Does Trump Really Think Things Through, Or Is He Cognitively Limited, Or is He Just Suffering the Pains of Old Age?

I watched Trump’s recent Meet the Press interview with Kristen Welker. I listened to her questions and his answers. I came away with the sense that Trump has limited ability to listen to, understand and process questions that he was asked. He comes to conclusions that are not truly connected to the question with which he was presented. He often seems to be unable to see the cause-and-effect relationship between his thoughts and the effect his thoughts have on others. His thoughts and expression of his thought are increasingly becoming more and more incoherent over the course of the past four years.

 

His belief, for example, is that a 60 percent tariff would not cost an American an increase in the price for a television that has been imported from Canada. A television that costs 100.00 dollars in Canada would carry an additional tariff of 60.00s. When the T.V. is delivered in the United States, the store that is buying the product will pay an additional 60.00 and the total cost for the store owner would be 160.00. In Trump’s thinking, the store owner would not pass on that 60.00s to the customer who would only pay the 100.00.

 

His famous ‘Mexico would pay for the border fence to keep immigrants out’, was his assumption about what would happen. No such agreement was ever made or agreed to by Mexico.

 

In another discussion, during the Pandemic, he refused to take the preventative vaccine because he did not have the COVID virus. He did not see the connection between the vaccine and its role to help prevent his catching of the COVID Virus. Again, he many times fails to see the cause-and-effect relationship between his thought and the reality of a given situation. In this he often fails to see the potential consequences for his behaviors.

 

In the Meet the Press interview, he indicated that he wants to remove immigrants from American communities.  He believes that immigrants ‘poison the blood of our citizens.’  He talked about families where children were born into a family where the parents were not American citizens. The children of such parents automatically become an American Citizens. He asserts that he does not want children born into such situations to become American Citizens.

 

He also stated that, ‘in order for children who are born into American citizens to not be torn away from their families, all family members will need to be removed and sent away to the parent’s country of origin’, again if the country of origin agrees to accept by the family. 

 

Such issues focus on Trump’s limited thought process. He fails to consider how much will it cost to send immigrants away from the United States. How will this be done? How will these people be rounded up? Who will replace these folks in our American work world? Who will plant and tend to the crops? Who will maintain our vineyards? What about replacing skilled carpenters and trades people? Who will take over food service positions? What about health care providers and those in medical support positions? And each of these individuals contribute to the American economy by paying taxes to the United States Government. It has been said that to remove these immigrants from our work force would be financially disastrous to our basic American economy.

 

His pulling out of NATO is another example of where he fails to see the cause and effect of such thinking. Since NATO there have been 80 years of peace since the end of World War II. Without the United States presence, there would be no guarantee of such continued peace in the region. By the United States leaving NATO, the whole region would be negatively impacted by Trump’s disregarding of the United States role in the region and on the world stage.

 

 

I had just saw an interview with New Jersey’s newly elected United States Senator, Andy Kim, whose parents migrated to the United States from Korea over 50 years ago.  He and his sister were born in the United States and became citizens years before their own parents became citizens. I wondered, where in Trump’s world, would Andy Kim fit? Would he have to be removed from the United States Senate because he was born in the United States to immigrant parents from Korea?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can We Have a President Who Wants to Destroy the Constitution, Eliminating a Government Of the People By the People and For the People?

  

In 2017 Brandy Lee called together a gathering of psychiatrists and mental health professionals to discuss Donald Trump’s mental and emotional fitness to be President of the United States.  The product of this gathering was the publication of ‘The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump’ which contained 27 essays written by those who participated in this gathering of mental health professionals. 

Their conclusion was that Trump is not mentally stable or competent to be President of the United States. Their conclusion was that Trump is emotionally capable of unleashing violence against others.  He also engages in the predatory manipulation of his vulnerable followers. 

 

In the past seven years, as someone who has worked in the field of behavioral and emotonal needs,   I have experienced similar discomfort around Trump's treatment or mistreatment of others. Those who need a savior turn to him to be saved. People are for him, objects to be manipulated and not human beings with needs and feelings. His view of women is that they are objects, eye candy, a ‘pussy’ to be grabbed or an orgasm to be had. As crass and vulgar as those terms sound, it is his view of women.

 

His desire to terminate a woman’s right to have an abortion, regardless of her having life threatening health issues, or having been raped or manipulating her ability to obtain contraception, to have her menstrual cycles monitored are all ways he views as being able to control a woman, her needs and feelings and her health. 

