Lies, Blame and Paranoia

Faithful readers: I know a series like this can be tiresome to plow through, but as we all know, these facts have to be shouted from the rooftops many times before anyone will take notice. Thank you for your attention and any action you have taken--sharing, discussing, anything.

This is the fourth and final post in a series about apparent mental disorders displayed by Donald Trump. The quotes are from the transcript of a presidential COVID-19 press briefing held April 13, 2020. It is old news, but I use one briefing for these commentaries to provide a snapshot of the president's behavior at one point in time.


Blame shifting: "In part, people are reluctant to admit they have failed because of a general desire to avoid negative social evaluation and disapproval from others. Thus, to save face when things go wrong, people will sometimes shift blame away from themselves by bringing attention to external causes, attempting to obscure their role in causing misfortune." (Lozano, Elizabeth B. and Sean M. Laurent,  "The effect of admitting fault versus shifting blame on expectations for others to do the same." PLoS One; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213276).

Paranoia: "The paranoid personality-disordered person is suspicious of others—this individual thinks that others are out to threaten, betray, exploit, or harm. . . . People with paranoid personality disorder are not normally grounded in reality, nor do they admit that they have negative feelings about other people. They distrust people so much that they will not discuss how they feel, and harbor suspicions for lengthy periods of time."  (Psychology Today online, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/paranoid-personality-disorder)

Some excerpts mention a video. The president played a campaign-style video about 5 minutes long, featuring several governors praising the president.

The excerpts are not continuous. A double space between paragraphs signals a break in continuity. I have not altered the text. I have removed elapsed-time markings and other non-text material that could impede smooth reading, used bold text to emphasize salient phrases, and inserted a few explanatory words in brackets.

The entire transcript can be read at
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-press-conference-transcript-april-13.

Diogenes---4/19/20

R=Reporter  T=Trump
 
If you search "trump lies" you will find a wealth of material from sources ranging from the Boston Globe to YouTube, all documenting falsehoods this president has presented as truth to the American people. Here are just a very few.


LIES IN YELLOW

T: When on January 31st, I instituted the ban, Joe Biden went crazy. He said, “You don’t need the ban.” He didn’t go crazy. He didn’t even know what the hell the ban was, so he didn’t go crazy. But he did call me xenophobic, wait a minute, he called me xenophobic. He called me a racist because… He has since apologized and he said I did the right thing.

T: No one who has needed a ventilator has not gotten a ventilator. Think of that. You know, you heard all about ventilators, ventilators, we need ventilators, because they didn’t have them, because the states should’ve had them. No one who has needed a ventilator has not gotten a ventilator. No one who has needed a hospital bed has been denied a hospital bed.

T: And I’ve been asking from the beginning, “Why can’t we sterilize and sanitize these masks?” And it turned out we can, and there was a great company in Ohio. They sent us some great equipment and they’re doing that now, and now we’re going to have more than 33 million N95 masks per week will be cleaned, decontaminated, and it’ll be great. It’s something that frankly, I think people should have thought of a long time ago. [Mask sterilization has been in use since early in the outbreak, but is advised only in crisis situations of shortage. Only three reuses are allowed.]
  
BLAME PROJECTION--subject of blame in italics

R: [News about] Theodore Roosevelt has died. Have you decided the status of Captain Crozier?
T: Well, that’s going through the Navy as I understand it. The Navy is going to be making decisions on all of that, and they had a break in. I don’t think the ship should have been stopping in Vietnam when you have a pandemic to be honest with you. I don’t think the captain should have been writing letters. He’s not Ernest Hemingway, as I said before, and he shouldn’t have been writing letters. I don’t know who gave the orders to stop in Vietnam, but they stopped in Vietnam, and all of a sudden they get on and now you have over 500 sailors and people on the ship that are affected. I don’t know whose idea that was, but that wasn’t such a good idea in the middle of a pandemic.

