively.

Because it’s been a very, very bad week for Trump.  Not just putting up the egomaniacal plaques on the White House Wall, and adding his name to an arts monument for a beloved, fallen president – but also two nights earlier demanding national TV time and giving a rushed, angry, scolding, fact-resistant rant at the American public relentlessly praising himself while telling-off the country for thinking all the problems they blame him for are really their fault.  And on Monday, smearing a highly-admired film director and actor who had just been murdered along with his wife, and then doubling down on it on camera.

A couple months ago, I wrote that when someone has a high approval, if they have a misstep, the public usually forgives them since it was just a misstep – but if you have a very low approval then people are apt to look at any misstep has confirming why they don’t approve of you.  And after only 10 months in office, Trump’s approval hit 33% in the AP-NORC poll.

And putting aside him destroying the East Wing of the White House.  And prices rising (after promising to lower them on Day 1).  And his tariffs pushing prices higher.  And sending the military in to U.S. cities.  And arresting legal U.S. citizens because they look Hispanic and therefore illegal.  And deporting people without due process.  And bombing suspects in boats without any certainty who they are or where they’re going.  And having his DOJ indict political opponents (and having those cases thrown out of court).  And ignoring court orders on the Epstein files --

-- putting all that aside -- to have this week alone such missteps as defacing the White House walls with infantile plaques made up, adding his name to the long-respected Kennedy Center and presenting a manic, angry speech to the American public...and smearing the brutally murdered Rob Reiner...and at the White House family Christmas party telling a 10-minute, lie-filled story on poisoned snakes, all that accomplishes (this week alone!) is confirm why two-thirds of the American public thinks you’re ruining their lives.

Not to mention this week Trump continuing to push the MAGOP-led House to vote -- on Tuesday -- to block extending ACA healthcare credits, that will force tens of thousands, maybe 100,000 Americans to lose healthcare.

(And this doesn’t even include the devastating series of interviews his chief of staff gave to Vanity Fair, published this week, as well – on Tuesday – criticizing much of his White House team, and saying that Trump himself has “an alcoholic personality.”)

All this week.  Putting aside everything else.

And to call these “missteps” does a disservice to missteps.  This is to “missteps” what the SpaceX rocket explosions are to when Elon Musk calls them "rapid unscheduled disassembly".

 But the thing is, this isn’t about Trump.  We know who he is – a racist, malignant narcissist, anti-Semitic, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, guilty fraud, white supremacist with dementia.  This is about the elected MAGOPs in Congress who are silent to it all, who enable him, who support it all, who are the ones who actually pass Trump’s policies and make them into law.