The Virulent Trump Metastases
How Malignant Narcissists Infect the Body Politic (Vol. 5; Issue 19)
There are many angles worth examining when trying to grasp the motivations and collateral of malignant narcissists (Kernberg, 1984), but how they infect others around them deserves particular attention. The Trump presidency brings an urgency to this quest.
Here’s a key to understanding malignant narcissists:
They project themselves onto those around them. Others becomes viewed through the distorted filter of their internal perceptions. If you are a person, malignant narcissists cannot see you. They only perceive you through their mental images of you. Additionally, they project vulnerability: their weakness, insecurity, impotence, and fragility are also projected onto those around them.*
Of vital relevance for today is how Trump—the living paragon of the malignant narcissist— actively morphs American culture in his image. Because of his role as leader of the US, his body literally extends into the American populace, and into many others around the globe. The metaphorical cancer of his being, elaborated upon below, is spreading rapidly.
Illustrations abound, but consider just these recent irrefutable examples:
Trump fired Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD who had served as the 14th Librarian of Congress since September 2016. She received the following email from the White House: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress (LOC) is terminated effective immediately.” A POTUS spokesperson said Hayden "did not fit the needs of the American people" because of her DEI initiatives and her selection of books for children. The LOC does not lend books to anyone but members of Congress. None of them, at least chronologically, are children. Hayden, a librarian with extensive experience, was the first woman and first African American to hold the position. She was confirmed in a landslide, bipartisan vote of 74-18 by the US Senate. Her firing demonstrates projection in action because Trump’s only problem with Hayden is her gender and her race. The acting LOC is the incredibly unqualified Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s defense attorneys.
Dr. Carla Hayden, PhD Several weeks ago, Trump fired the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. Brown, a four-star fighter pilot known as CQ, was only the second African American appointed as chairman. Brown, too, was replaced amid Trump’s insistence that the military’s leadership was too mired in diversity issues. Among the backlash, Michael McFaul, US ambassador to Russia under President Obama, wrote on X, “I have had the honor of working with and meeting many Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs over the decades. General CQ Brown was one the finest of them all, especially suited for the challenges of our current era of great power competition with China."
General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. Ana Camero, a 64-year-old grandmother, took the wrong exit on her way home from work a month ago. Since then, she has been incarcerated at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Sadly for Ms. Camero, her wrong turn landed her at the gates of the US Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego by mistake. Because of her status as an undocumented immigrant, officers summoned immigration enforcement. Ms. Camero now faces deportation. She was working as a dishwasher at a La Jolla restaurant. Most believe in more stringent border controls, but why send a woman who’s lived here for two decades back to Mexico, a country where she no longer has family or community support?
Ana Camero Also last week, Trump issued executive orders directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) board of directors to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS." They are, as we all know, famous for providing non-biased news. The POTUS spokesperson reports, inaccurately, that “neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens.” Here, we see no racism, but the effort to take over the media is typical of authoritarians (Arendt, 1951; Gessen, 1997).
Finally, a series of Trump’s recent executive actions promote domestic energy production, including coal, and challenge state-level climate policies. These orders destroy regulations protecting our climate, and they direct the US Attorney General to take action against any states or other entities who dare to show concern for the atmosphere on which all human beings depend. Reams of empirical information validate the threat of global warming. And yet, again, short-term profits trump concerns about the future of our children and grandchildren, not to mention our species (Karbelnig, 2024).
A cancer becomes metastatic when cancer cells from where they first formed (primary cancer), break away, travel through the blood or lymph systems, and form new tumors in other parts of the body. By analogy, Trump’s personhood, and his vulnerability to undue influence,** represent the primary site of a tumor. The Trumpian cancer metastasizes, entering American as well as global citizens. In a phrase, his disease infects the body politic—a phrase traceable to the Aesop’s fable, The Belly and the Members. As I edited this essay, Trump agreed to accept a $400 million Boeing 747 as a gift from the nation of Qatar. When critics shouted corruption, Trump responded:
Who says no to a gift?
Trump’s ignorance of the favors expected from Qatar and its allies, or the likelihood that the plane is bugged, boggles the mind! Liberal, conservative, green, libertarian, or holders of any other conceivable ideology—save White Nationalist or Nazi—fear where the Trumpian cancer might spread next. Like the exodus from Germany in the 1930s, intellectuals and researchers begin to flee. For example, Yale professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder—experts in authoritarianism—are leaving the United States to accept professorships at the University of Toronto. Professor Shore said:
We’re like people on the Titanic, saying our ship can’t sink. And you know as a historian that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.
Given the castration of the US House of Representatives and the Senate, the only move remaining to lessen the terror of the citizenry is to turn to the streets—and by the millions. We should blockade airports, highways, and rail systems. We should shut down the city of Washington, DC. The world is watching. If we Americans sit passively by, we will witness the fragile democracy of our great country become a rigid autocracy.
Many legitimately fear Trump will turn the US military against such protesters. It is, nonetheless, our citizens’ only remaining tool. If Trump starts assassinating protesters, many will turn against him. And, if they do not, then we will enter a time of profound mourning. We will have to face the fact, like the citizens of Russia, North Korea, Iran, and other autocratic nations, that democracy has died.
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*In the first Trump administration, you saw this in the rapid changes in his chief advisors; now we see less turnover because the primary requirement for serving in the Trump administration is loyalty—another manifestation of the “dictator’s new playbook” (Naim, 2022).
**Undue influence is a legal concept where someone is unfairly persuaded or pressured by another, resulting in a decision they would not have made otherwise. It essentially involves the exploitation of a relationship of trust or power to override someone's free will and lead to a potentially inequitable outcome. In Trump’s case, all that’s required is flattery or loyalty.
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References
Aesop. (n.d.). The Belly and the Members. In Aesop's fables. Retrieved from https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/35/aesops-fables/373/the-belly-and-the-members/.
Arendt, H. (1951). The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Mariner.
Gessen, Masha (1997). Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-147-1. OCLC 36201042.
Hobbes, T. (1651, 2017). Leviathan. C. Brooke (Ed.). New York: Penguin.
Karbelnig, A.M. (2024). Beyond climate defensiveness: The role of psychoanalysis in creating a sustainable future. The American Psychoanalyst, 58.1:32-45. (March 2024 Issue).
Kernberg, O.F. (1984). Severe personality disorders: psychotherapeutic strategies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Naim, M. (2022). The dictator’s new playbook: why democracy is losing the fight. Foreign Affairs, 101:144-151.