T: And what we did last time is unprecedented. We literally rebuild tests. We rebuilt a whole industry because we inherited nothing. What we inherited from the previous administration was totally broken, which somebody should eventually say. Not only were the cupboards bare as I say, but we inherited broken testing. Now we have great testing.

T: Remember, and you saw the stories, I inherited this administration, Mike [Pence], myself, the whole administration. We inherited a stockpile where the cupboards were bare. There was nothing, and I say it and I’ll say it again, just like we didn’t have ammunition, we didn’t have medical supplies, we didn’t have ventilators, we didn’t have a lot of things that should have been had, and you can read your own stories on that because you know what happened. They didn’t want to spend the money, but we did.



PARANOIA--in yellow

R: What is the status of the funding for the World Health Organization?
T: I’m not happy with the World Health Organization. Not happy with the World Trade Organization either. We’ve been ripped off by everybody. We have, this country, for so many years, has been ripped off by everybody, whether it’s the World Health or World Trade. They’re like, I call them, the Bobbsey Twins. They look at our country, for years and years, we had people that did nothing about it. We’re doing a lot about it.

T: I’ve been brutalized [by the press] for the last four years. I used to do well before I decided to run for politics, but I guess I’m doing okay, because to the best of my knowledge, I’m the president of the United States despite the things that are said.

R: But just to be clear, this [video] was produced by government employees, by people here at the White House, this campaign-style video here?
T: I wouldn’t use the word produced. All they did was took some clips, and they just ran them for you. And the reason they did is to keep you honest.

Narcissism

Narcissism: A personality disorder characterized especially by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, persistent need for admiration, lack of empathy for others, excessive pride in achievements, and snobbish, disdainful, or patronizing attitudes.   (Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

This is the second in a daily series of posts about apparent mental disorders displayed by Donald Trump. The quotes are from the transcript of a presidential COVID-19 press briefing held April 13, 2020. I use one briefing for these  commentaries to provide a snapshot of the president's behavior at one point in time.

Some excerpts mention a video. The president played a campaign-style video about 5 minutes long, featuring several governors praising the president.

The excerpts are not continuous. A double space between paragraphs signals a break in continuity. I have not altered the text. I have removed elapsed-time markings and other non-text material that could impede smooth reading, used bold text to emphasize salient phrases, and inserted a few explanatory words in brackets.

The entire transcript can be read at
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-press-conference-transcript-april-13.

----Diogenes, 4/17/20




R=Reporter   T=Trump   Note: Trump frequently uses the royal "we."


NARCISSISM

T: So we have this massive country, the United States of America. We have the greatest economy in the world. Bigger than China’s by a lot, right? Because of what we’ve done over the last three and a half years, prior to the virus, but including the virus. So we have the biggest economy, the greatest economy we’ve ever had, the highest employment numbers, the best employment numbers, best unemployment numbers, also, the best of everything.
     But CDC reported, January 31st not one person has died. And I issued a travel restriction from China. Think of it. So nobody died. And I issued, you can’t get earlier than that. So we have, nobody died. And I said, “China, you can’t come in. I’m sorry”, because I saw what was going on. Wasn’t so much what I was told, it was that I saw what was going on and I didn’t like it.

T: I said, “How was it?” He [Mike Pence] said, “It’s a 10.” He used one of my expressions actually, but he said it was a 10. [Referencing a phone call with governors.]

T: That [campaign-style video] was done by a group in the office, and it was done just by… we just put some clips together. I’ll bet you I have over a hundred more clips even better than them. They were just pieced together over the last two hours. That was just… Oh, we have far better than that. That’s nothing compared to some of them.
R: This was produced here in the White House by-
T: Yeah, this was done by Dan [Scavino, WH media guru] and a group of people, and they just put it together in a period of probably less than two hours.
R: Why’d you feel a need to do that?
T: Because we’re getting fake news, and I like to have it corrected. They’re saying what a great job we’re doing, these are the governors of California, governor of New Jersey, governor of New York.





 

Megalomania

Megalomania: A delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur: Merriam-Webster Dictionary online.

