U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
17 April 2020
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.
16 April 2020
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.
15 April 2020
A Glossary of Mental Instability
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.
So many commentators have spoken of Trump's Narcissism that it seems hardly worth mentioning. Still, I believe it to be only a part of Trump's psychopathology.
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. I have removed elapsed time markings and other non-text material that could impede smooth reading. I have also used italic and bold text to emphasize certain phrases, and I have inserted a few explanatory words in brackets.
I have arranged the conditions I believe affect the president alphabetically to avoid any appearance of suggesting any as being of greater or lesser importance.
The final section, "The Rabbit Hole," contains a few examples of the unfiltered babble that frequently escapes the presidential lips.
--Diogenes, 4/15/2020
R=Reporter; T=Trump
BLAME PROJECTION
R: What is the status of the funding for the World Health Organization?
T: We’re going to be talking about that very soon. I’m getting a full report. 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. So we’ll have a report and we’ll also, we’re also talking about the World Trade Organization, but we’ve made a lot of progress there. We’re now winning cases for the first time because they know I’ll leave if we don’t get treated fairly.
This country, our country, was at a point where we’ve rarely, if ever, won the lawsuits within the World Trade Organization, but now we’re winning a lot of them because they know I’m not playing games. We will pull out if we have to. We just won a $7 billion lawsuit, which was very nice.
R: [News about] Theodore Roosevelt has died. Have you decided the status of Captain Crozier, the former [crosstalk 00:11:03].
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. I just left the top executives at Abbott. Who would have thought that would have happened where they have such a great test as that?
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. To date, we’ve facilitated the supply of more than 38 million N95 masks nationwide. This week we’ll be sending two million N95 masks to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
DENIAL
T: This is reported by CDC, confirmed by the news, which doesn’t mean anything to me, because they don’t tell the truth.
T: And so the story in the New York Times was a total fake. It’s a fake newspaper and they write fake stories. And someday, hopefully in five years when I’m not here, those papers are all going out of business, because nobody’s going to want to read them, but now they like them because they wrote about me.
T: [Following a 4-minute campaign-style video]: I have many clips. I have some clips from Anthony [Fauci] that I didn’t want to put up, which were really good. I think Anthony would be the first one to say when I closed the country to China, the China ban, whatever you want to call it, Anthony said I saved a lot of lives by doing that. I mean, am I correct? I don’t want to put words in Anthony’s mouth, by the way, and I like him. Today I walk in, I hear I’m going to fire him. I’m not firing him. I think he’s a wonderful guy. I retweeted somebody, I don’t know. They said fire, doesn’t matter.
R: Did you notice that when you retweeted it?
T: Yeah, I notice everything.
R: So you retweeted it even though it said time to fire Fauci?
T: Well, no, that’s somebody’s opinion. All that is is a opinion.
R: But you read it, and you elevated it.
T: Well, I was called about that. I said, “I’m not firing.” In fact, if you ask your friends in the public relations office, I was immediately called upon that, and I said, “No, I like him. I think he’s terrific.” Because this was a person’s view. Not everybody’s happy with Anthony. Not everybody’s happy with everybody, but I will tell you, we have done a job the likes of which nobody has ever done. The mobilization, getting of equipment, all of the things we’ve done, nobody’s ever done a job like this. We have 50 governors and territories, by the way, people don’t ever mention that. We have territories.
R: What did you do with that time that you bought? The argument is that you bought yourself some time. You didn’t use it to prepare hospitals. You didn’t use it to ramp up testing. Right now, nearly 20 million people are unemployed.
T: You’re so disgraceful. It’s so disgraceful the way you say that. Let me just, listen. I just went over it.
R: Tens of thousands of Americans are dead. How is this [crosstalk 00:35:57] or this rant supposed to make people feel confident in an unprecedented crisis?
T: I just went over it. Nobody thought we should do it, and when I did it-
R: But what did you do with the time that you bought? The month of February. That video has a gap, the entire month of February.
T: You know what we did? What do you do when you have no case in the whole United States?
R: You had cases in February.
T: Excuse me. You reported it. Zero cases, zero deaths on January 17th-
R: January, February, the entire month of February.
T: I said in January.
R: That video has a complete gap.
T: On January 30th-
R: What did your administration do in February for the time that your travel ban bought you?
T: A lot.
R: What?
T: A lot, and in fact, we’ll give you a list. What we did, in fact, part of it was up there. [Referring to the video.]
