Titillating Trump Perversion
Why the Excess Fascination with Trump's Criminal Trial? (Vol. 4; Issue 21)
A few nights ago, the spectacle of Trump’s criminal trail illustrated the depravity of American broadcast media. MSNBC carried a full two-hours of news, with talking heads analyzing transcripts of testimony by Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, reviewing the performance of Judge Juan Merchan, and observing jurors’ reactions. The scene dramatically displays perversion.
Before delving into the pervert’s unique delights, notice that, on that same night, BBC news uttered nary a word about Trump on its 10pm show. Instead, BBC covered real news stories like aid trucks entering Gaza, Ukraine’s fragile front-line near Kharkiv, and Putin’s visit to China. What a painful contrast. It reveals the wicked nature of broadcast media, feeding desires for distraction instead of truth.
Here’s what to know about the concept of perversion—from the diagnostic to the psychoanalytic. According to the International Classification of Diseases - 10th edition (ICD-10), perversions are a subset of the paraphilias (from the Greek “para,” meaning “beside,” and “philia,” meaning “love”). Variations of paraphilias include pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and sexual sadism. I focus in this issue on only one variety, namely fetishism. A fetish is sexual excitement in response to an object or body part that's not typically sexual, such as feet.
The past few weeks vividly demonstrate fetishism as evident in the degree of attention to the Trump trial. Oh, yes, it’s interesting. Trump is the first president in the history of the United States to face criminal prosecution. He stands to encounter a total of 88 criminal indictments in federal and state jurisdictions.
From a psychoanalytic perspective, perversions represent repression in extremis. Something about sexuality causes perverts to distance themselves from it. Some persons fear sexuality, feel ashamed of it, witnessed their parents having sex, or were sexually abused. As a result of these painful emotions or traumas, their sexual desires become displaced onto another thing. A fetishistic focus on women’s shoes is a common variety. Lacan (1988) believes paraphilia results from disavowal, another defense mechanism. Here’s what Lacan says about perversion, and I will soon translate his typically obscure writing:
It is not simply an aberration in relation to social criteria, an anomaly contrary to good morals… [but] it more or less derogates from the reproductive finality of the sexual union. It is something else in its very structure. (p. 221)
Lacan means that perverts evade the “structure” of typical sexuality. Their disturbed internal world maps onto the real interpersonal world, resulting in a substitution for sexuality, a perversion. In American politics of late, that object is Donald Trump. What does it substitute? Attention to the many dangerous situations in our world. We face some of the worst threats in the history of the United States. The attack on the US Capital remains a vivid memory. Some politicians endorse ending American democracy, with Trump actually saying the Constitution should be destroyed. A number of Trump supporters openly proclaim:
If Trump says we need a dictator, then we do.
Furthermore, the US actively engages, albeit indirectly, in active military conflicts. Israel continues to wreak revenge on Hamas in Gaza, Russia persists in brutally invading Ukraine, and Putin threatens nuclear war. The Earth’s climate is heating up well past the 1.5 degrees Celsius level scientists fear will cause irreversible damage. The May issue of Nature reported that 2023 was the hottest in 2,000 years (Esper, Torbenson, and Büntgen, 2024). These frightening events get ignored—repressed, disavowed, displaced—by the news media. They mimic Russian-controlled stations. Instead of spewing Putin’s propaganda, they propagate perversion, which distracts from true perils.
The cult of personality surrounding Trump parallels the perversion. Such cults create idealized and heroic images of a glorious leader. Cult members douse their leaders in unquestioning flattery and praise. Methods like mass media, propaganda, spectacle, patriotism, and rallies sustain the cult. The Trump phenomenon perfectly illustrates it. Followers of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon were unequivocally cultish, and here’s a picture of a mass Moonie wedding:
Notice the perfect repetition in outfits. Regarding the cult of personality, look at how the Trump cult followers also wear matching clothing. They don themselves in dark blue suits, white shirts, and red ties—seeking to perfectly emulate their dear leader. Check out this recent courtroom scene and how the Trump cult members resemble Moonies:
Have they flushed out individuality? A different color suit, a coat and jacket, a different color tie, or, God forbid, no tie at all? Clearly impossible to sustain stature as cult member. Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.), and even (frighteningly) House Speaker Mike Johnson, , attended the Trump trial on Thursday, May 16, 2024. They saturated their Dear Leader with adoration, devaluing the American justice system while detracting attention from innumerable national and international crises.
