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.’ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump, Better Suited to a Psychiatric Unit Than to the Oval Office

 

Recently, Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, told the world, that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants are stealing pets from neighbors and were eating them. These immigrants, it was further stated, were in the United States illegally. Trump’s implication being that these or any immigrants cannot be trusted and are a blight to our way of life. He has gone so far as to say that ‘immigrants are poisoning the blood of our communities.’ He is constantly and flagrantly spreading racism when it comes to those who are not white. 

 

In truth, these folks are legally in the United States, they do not steal and eat the pets of their neighbors. In fact, they have helped save Springfield from becoming a waste land of declining population. These fifteen thousand people from Haiti, not the thirty-four thousand that Trump says, are saving the economy of Springfield by their working in the factories and in other areas of need in the community.

 

Since Trump and Vance have lied about the Haitians in Springfield, there have been bomb threats all over the community. Schools have been closed, children and the families of children are living in an environment of constant fear, not knowing what to expect next.

 

Trump and Vance acknowledge that they are comfortable lying about what they are saying. What they say, Vance offers, is intended to force Americans to face issues that they would not otherwise face. In misspeaking the truth, they are also making it difficult to address the realities of issues that plague us as our democratic community. If you cannot believe what you are being told, how can you make the decisions that are necessary for our society to grow and to heal.  

 

What this misinformation about Springfield shows is how Trump creates conflict and hardship on minority groups who migrate into the United States. He has no regard for the negative impact that his assertions have on others. As a sociopath, he has no regards for the feelings and needs of others. As a sociopath, he lies as a matter of course. He cannot be believed and yet the suffering and fear that he creates in what he says is unconscionable. His belief in the use of violence against those who are not in his favor is real and his goons will harass individuals and families all over the United States. The Proud Boys recently began walking the streets of Springfield. It used to be that if a public figure were to threaten fellow citizens with physical injury, he or she could be arrested, tried in court, and sent to jail. Why is Trump getting a free pass in what he says and threatens?

 

Trump’s narcissistic need for being the center of attention, triggers his making those things that he says that cause others pain to be intensified, so that even more attention is paid to him. His ability to have attention paid to him, no matter what he says or does, knows no bounds. His assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him is an example of delusional thinking. When he speaks, his thoughts are often delusional and incoherent and make no sense at all. Over the past four years, his verbalizing of his thoughts has become what is referred to as an incomprehensible word salad.

 

Of late, he seems to be acting as though the 2024 Presidential Election is already lost, and he is planning to interfere, again, with the peaceful transfer of power from the Biden Presidency to the Harris Presidency. He has his supporters attempting to take over the various voting places and making the accurate counting of votes more difficult, if not impossible. 

 

Instead of nonwhites from any part of the world poisoning the blood of our American Family, it is Trump, himself, whose words, and behaviors are destroying our Democratic way of life and our democratic institutions. He is unfit for the Oval Office. He needs psychiatric care as he manifests delusional thinking and demonstrates that he has no regard for the needs and feelings of others.  

 

Maintaining our democratic institutions and way of life is our responsibility as members of ourAmerican Community. We need to demonstrate this responsibility by voting on November 5^th for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

 

A Society in Transition

Today, we have a counter revolution of sorts taking place in our midst. The old American way of life was male dominated, with women being viewed as ‘lesser than men.’ A women had no legal rights from the beginning of our nation and didn’t have the right to vote until 1920. Women were treated as a husband’s ‘property.’ They were primarily viewed as mothers and home makers. A woman’s role kept her out of the male dominated world of political discourse. The recent reversal of a woman’s having reproductive rights has served as a reminder of how this male dominated society has worked in the past and can still persist in today’s world.

 

Even the conservative Christians believed that America was created by God to be run by white males. Today we still have the residual influence of white male dominated ‘Christian Nationalism.’ 

 

This identity has been carried over with the support of political conservatives who are unable to relinquish their role in our collective American society. Our collective society has become multiracial and multicultural, where there are more nonwhites impacting on our political policies than there are whites. This has prompted efforts to illegally prevent nonwhites from being able to vote.

 

The impact of these societal changes has brought about a stalemate in our ability to work together in addressing the pressing issues that face us in our daily lives. Those who hold on to a view of life where nonwhites are viewed as threats to American Society are fearful of being politically left on the outside, looking in. Their need and intention are to fight to maintain their political dominance in society. This delusional thinking will only prevent our nation from moving ahead with its evolution as a living organic community that addresses the needs of each one of us.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

Touching Bases: When Do We Turn the Lights Out on Trump’s Delusions?

 I find it unbelievable that someone with Trump’s history can run, again, for the Presidency of the United States. Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals met at Yale University during the beginning of Trump’s showing signs of interest in running for the Presidency. They were clear on their deliberations that he is a sociopath and narcissist, that he is someone with ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and lack of empathy.’ In essence, he has no ability to consider other peoples’ needs or feelings. They also asserted that he is a pathological liar. He often gives the impression, in the way he expresses himself, that he is play acting out the role of a mafia crime boss. His behavior and speech are often that of a bully.

 

With that as a snapshot of how Trump is emotionally wired, we also have examples of his disregard for lawful, personal conduct in his social interactions with others. His history of being a sexual predator of woman, his attempting to change the vote in Georgia during the Presidential Election, ‘all I need is another 11,780 votes during a recorded phone conversation with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

 

Then, there is his attempt to prevent the peaceful transition of power from his administration to the Biden Administration. To this end, he rallied his armed supporters to attack the Capitol and to hunt down Mike Pence with the possibility of hanging Pence for his lack of support in this act of sedition. The act of sedition, alone, should legally prevent Trump from ever, again, running for the Oval Office. He is also a convicted felon on 34 counts of guilt for falsifying business records to cover up his illicit affair with a porn actress, so that his affair would not jeopardize his electability for the Oval Office. 

 

His disrespect of those who have lost their lives in combat, is despicable and is reflected in his referring to these fallen hero’s’ as ‘losers and suckers.’

 

He refers to immigrants as ‘poisoning’ the blood of our citizens.

His ripping 5000 immigrant children from their families with no tracking device is still another unforgivable act on his part. And with a background like this, how is it possible for this individual to be allowed to run, again, for the Presidency of the United States? What are your thoughts?

After the Conventions are Over, What is Our Choice and Our Responsibility?

  

Today, after the Democratic National Convention, we have two avenues that we can choose to take. The GOP option is to use conspiracy theories, misrepresentations of the truth, talk in terms of creating a dictatorship with no longer having elections, and using force and violence to get back at those who have not been supportive of Trump. This is a dark, delusional, and disregarding of others approach to members of our American Family.

 

The Democratic National Convention expressed a sense of joy, hope and treating other people as we would want to be treated. The Democrats focused on seeing the someone who is standing before us, to listen to what is being shared, to be supportive of each of us having the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of fulfillment in life, and to have equal standing before the law.  It means that a woman has the right to choose to give birth or not during her pregnancy, she has the right to proper reproductive health care, that we have a right to vote and have our vote counted. In addition, we have the right to a livable wage, medical care and retirement. In essence the Democratic joy and hope that came out of their convention again, translates into our treating one another as we would want to be treated.

 

The Democratic community has transitioned to a gathering of individuals who give the meeting the needs of each of us priority, over power-oriented politics that have dominated the past four years of Congressional disfunction.  Ours is a choice between an autocracy in which absolute power is held by the autocrat. Or we can decide upon continuing to live in a democracy where state power is vested in the people. Our future is in our hands….

 

Our responsibility is to VOTE!!!