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Showing Original Post only (View all)The President Is Trapped - Peter Wehner / The Atlantic [View all]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/presidents-character-unequal-task/608743/
MARCH 25, 2020
Peter Wehner
Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC
<snip>
So as the crisis deepensas the body count increases, hospitals are overwhelmed, and the economy contracts, perhaps dramaticallyits reasonable to assume that the president will reach for the tools he has used throughout his life: duplicity and denial. He will not allow facts that are at odds with his narrative to pierce his magnetic field of deception.
But what happens to Trump psychologically and emotionally when things dont turn around in the time period he wants? What happens if the tricks that have allowed him to walk away from scandal after scandal dont work quite so well, if the doors of escape are bolted shut, and if it dawns on even some of his supporterspeople who will watch family members, friends, and neighbors contract the disease, some number of whom will diethat no matter what Trump says, he cant alter this epidemiological reality?
All of this would likely enrage him, and feed his paranoia.
As the health-care and economic crises worsen, Trumps hallmarks will be even more fully on display. The president will create new scapegoats. Hell blame governors for whatever bad news befalls their states. Hell berate reporters who ask questions that portray him in a less-than-favorable light. Hell demand even more cultlike coverage from outlets such as Fox News. Because he doesnt tolerate relationships that are characterized by disagreement or absence of obeisance, before long well see key people removed or silenced when they try to counter a Trump-centered narrative. Hell try to find shiny objects to divert our attention from his failures.
The president will try to blame someone elsebut in this case the someone else is a virus, not a Mexican immigrant or a reporter with a disability, not a Muslim or a Clinton, not a dead war hero or a family of a fallen soldier, not a special counsel or an NFL player who kneels for the national anthem. He will try to use this crisis to pit one party against the otherbut the virus will kill both Republicans and Democrats. He will try to create an alternate story to distract people from an inconvenient truthbut in this case, the public is too afraid, the story is too big, and the carnage will be too great to be distracted from it.
America will make it to the other side of this crisis, as it has after every other crisis. But the struggle will be a good deal harder, and the human cost a good deal higher, because we elected as president a man who is so damaged and so broken in so many ways.
</snip>
MARCH 25, 2020
Peter Wehner
Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC
<snip>
So as the crisis deepensas the body count increases, hospitals are overwhelmed, and the economy contracts, perhaps dramaticallyits reasonable to assume that the president will reach for the tools he has used throughout his life: duplicity and denial. He will not allow facts that are at odds with his narrative to pierce his magnetic field of deception.
But what happens to Trump psychologically and emotionally when things dont turn around in the time period he wants? What happens if the tricks that have allowed him to walk away from scandal after scandal dont work quite so well, if the doors of escape are bolted shut, and if it dawns on even some of his supporterspeople who will watch family members, friends, and neighbors contract the disease, some number of whom will diethat no matter what Trump says, he cant alter this epidemiological reality?
All of this would likely enrage him, and feed his paranoia.
As the health-care and economic crises worsen, Trumps hallmarks will be even more fully on display. The president will create new scapegoats. Hell blame governors for whatever bad news befalls their states. Hell berate reporters who ask questions that portray him in a less-than-favorable light. Hell demand even more cultlike coverage from outlets such as Fox News. Because he doesnt tolerate relationships that are characterized by disagreement or absence of obeisance, before long well see key people removed or silenced when they try to counter a Trump-centered narrative. Hell try to find shiny objects to divert our attention from his failures.
The president will try to blame someone elsebut in this case the someone else is a virus, not a Mexican immigrant or a reporter with a disability, not a Muslim or a Clinton, not a dead war hero or a family of a fallen soldier, not a special counsel or an NFL player who kneels for the national anthem. He will try to use this crisis to pit one party against the otherbut the virus will kill both Republicans and Democrats. He will try to create an alternate story to distract people from an inconvenient truthbut in this case, the public is too afraid, the story is too big, and the carnage will be too great to be distracted from it.
America will make it to the other side of this crisis, as it has after every other crisis. But the struggle will be a good deal harder, and the human cost a good deal higher, because we elected as president a man who is so damaged and so broken in so many ways.
</snip>
It's bad enough we have a virus that might kill us. It's TRULY AWFUL Trump is the POTUS at the same time.
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putin may not have much fun with the virus, the sanctions, the oil price gamble -
empedocles
Mar 2020
#59
I reject any suggestion that Trump's fuckhead cultists will abandon their worship of him
Orrex
Mar 2020
#7
There's never a response when you point out something they dont like & cant refute. nt
oldsoftie
Mar 2020
#34
I'd guess, as a student of human nature (especially damaged human nature), you're probably right.
calimary
Mar 2020
#60
Some historians think that General George Custer had narcissistic personality disorder.
yardwork
Mar 2020
#8
Isn't that why he went to Walter Reed Medical Center for a vaccine against COVID-19?
erronis
Mar 2020
#30
Trump cannot stop the election. The Constitution is very clear on the requirements.
oldsoftie
Mar 2020
#35
as your northern neighbor I am so alarmed and saddened by what is being done to your nation.
riverbendviewgal
Mar 2020
#45