R: It wasn’t. Your video had a gap.
T: We did a lot. Look, look, you know you’re a fake. You know that. Your whole network, the way you cover it is fake, and most of you, and not all of you, but the people are wise to you. That’s why you have a lower approval rating than you’ve ever had before times probably three.
R: 20 million people are unemployed. Tens of thousands are dead.
T: And when you asked me that question, let me ask you this, why did Biden apologize? Why did he write a letter of apology?
R: I don’t think anyone in this room cares about why Joe Biden didn’t apologize to you.
T: No, that’s very important. Why did the Democrats think that I acted too quickly? You know why? Because they really thought that I acted too quickly. We have done a great job. . . . The problem is the press doesn’t cover it the way it should be.
LIES (in red)
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 say, [crosstalk 00:35:24] 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. That’s not even really our responsibility.
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 situations of shortage. Only three reuses are allowed.]
MEGALOMANIA
R: Mr. President, thank you, sir. In regards to some of your tweets earlier today, and I think it was Steve’s question, 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: We’ll be looking forward to that, sir. But following up, what happens if you say, for instance, we want states to reopen, but California or New York do not open, what would you do then?
T: Well, I think everybody wants to open. I mean, I guess-
R: Sorry, could I just ask one other thing on the-
T: I guess that could happen, but I don’t think that would happen.
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: So if some States refused to reopen and you ordered them to, the 10th amendment of the constitution says all powers that don’t reside in the president of the Congress reside in the states, how do you overcome that?
T: Well if some states refuse to open, I would like to see that person run for election. They’re going to open. They’re going to all open.
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: So if a governor-
T: The governors know that. Now you have a couple of bands of-
R: Could you rescind that order?T: You have a couple of bands of Democrat governors, but they will agree to it. They will agree it.
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: A quick question on something you just said. You said when someone is President of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?
T: You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to write up papers on this. It’s not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other, because ultimately, it comes with the federal government. That being said, we’re getting along very well with the governors and I feel very certain that there won’t be a problem. Yeah please, go ahead.
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: One last thing on this question on this question of constitutionality. I’m just wondering what changed your view because-
T: Nothing changed it. I know exactly what you’re going to say. Nothing changed it. The fact that I want to rely on states, or maybe will or have, and the fact that we’ve gotten on, that’s one thing. The fact that I don’t want to use the power is another thing. Look-
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. I may not want to. We have a very good relationship now. We’ll see what happens. If you notice the few states you’re talking about, they’re all with democrat governors, but if governors are doing a good job and they control it better, because you don’t have somebody in Washington saying, “Set up a testing site in the parking lot of a Walmart.” We’re in Washington, and they’re in a state that’s very far away.
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.
T: 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. But I didn’t speak to Tony about, didn’t speak to very many people about it. I didn’t like it. So what did I do?
T: I said, “How was it?” He said, “It’s a 10.” He used one of my expressions actually, but he said it was a 10.
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] 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.
PARANOIA
T: Brutalized by the press, but I’ve been brutalized 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. Now, I don’t think that’s going to work. It’s not going to have any impact, but just think of it.
THE RABBIT HOLE
T: So we just want to say warmest condolences and we’re with you all the way. It’s a tough deal. That was a bad, bad level five. That was a bad group. That’s as high as it gets. It was a bad grouping of tornadoes, something that’s something incredible, the power, the horrible, destructive power.
R: From China, why are there no consequences for China for the misinformation that they shared-
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: Well, you’ve been asked and it appears that they’re weren’t-
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: What are the consequences Mr. President of the misinformation-
T: I wouldn’t tell you. China will find out. Why would I tell you?
R: But people are concerned that they stone-walled [crosstalk 01:30:35]-
T: No, you started off by saying why are there no consequences?
R: But you’ve been asked this a few times, [inaudible 01:30:39]. Why are there no consequences for China?
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: Because we’ve asked you and said-
T: You’re going to find out.
R: You’ve said [crosstalk 01:30:45].
T: I wouldn’t tell you. You’d probably be the last person on earth I’d tell.
R: So you’re saying there was no consequences?
T: See, I don’t want to tell you now, but right now we have a very strong indication that we know pretty much we have some good ideas. I also want to have … We’ll have video conference or at least a conference call with a lot of very good people having to do with certain fields, whether it’s energy or whether it’s entertainment and restaurants, et cetera, et cetera.
