This Is What Happens When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis
Trump’s
catastrophic performance has as much to do with psychology as ideology.
Opinion
columnist
·
April 5, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ET
Since the early days of the Trump
administration, an impassioned group of mental health professionals
have warned the public about the president’s cramped and disordered mind, a darkened
attic of fluttering bats. Their assessments have been controversial. The
American Psychiatric Association’s code of ethics expressly forbids its members from diagnosing a public figure from afar.
Enough is enough. As
I’ve argued before,
an in-person analysis of Donald J. Trump would not reveal any hidden depths —
his internal sonar could barely fathom the bottom of a sink — and these are
exceptional, urgent times. Back in October, George T. Conway III, the
conservative lawyer and wife of Kellyanne, wrote a long, devastating essay for The Atlantic, noting that Trump
has all the hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder. That disorder was
dangerous enough during times of prosperity, jeopardizing the moral and
institutional foundations of our country.
But now we’re in the midst of a global
pandemic. The president’s pathology is endangering not just institutions, but
lives.
Let’s
start with the basics. First: Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor
skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities. They exaggerate their
accomplishments, focus obsessively on projecting power, and wish desperately to
win.
What that means, during this pandemic:
Trump says we’ve got plenty of tests available, when
we don’t.
He declares that Google is building a comprehensive drive-thru testing
website, when
it isn’t.
He sends a Navy hospital ship to New York and it proves little more than an
excuse for a campaign commercial, arriving and sitting almost empty in the
Hudson. A New York hospital executive calls
it a joke.
Second: The grandiosity of narcissist
personalities belies an extreme fragility, their egos as delicate as foam. They
live in terror of being upstaged. They’re too thin skinned to be told they’re
wrong.
What that means, during this pandemic:
Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They
have galleries of sycophants. With the exceptions of Drs. Anthony Fauci and
Deborah Birx, Trump has surrounded himself with a Z-team of dangerously
inexperienced toadies and flunkies — the bargain-bin rejects from Filene’s
Basement — at a time when we require the brightest and most imaginative minds
in the country.
Faced with a historic public health
crisis, Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster
preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of
breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have
assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury
secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.
Meanwhile,
Fauci and Birx measure every word they say like old-time apothecaries, hoping
not to humiliate the narcissist — never humiliate a narcissist — while
discreetly correcting his false hopes and falsehoods. They are desperately
attempting to create a safe space for our president, when the president should
be creating a safer nation for all of us.
Third: Narcissistic personalities love
nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division. It destabilizes
everyone, keeps them in control.
What that means, during this pandemic:
Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than
coordinating a national response. (“It’s like being on eBay,” complained Gov.
Andrew Cuomo of New York last week.) His White House is a petty palace of
competing power centers. He picks fights with Democratic officials and members
of the press, when all the public craves is comfort.
Narcissistic personalities don’t do
comfort. They cannot fathom the needs of other hearts.
Fourth: Narcissistic personalities are
vindictive. On a clear day, you can see their grudges forever.
What that means, during this pandemic:
Trump is playing favorites with governors who praise him and punishing those
who fail to give him the respect he believes he deserves. “If they don’t treat
you right, don’t call,” he told Vice President Mike Pence.
His grudge match with New York is now
especially lethal. When asked on Friday whether New York will have enough
ventilators, Trump bluntly answered “No,” and then blamed the state.
And most relevant, as far as history is
concerned: Narcissistic personalities are weak.
What that means, during this pandemic:
Trump is genuinely afraid to lead. He can’t bring himself to make robust use of
the Defense Production Act, because the buck would stop with him. (To this day,
he insists states should be acquiring their own ventilators.) When asked about
delays in testing, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” During
Friday’s news conference, he added the tests “we inherited were “broken, were
obsolete,” when this form of coronavirus didn’t even exist under his
predecessor.
This
sounds an awful lot like one of the three sentences that Homer Simpson swears
will get you through life: “It
was like that when I got here.”
Most people, even the most hotheaded
and difficult ones, have enough space in their souls to set aside their anger
in times of crisis. Think of Rudolph
Giuliani during Sept. 11. Think of Andrew Cuomo now.
But every aspect of Trump’s crisis
management has been annexed by his psychopathology.
As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die,
he crows that he’s No. 1 on Facebook, which
isn’t close to true.
But
it is true that all eyes are on him. He’s got a captive audience, an
attention-addict’s dream come to life. It’s just that he, like all narcissistic
personalities, has no clue how disgracefully — how shamefully, how deplorably —
he’ll be enshrined in memory.