 

His advocacy of violence is often evident in his threats to use the military in relation to American citizens’ protesting his views and ways. Instead of using the court system, he will often encourage people ‘beating up’ those who are not compliant to what he is advocating or are not supportive of his view of what should be. In his mind, the legal system does not apply to him, he is above and beyond the law. The Supreme Court has reinforced his legal freedom.

 

In his running for the Presidency this time around he outright lied to the American People. He said that he wanted to be the President. In fact, he wants to be a dictator. A President is bound by the Constitution and is required to take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. In fact, he wants to destroy the Constitution and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. 

 

He does not want separate but equal branches of government. He detests the notion of a government of checks and balances. He wants to be the center of attention, in charge of all aspects of everything. He demonstrates his disdain for our Constitutional Institutions by choosing ill prepared and  inexperienced people to head his Cabinet Departments. His singular choice of a Kash Patel as Director of the FBI, someone who advocates violence and has created a hit list of those who need to be punished for their lack of support of Trump, screams out as an example of Trump’s illegitimacy as President of the United States.     

 

 

Where Are We and What Do We Need

 

 For the past ten years, during his attempt to achieve his Presidential place in American politics, Trump has consistently featured a   dishonesty, a tendency to destroy what is and a disregard for the needs and feeling of others, particularly women and people of color.

 

 His recent want to run for the Presidency was his latest example of not being truthful with the American people. To become the President of the United States requires taking an oath of office that pledges a loyalty to the very document that serves as the bed rock of our system of government and political way of life. 

 

Trump wants is to become a dictator, not a President. He has said so publicly. He wants to destroy the Constitution and our very way of government. The idea of separate but equal branches of government, a government of checks and balances goes totally against his grain.  He wants no checks and balances. He wants to do as he wishes and goes so far as to make a mockery out of attempting to fill his Presidential Cabinet.  He selects people who are to serve as the various leaders of his Cabinet agencies that meet the needs of citizens, people who are totally ill prepared to lead their respective agencies. Matt Gaetz is one such example of an ill fitted Cabinet head as the Attorney General of the United States. Fortunately, Gaetz withdrew from Trump’s appointment. 

 

A second appointment that was off the charts was the choice of Robert Kennedy as Director Health and Human Services. Kennedy has no medical experience or training. He is against the use of vaccines and certain medicines and promotes turning away from medical experts to those who are fellow conspiracy theorists. He is a trained environmental lawyer. Decisions about our countries’ health are in the hands of an opinionated, untrained, person whose track record has left numerous deaths in the wake of his ‘leadership’ attempts. 

 

Trump seems to thrive in making his selection of Cabinet members a joke. His is an attempt at testing the waters in his selection process with the notion that ultimately, he will have the last word in any decisions that his Cabinet will make. In essence, the government of the United States will be his government not a government ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’, in the words of Lincoln. 

 

One more aspect of Trumps ‘leadership’ as a Dictator, is to change our national position on the world stage. He wants to remove America from NATO and eliminate our checking of other countries from attacking fellow NATO members. Our role for the past 80 years has kept peace in Europe, and he wants to change that political equation. The reason for this is that he seems to shy away from anything that takes the focus off him personally. By sharing the stage with other European leaders, he seems to feel like one of the many and not the one, who is.  He also wants to remove our involvement with the United Nations hypothetically for the same reason as his removing us from the NATO community. 

 

On the economic front, Trump holds onto the notion that tariffs are the only way to go in dealing with trade issues with other countries. The fact that tariffs will increase the cost of good for Americans, seems to be of little consequence to him. It is as if his ignorance of the impact that tariffs will have on American citizens makes no difference to him.

 

Other issues that need to be brought up for our consideration are what the MEGA focus is on today’s societal scheme of things. MEGA wants to promote a White Christian Nationalism societal focus. This groups concern is that today there is too much coming together of mixed racial and societal groupings and that the male dominated white Christian nationalistic front is losing its political footing. The removing of immigrants, the removal of women’s rights around maternal health care issues, are but two instances of where Trump and his cohorts are attempting to change America’s way of treating citizens, notably women and nonwhites. His is an ego driven attempt to control life forces. 

 

Trump’s ways defy all Mindfulness approaches in what brings people together and how it is that communities of people grow and prosper together. Trump’s approach alienates community members from one another and destroys all that he encounters.

 

The Buddha has taught that ‘suffering occurs when we believe in a thought that is at odds with what was, what is or what will be.’ Trump’s thoughts have caused much pain, dissention, and suffering. One of my favorite teachers, the Dali Lama has written, ‘Compassion and love are not a luxury; they are essential to our existence. Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community. If we are to survive, human beings must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. We must learn to work not just for our own self, family, or nation, but for all of humankind.’