T: You looked at the charts, and the charts are, and the models from early on predictions were 100 and 120,000 people look like if they did well, they were going to unfortunately perish. And we’re going to be hopefully way, way below that number. So that will be a sign of people doing things right, but it’s still just a horrible thing all over the world, 184 countries. This is attribute the wonderful healthcare advisors and experts who have been with us right from the beginning. We appreciate it so much.
So many commentators have spoken of Trump's Narcissism that it seems hardly worth mentioning. Still, I believe it to be only a part of Trump's psychopathology.
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. I have removed elapsed time markings and other non-text material that could impede smooth reading. I have also used italic and bold text to emphasize certain phrases, and I have inserted a few explanatory words in brackets.
I have arranged the conditions I believe affect the president alphabetically to avoid any appearance of suggesting any as being of greater or lesser importance.
The final section, "The Rabbit Hole," contains a few examples of the unfiltered babble that frequently escapes the presidential lips.
--Diogenes, 4/15/2020
R=Reporter; T=Trump
BLAME PROJECTION
R: What is the status of the funding for the World Health Organization?
T: We’re going to be talking about that very soon. I’m getting a full report. 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. So we’ll have a report and we’ll also, we’re also talking about the World Trade Organization, but we’ve made a lot of progress there. We’re now winning cases for the first time because they know I’ll leave if we don’t get treated fairly.
This country, our country, was at a point where we’ve rarely, if ever, won the lawsuits within the World Trade Organization, but now we’re winning a lot of them because they know I’m not playing games. We will pull out if we have to. We just won a $7 billion lawsuit, which was very nice.
R: [News about] Theodore Roosevelt has died. Have you decided the status of Captain Crozier, the former [crosstalk 00:11:03].
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. I just left the top executives at Abbott. Who would have thought that would have happened where they have such a great test as that?
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. To date, we’ve facilitated the supply of more than 38 million N95 masks nationwide. This week we’ll be sending two million N95 masks to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
DENIAL
T: This is reported by CDC, confirmed by the news, which doesn’t mean anything to me, because they don’t tell the truth.
T: And so the story in the New York Times was a total fake. It’s a fake newspaper and they write fake stories. And someday, hopefully in five years when I’m not here, those papers are all going out of business, because nobody’s going to want to read them, but now they like them because they wrote about me.
T: [Following a 4-minute campaign-style video]: I have many clips. I have some clips from Anthony [Fauci] that I didn’t want to put up, which were really good. I think Anthony would be the first one to say when I closed the country to China, the China ban, whatever you want to call it, Anthony said I saved a lot of lives by doing that. I mean, am I correct? I don’t want to put words in Anthony’s mouth, by the way, and I like him. Today I walk in, I hear I’m going to fire him. I’m not firing him. I think he’s a wonderful guy. I retweeted somebody, I don’t know. They said fire, doesn’t matter.
R: Did you notice that when you retweeted it?
T: Yeah, I notice everything.
R: So you retweeted it even though it said time to fire Fauci?
T: Well, no, that’s somebody’s opinion. All that is is a opinion.
R: But you read it, and you elevated it.
T: Well, I was called about that. I said, “I’m not firing.” In fact, if you ask your friends in the public relations office, I was immediately called upon that, and I said, “No, I like him. I think he’s terrific.” Because this was a person’s view. Not everybody’s happy with Anthony. Not everybody’s happy with everybody, but I will tell you, we have done a job the likes of which nobody has ever done. The mobilization, getting of equipment, all of the things we’ve done, nobody’s ever done a job like this. We have 50 governors and territories, by the way, people don’t ever mention that. We have territories.
R: What did you do with that time that you bought? The argument is that you bought yourself some time. You didn’t use it to prepare hospitals. You didn’t use it to ramp up testing. Right now, nearly 20 million people are unemployed.
T: You’re so disgraceful. It’s so disgraceful the way you say that. Let me just, listen. I just went over it.
R: Tens of thousands of Americans are dead. How is this [crosstalk 00:35:57] or this rant supposed to make people feel confident in an unprecedented crisis?
T: I just went over it. Nobody thought we should do it, and when I did it-
R: But what did you do with the time that you bought? The month of February. That video has a gap, the entire month of February.
T: You know what we did? What do you do when you have no case in the whole United States?
R: You had cases in February.
T: Excuse me. You reported it. Zero cases, zero deaths on January 17th-
R: January, February, the entire month of February.
T: I said in January.
