Donald Trump acts like an imperial president whose graft and corruption rival medieval kings. (Photo collage: NYI)
Donald Trump is unpredictable, narcissistic and lacking a moral compass. Those traits are despicable in a national leader, but explain Trump’s uncanny ability to survive disaster after disaster.
Because of his psychology, he has an innate capability to reinvent himself and deny or reshape his past through repeated lies, disinformation and blame-shifting.
Nothing is currently anchoring Trump’s ego and narcissism.
They’re manifested in grandiose jingoistic actions — each more reckless — like threatening to make Canada the 51st state, seizing Greenland, invading Venzuela and his disastrous Iran war.
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His ostentatious, out-of-scale White House ballroom, a triumphal arch that’s so high it interferes with airline flights, and even his inept refurbishment of the reflecting pool are all driven by an overriding ego, rivaling Nero of Imperial Rome.
He’s desperately trying to shape his legacy, but if Trump is remembered for anything, it will be his unmitigated graft, self-enrichment, and long association with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein scandal has overshadowed his second term, despite every effort to bury it, and it grows darker every day.
Donald Trump’s salacious birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein was confirmed in Congress. Trump claims he didn’t send it.
In typical Trump fashion, he promised to release all the files, but has done everything since to cover them up, The administration has been in violation of the legally mandated Epstein file release law for almost six months.
More than 3 million files are still under Justice Department wraps, and some are thought to be acutely damaging, including missing FBI investigative interview forms linked to accusations against Trump personally.
In a stunning revelation, The New York Times reported that top administration officials held extraordinary Situation Room meetings, desperate to contain the scandal.
Meanwhile, Trump and his family have amassed between $4 billion and $9.7 billion in realized profits and paper wealth since his reelection through cryptocurrency, merchandising, insider stock trading, real estate deals and no-bid government deals with his sons.
Trump has acted with so much impunity to the Constitution and rule of law, federal courts have handed down hundreds of rulings and orders blocking his executive actions and administrative policies.
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Out of more than 750 lawsuits filed against his sweeping policy changes, courts have issued temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions in over 150 instances, while other cases are still pending, according to The New York Times Administration Lawsuits Tracker.
In more than 200 instances, government actions were fully or temporarily blocked at various stages of litigation.
He damands total, authoritarian-style loyalty and will attack and smear anyone who crosses him. Sycophants and Republican lawmakers constantly empower him because their power is derived from his power over his MAGA base, and they are too cowed to challenge him.
Trump is totally transactional and will reward whoever gives him what he wants, regardless of politics or ideology. Trump has already tossed aside his MAGA supporters. Billionaire “tech bros” and corporate oligarchs have become his new constituency.
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And, he is immune to the hypocrisy of his actions.
Trump is the kind of person who can announce a “war on fraud” to attack Somalis and other immigrants, yet turn around and pardon a rogue’s gallery of high-level fraudsters, who pony up $1 million or more for his campaign fund.
Across his two terms, Trump has granted clemency to more than 70 allies, donors and others convicted in major fraud cases. In the first year of his second term, he handed out nearly three dozen pardons and commutations for people convicted of fraud, according to The New York Times.
The president’s list of pardons includes such high-rolling fraudsters as Philip Esformes, who perpetrated “the largest-ever criminal health care fraud case brought against individuals,” according to the FBI. In all, he stole $1.3 billion from Medicare and Medicaid.
Yet, he is weak, ineffectual, and is easily swayed by ego stroking. He kowtows to dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and even North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
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But his overriding psychological flaws are dangerous because they lead him to serious miscalculations based on nothing more than his “gut.”
Those flaws were painfully evidenced by his initial mishandling of the COVID epidemic and his reckless unprovoked attack on Iran.
Like all Trump’s cons, reality ultimately bites. The pandemic cost 750,000 lives on his watch because of his incompetence, and the Iran war is ending in a humiliating peace deal.
In times like now, Trump will do what he does best; he’ll scramble to reinvent himself once again with a flood of lies, disinformation and blame shifting.
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Hopefully, the public will wise up, and he’ll no longer be able to shed his skin at will.
But if past is prologue, it will take an extraordinary effort to curb his impulses.
He survived six casino bankruptcies during his business career and scandals that would have ended anyone else. He went through numerous business failures, all to trade off his name — Trump steaks, Trump vodka, Trump Shuttle, the Plaza Hotel and other grand failures.
Trump University was declared a fraud and shut down resulting in a $25 million fine and restitution. The Donald J. Trump Foundation was shut down in New York under court supervision, after the New York Attorney General sued and discovered a pattern of illegal “self-dealing,” unlawful political coordination, and the misuse of funds.
He could always rely on his father’s fortune — estimated at $435 million — to keep him afloat through the bad deals and missteps.
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When his business career was finally on the brink, he landed on the realty television show “The Apprentice.” The show reinforced the myth that he was an astute businessman and revived his career.
But he’s nothing, if not a rank opportunist.
Politically, he changed parties five times; he was pro-choice then anti-abortion; he supported the war in Iraq, then said he opposed it. He opposed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), then supported it.
If he has exhibited one consistent trait throughout his career, it’s patent racism.
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It was evident in the 1970s when he refused to rent to minorities as a landlord, and was sued — twice — by the federal government; in the 80s, he launched a blantant, racist campaign against the Central Park Five, and he left explicit instructions at his casinos: He didn’t want to see minorities on the floor when he showed up.
Racism and white supremacy have always been the third rail of politics, and Trump dared to grab and exploit both. He has tied himself, inextricably, to white supremacy through racist attacks on minority immigrants.
But the key to his political success is the triumph of misinformation and disinformation in politics.
If 2008 was the first Internet election, then 2024 was the first social media election.
The hard-right shift of Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover, podcasts, and social media influencers — coupled with right-wing cable TV and radio — and the decay of mainstream media, had a powerful effect on public opinion. In the end, Trump’s winning formula was simple:
— Feed his racist, white supremacist base red meat by attacking immigrants;
— Make promises he could never keep to rein in the rubes;
— Use misogyny to manipulate Latinos, Muslims, and black men by constantly degrading Kamala Harris and other women with slurs.
— Lie, lie, lie about the economy, inflation, crime, and even World War III;
— Demonize political opponents and immigrants far beyond all reality to instill fear.
— And, use right-wing lawmakers and influencers as an echo chamber.
The bottom line: Uniting the nation, economic prosperity, and reducing world turmoil will be pipe dreams as long as Trump wages his culture, immigration, and tariff wars.