Donald Trump’s pathological narcissism has soared (or sunk?) to new levels of almost comedic depravity. Like a ping-pong ball in a wind tunnel, he bounces haphazardly from one embarrassment to another, slamming into walls of public derision. Except for the feckless supplicants on the MAGA Supreme Court, the courts have routinely rebuked him, using language that has become increasingly dismissive.
Trump delusionally “ordered” Lake Ontario to be renamed “Lake America,” in another cringeworthy temper tantrum amidst a self-defeating trade war with Canada. In addition, his lame effort to order an end run around a judge’s order barring him from slapping his name on the Kennedy Center — with lawyers threatening to tear down the historic institution unless he gets his way on renovations and a 2 year closure — earned him a court tongue-lashing on Thursday, forcing him to put off its planned September 8 defacement (trying to rename the plaza adjoining the building). And Trump’s latest, desperate effort to inject confusion into midterm voting was thwarted on Thursday, thanks to the order of U.S. Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts, who “once again temporarily prohibited the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out a plan to restrict mail-in voting… [that] appeared to overstep its legal mandate and could spark chaos by changing rules fewer than 70 days before an election.”
And, to the amazement of experienced political consultants in both parties, Trump’s minions continue to freak out over Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff’s innocuous barb aimed at Trump babysitter hanger-on and obsessive fan Natalie Harp, thereby reinforcing his persona as a decrepit, needy has-been.
“Their relationship appears enmeshed and pathological,” observed former George W. Bush White House adviser Pete Wehner. “The information she passes along to him is unvetted, unfiltered, and highly warped and unreliable.” Aside from the creepiness, “She is further distorting the world for a man who, with every passing year, is detaching more and more from reality. His world is narrowing to a pinhole.” His courtiers’ over-the-top defense only confirms Trump is emotionally enfeebled.
As political and court defeats pile up, Trump becomes more unhinged and desperate to boost his public image. With his approval ratings sinking, he demanded his aides whip up “a series of television advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests.” You can practically hear Democrats guffaw, ‘Oh, really!?’ They could not be more delighted that Trump intends to saddle his party with constant reminders of a record that an overwhelming percentage of Americans (including crucial independent voters and Hispanics) deeply dislike. (‘From the president who brought you a war you didn’t want, more expensive healthcare, dangerous lettuce, and…’)
The New York Times sums up how Trump risks becoming a “liability” for his party, and the Democrats’ response:
He has urged supporters to “pretend” he is on the ballot and suggested he will spend significant campaign cash reserves.
Democrats are just as eager for him to play a starring role. Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, argued that congressional Republicans had been boxed in by the president and rendered little more than a rubber stamp for his agenda.
“Donald Trump controls the Republican caucus in Congress like a bunch of trained seals,” Mr. Raskin said . . . . “This is essentially what the November elections are about.”
Well, if Trump insists, let’s all pretend he is on the ballot! Democrats are practically gleeful, ready to pounce with more mockery and sharp humor, which in turn will likely provoke even more hysterical responses from Trump and his supporters.
The horror show for Republicans is just getting underway. Trump’s planned unprecedented midterm convention on the eve of 9/11 (!) has all the makings of another bust. “Republicans are privately questioning if it strikes the right tone amid the electorate’s tightening budgets — and the wisdom of diverting candidates from their districts just weeks out from Election Day,” CNN reports. “Further compounding concerns: expensive entrance fees for lawmakers, competing events like the start of the NFL season and 9/11 commemorations, and some state parties struggling to drum up enthusiasm with their members.”
The real problem? It’s all about Trump.
“[T]here’s the overarching fear — that an event once dubbed ‘Trumpapalooza’ will indeed end up being far more about promoting the president than the candidates who are actually on the ballot,” CNN observes.
Some of this would be amusing — especially for Democrats who stand to benefit from the spasm of self-inflicted injuries — if not for the power that the president of the United States wields. Taken together, incidents of this sort (plus Trump’s vindictive threats against the wrongly accused “vandals” of the reflecting pool, firings of Stars & Stripes journalists, a bizarre vow to deploy the military against the bond market, and nonstop touting of imaginary positive polls) underscore Trump’s delusional isolation from reality.
The nonstop stream of ostensibly “small,” petty, and entirely politically daft outbursts reminds us that an emotionally unstable, decaying figure atop the only global superpower (though that status has become a subject of increasing debate) poses enormous risks for the U.S. and the rest of the world. It’s not the laughable midterm ad campaign that should keep us up at night, but the realization that someone so obviously off his rocker is making life-and-death decisions about war and peace, blowing up trillions in market value and family wealth, deporting hundreds of thousands of hard-working migrants, and striving to bollix up the smooth operation of the upcoming midterm elections.
Now is no time for legacy media sanewashing of Trump nor for Democrats to underplay the urgency of the moment. Trump’s danger to the republic has never been greater, nor has MAGA Republicans’ cowardly refusal to grab the wheel and protect the country been more dispiriting.
It is up to voters to deliver an unequivocal, overwhelming defeat to this MAGA cult of personality. Only then would Congress be able to recover its constitutional role, implement real checks on his mad reign of terror, and devise a plan for holding accountable those who have driven the country into a ditch.
But, in the meantime, more Trump self-reverential ads please!
