The First Fourteen Days of the Trump Era: A Look At His Ignorance, Immaturity and Impulsiveness

The era of Trump has begun.  Among other things, this new beginning entails the dismantling of protections against banking fraud, environmental safeguards, the undercutting of the rights of working people and the destruction of public education, as we know it. Then there is the alienation of our allies, making provocative threats to Iran and conflicts with the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Australia and it has been only14 days.

Donald Trump is many things. As an almost 70 year old, he behaves like a 5^th grader, a 10 year old, in his usage of words and in his manner of expressing himself and in his responses to others, particularly others who incur his displeasure.  His confusion between what he says and what he says he says is thought to be a symptom of his having a short attention span. Go to Google and refer to his speech at the recent Prayer Breakfast to see his rambling, incoherent, disjointed thinking and speech patterns.

Then again, we have numerous psychiatrists asserting that Trump, is a classic narcissist.  What is a narcissist and how appropriate is it to have a narcissist in the Oval Office?  Narcissism is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a “a mental disorder in which people have;

·      an inflated sense of their own importance, “ I know more than the generals,” “I’m the only one who can solve our problems,”

·      a deep need for admiration, his craving crowds of people at rallies, and

·      a lack of empathy for others as demonstrated by his behavior in relation to the Kahn family. 

·      But, behind this mask of ultra-confidence, lies a fragile self esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”  Again we have seen that when Trump is criticized, his response is to attack his critic mercilessly. His tweet tantrums are an example of this.

Trump also uses provocation as a way of gaining attention.  “Look at that face, who would vote for her, in reference to Carly Fiorina. He seems to enjoy creating firestorms around himself as a way of feeding his need for gaining the attention and consternation of others.

  

There are now efforts being made to  “normalize” Trump. The fact is that he lies continuously about just about everything. So do his spokes people, most notably Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence.  His supporters characterize his misstatement of facts as either not having been made, they are “alternative facts” or they are “his opinion.”  Pence goes so far as to deny what Trump has said and further sanitizes his lies by saying “that how refreshing it is to have someone in Trumps standing as President to “tell us what is on his mind.”  

So we either have a pathological liar as President or someone who has short-term memory problems and will not remember what he has said, or an emotionally developed 10 year old as the “leader of the free world?”

His first two weeks in office have demonstrated his ignorance, immaturity and impulsiveness. His ban on immigration completely revealed his ignorance about the current twenty step vetting process that is now in place among these Muslim  countries, whose citizens he has determined should not be allowed into the United States. While it is true that we can always improve our procedures around vetting potential immigrants, we have had no history of anyone from his list of potential threats having committed any crime against the United States. The fact that in Muslim countries where he has business interest, no such ban was initiated, is not lost on the public and media.

In addition, his ban, which he said was a ban, as did Kellyanne Conway and his White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, all of whom now say was not a ban, only strengthens ISIL’s contention that the West is at war with Muslims and has provided Isil with a recruiting tool that will help to benefit their recruitment goals.  Trump’s ban has also made it difficult for our Muslim allies to feel secure in siding with the United States in fighting against ISIL.

  

His decision to perform a raid in Yemen, using the SEAL TEAM 6 was decided over dinner rather than in the Situation Room.  His vetting process and consideration of options and the pros and cons of this problem plagued mission are now the subject of intense scrutiny by the Fourth Estate and those whose job it is to evaluate such missions. 

Trump has also restructured the National Security Counsel by adding a political consultant, Steve Bannon of Alt-Right notoriety, a former Naval Lieutenant, and placing the attendance of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, and the Director of National Intelligence on an as needed basis.  Up to now it was considered totally against the best interests of the National Security Counsel decision making process to consider issues of politics in any such deliberations they might have around our national security.

And, two final thoughts in this weeks reflections about What’s What…in a recent interview between Mike Pence and Judy Woodruff of NPR regarding Steve Bannon’s addition to the National Security Council, Pence promoted Bannon from a Lieutenant to the rank of Naval Captain.  The reason to mention this misstatement is because, such misstatements give a picture of how ill prepared Pence was for this interview with Woodruff.  It also gives a glimpse into how poorly prepared Trump’s support team has seemed to be around any number of decisions that have been made during these past two weeks.

  

And secondly, Trump is, now, angry at the media, “the news that is rigged and reporters, pundits and others who are scum” …Point of fact, without the media providing him with nearly two billion dollars of free air time during his candidacy, he would never have been nominated or elected President.  His outrageousness served as the lead story each night, by the likes of Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff of NPR. His freak show appeal was compelling material for both the printed and television media and the likes of SNL.  We are now, like it or not, living out the reality of that freak show outrageousness.

Until next time….