Is Trump Crazy? Personality Disorder? Or Crazy Like a Fox?

 

By Steven Jonas

There is much speculation about President Trump's mental state. Crazy? Personality disorder? Or crazy like a fox? I hold to the latter view. As I said then: "I think that this man is not out-of-control, ever. I think that he only appears to be, on occasion, and I think that that is planned." I make one exception to that observation. (I am a physician, but not a psychiatrist, and therefore I am not limited by the "Goldwater Rule" in commenting on Trump's mentation.) Low self-esteem is a common problem. NO self-esteem at all, not-so-much. 

I do think that Trump suffers from the latter. Otherwise, why would he spend so much time telling us how good he is, and why would he have had his cabinet officers lined up for that cringeworthy (it's such a privilege to work FOR you) session that occurred some months ago. It's possible that the primary reason he withholds his income-tax returns, Russia connections or no, is that they would reveal how really bad a businessman and deal-maker he really is. But, as my favorite New York Times columnist Gail Collins (and Charles Blow, Paul Krugman, David Leonhardt, and Nick Kristof do run close seconds) likes to say --- but I digress.

Trump is rather a great dissembler, a great liar, and an absolute master of the WMD: Weapons of Mass Distraction (nothing new there). But case in point, the whole "NFL thing," while certainly being done to confirm his racist cred. with his racist base also has served, for some days at least, to distract from the absolutely awful job his government has been doing in rePuerto Rico. (After all, the Puerto Ricans may be US citizens, but they are predominately Latino and Trump's policy of choice towards them would be to "Build a Wall".) At the rate he is going there, this one may turn out to be a humanitarian disaster that will make Bush's Katrina pale in comparison.

So, if one takes a step back to look at Trump in the context of where he really wants to get to, he is indeed consistent in pursuit of his basic policies and programs: racist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, eviscerating the Federal government Executive Branch functions, returning the Federal Courts to their most Scalia-est form, massively cutting taxes for himself and the rest of the rich, maintaining an aggressive foreign policy so as to further bolster the Military-Industrial Complex, and so on and so forth. Most supposed mis-steps have a purpose, and those that don't, like the Access Hollywood tape, can be easily covered up by some grandstand move, which may appear to be from an out-of-control place, but really isn't. A major part of this is the supposed "change of positions" thing, which if you look at what his central policies really are, is actually a mirage. Which brings us to Roy Moore. 

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Source: OpEdNews.com