On April 15, 2020, we published a post entitled "A Glossary of Mental Instability" documenting, in our opinion, symptoms of various mental instabilities evident in the speech of Donald Trump. It was far too long and complex for this medium, and we apologize to any visitors who found it inaccessible.

We are therefore going to republish posts dealing with only one or two symptoms per day, beginning here with megalomania, which we believe to be the most pressing.

The original foreword follows, with edits:


I am neither a physician nor a practitioner of psychology. I am an intelligent person with an informed layman's grasp of medicine and psychopathology. I believe I have seen several signs of mental instability, and possibly mental illness, in Donald Trump, the president of the United States.


The material below has been excerpted from the transcript of a presidential Coronavirus press briefing held April 13, 2020. The entire transcript can be read at
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-press-conference-transcript-april-13.

I have not altered the text in any way that changes its meaning. I have removed elapsed time markings and other non-text material that could impede smooth reading. I have also used yellow text to emphasize clearly delusional thinking. None of the statements in yellow have a Constitutional basis.

Please note some of the terms used: Total power, as in totalitarian; and Absolute Right: A legally enforceable right to take some action or to refrain from acting at the sole discretion of the person having the right (FindLaw online legal dictionary).

--Diogenes, 4/16/20


R=reporter; T=Trump

MEGALOMANIA

R: Mr. President, thank you, sir. . . . my question to you is what provision in the Constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies?
T: Numerous provisions. We’ll give you a legal brief if you want.

R: The states that have closed, ordered schools closed, it’s been states that have ordered businesses like restaurants and bars and place-
T: That’s because I let that happen, because I would’ve preferred that. I let that happen. But if I wanted to, I could have closed it up. But I let that happen. I like the way they’ve done it.

R: Yes, Mr. President. Following up on that, there are two consortiums of states today, California, Oregon, Washington on the West Coast, Northeastern states, totally representing about a hundred million people, who said they’re going to cooperate and decide when to reopen those states.
T: Well they can decide, but-
R: Does that undermine what you’re trying to do?
T: No, not at all. Let me just tell you very simple. I’m going to put it very simply. The president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots. If we weren’t here for the states, you would have had a problem in this country like you’ve never seen before. We were here to back them up, and we’ve more than backed them up. We did a job that nobody ever thought was possible. It’s a decision for the president of the United States.
    Now, with that being said, we’re going to work with the states, because it’s very important. You have local governments. They’re pinpointed. It’s really, you talk about… It’s like a microchip. They’re pinpointed. We have local government that hopefully will do a good job. If they don’t do a good job, I’d step in so fast. But no, they can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.

R: Just to clarify your understanding of your authority vis a vis governors. Just to be very specific. For instance, if a governor issued a stay at home order-
T: When you say my authority, the president’s authority, not mine, because it’s not me. This is when somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s got to be.
R: It’s total. Your authority is total?
T: It’s total. It’s total-And the governors know that.
R: What does the authority cover?
T: The authority of the President of the United States having to do with the subject we’re talking about is total.

R: Has any governor agreed that you have the authority to decide when their states [crosstalk 01:27:32]?
T: I haven’t asked anybody because-
R: That no one is [crosstalk 01:27:34]-
T: You know why? Because I don’t have to. Go ahead please.
R: But who told you the president has the total authority?
T: Enough. Please.

R: But you said from the standpoint of the constitution.
T: Yes, the constitution.
R: You thought it should be up to the governors.
T: You can look at it constitutionally, you could look at federalism. You can look at it any different way. John, the fact that I don’t want to exert my power is much different. We have the power. You asked does the federal government has the power? The federal government has absolute power. It has the power as to whether or not I’ll use that power. We’ll see.
    John, I would rather work with the states, because I like going down to a local government. That’s why, with I guess it’s now seven states, not eight, because South Carolina did. They went away from what we discussed the last time, so that’s why I looked at the individual states. They’re doing a very good job. They’re really doing a very good job. I’d rather have them make the decision. Now, the fact that I’d rather have, that’s fine, but I have the absolute right to do if I want to.