Further evidence of perversion, not to mention hypocrisy, Mr. Johnson, third in line for the presidency, is a Christian “true believer” (Hoffer, 1951/1989). When asked on Fox News how he would make public policy, Johnson replied:
Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.
Johnson wins the dubious prize for perversion and cult of personality. He made public proclamations on that fateful Thursday. While the House of Representatives was in active session in Washington, Johnson decried:
This ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice… it’s all about politics.
Has Mr. Johnson read the Bible? Or the US Constitution? Trump’s trial centers on paying off a porn star and then falsifying documents to enhance his chances of getting elected. Testimony included Trump’s missionary style of sexual intercourse, his rapid ejaculation, and Ms. Daniels, the porn star, calling him an:
Orange turd.
And the ideal of the Christian man, Mike Johnson, joins in the parade?
Notice the cultish suit, exactly mirroring Trump’s. Cut now to the media coverage of the Trump trial. As noted, the perversion is self-evident.
I am reminded of a man who consulted me many years ago, and per usual, I fictionalize the example. He was one of the only true sadists I ever met. Although he (fortunately) never acted out his fantasies, he could only get an erection during sexual intercourse if he imagined putting a hot poker into a fire, waiting until it became red hot, and then inserting it into his partner’s anus. His imagery was as breathtaking as it was disturbing. Rather than enjoy sexual encounters, with all of its passion and loss of self-consciousness, he could only achieve it when actively engaging in imagining painfully injuring his female partner. About the least of his problems with intimacy, it shows the extremity of the disavowal, displacement, and repression.
Just in case you thought American politics already reached its nadir, consider how many of our elected representatives are not only perverts, but active enablers of a cult of personality. Only a partial list, but remember that Trump publicly mocked a disabled reporter, threatens to use the US military to quash protests (protected under the Constitution), peddles xenophobia and racism, disrespects women (including his daughter), reported that Trump tower, in the days following 9/11, was the tallest in New York, cozied up with Kim Jong Un, and believes in dismantling NATO.
His juiciest remarks include:
We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.
When asked about his role as dictator by Sean Hannity, Trump replied:
You’re not gonna be a dictator, are you?’ I say, ‘No, no, no – other than day one.’ We’re closing the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that I’m not a dictator, OK?
So much for climate change. Certainly, more excavation of the earth’s surface will stop the rapidly rising temperature of the planet. Drill, drill, drill—that will do it! At another rally, Trump told supporters:
I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.
At least retribution sounds Biblical. I recently heard that some Millennials (also known as Generation Y) support him because he’ll address the high cost of housing.
Really? Nothing in Trump’s policies, emphasizing reducing taxes on the wealthy and bolstering petrochemical industries, will reduce housing costs.
Unless or until they wake up to their status as perverts and enablers of a personality cult, the blue-suited, red-tied politicians and other Americans yearning for another Trump presidency risk destroying our tenuous experiment in democracy. Worse, they support a dangerous mob-boss, an infantile personality, a malignant narcissist, and an individual many leaders—within and without America—consider unfit to serve.
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References
Hoffer, E. (1989). The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. New York: Harper and Row. (Original work published in 1951).
Lacan, J. (1988). The Seminar. Book 1. Freud’s Papers on Technique, 1953-54. Trans. J. Forrester. New York: Norton.
Esper, J., Torbenson, M. & Büntgen, U. (2024). 2023 summer warmth unparalleled over the past 2,000 years. Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07512-y