R: That video has a complete gap.
T: On January 30th-
R: What did your administration do in February for the time that your travel ban bought you?
T: A lot.
R: What?
T: A lot, and in fact, we’ll give you a list. What we did, in fact, part of it was up there. [Referring to the video.]
R: It wasn’t. Your video had a gap.
T: We did a lot. Look, look, you know you’re a fake. You know that. Your whole network, the way you cover it is fake, and most of you, and not all of you, but the people are wise to you. That’s why you have a lower approval rating than you’ve ever had before times probably three.
R: 20 million people are unemployed. Tens of thousands are dead.
T: And when you asked me that question, let me ask you this, why did Biden apologize? Why did he write a letter of apology?
R: I don’t think anyone in this room cares about why Joe Biden didn’t apologize to you.
T: No, that’s very important. Why did the Democrats think that I acted too quickly? You know why? Because they really thought that I acted too quickly. We have done a great job. . . . The problem is the press doesn’t cover it the way it should be.
LIES (in red)
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 say, [crosstalk 00:35:24] 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. That’s not even really our responsibility.
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 situations of shortage. Only three reuses are allowed.]
MEGALOMANIA
R: Mr. President, thank you, sir. In regards to some of your tweets earlier today, and I think it was Steve’s question, 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: We’ll be looking forward to that, sir. But following up, what happens if you say, for instance, we want states to reopen, but California or New York do not open, what would you do then?
T: Well, I think everybody wants to open. I mean, I guess-
R: Sorry, could I just ask one other thing on the-
T: I guess that could happen, but I don’t think that would happen.
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: So if some States refused to reopen and you ordered them to, the 10th amendment of the constitution says all powers that don’t reside in the president of the Congress reside in the states, how do you overcome that?
T: Well if some states refuse to open, I would like to see that person run for election. They’re going to open. They’re going to all open.
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: So if a governor-
T: The governors know that. Now you have a couple of bands of-
R: Could you rescind that order?T: You have a couple of bands of Democrat governors, but they will agree to it. They will agree it.
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: A quick question on something you just said. You said when someone is President of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?
T: You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to write up papers on this. It’s not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other, because ultimately, it comes with the federal government. That being said, we’re getting along very well with the governors and I feel very certain that there won’t be a problem. Yeah please, go ahead.
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: One last thing on this question on this question of constitutionality. I’m just wondering what changed your view because-
T: Nothing changed it. I know exactly what you’re going to say. Nothing changed it. The fact that I want to rely on states, or maybe will or have, and the fact that we’ve gotten on, that’s one thing. The fact that I don’t want to use the power is another thing. Look-
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. I may not want to. We have a very good relationship now. We’ll see what happens. If you notice the few states you’re talking about, they’re all with democrat governors, but if governors are doing a good job and they control it better, because you don’t have somebody in Washington saying, “Set up a testing site in the parking lot of a Walmart.” We’re in Washington, and they’re in a state that’s very far away.
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.
T: 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. But I didn’t speak to Tony about, didn’t speak to very many people about it. I didn’t like it. So what did I do?
T: I said, “How was it?” He said, “It’s a 10.” He used one of my expressions actually, but he said it was a 10.
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] 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.
PARANOIA
T: Brutalized by the press, but I’ve been brutalized 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. Now, I don’t think that’s going to work. It’s not going to have any impact, but just think of it.
THE RABBIT HOLE
T: So we just want to say warmest condolences and we’re with you all the way. It’s a tough deal. That was a bad, bad level five. That was a bad group. That’s as high as it gets. It was a bad grouping of tornadoes, something that’s something incredible, the power, the horrible, destructive power.
R: From China, why are there no consequences for China for the misinformation that they shared-
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: Well, you’ve been asked and it appears that they’re weren’t-
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: What are the consequences Mr. President of the misinformation-
T: I wouldn’t tell you. China will find out. Why would I tell you?
R: But people are concerned that they stone-walled [crosstalk 01:30:35]-
T: No, you started off by saying why are there no consequences?
R: But you’ve been asked this a few times, [inaudible 01:30:39]. Why are there no consequences for China?
T: How do you know that there are no consequences?
R: Because we’ve asked you and said-
T: You’re going to find out.
R: You’ve said [crosstalk 01:30:45].
T: I wouldn’t tell you. You’d probably be the last person on earth I’d tell.
R: So you’re saying there was no consequences?
T: See, I don’t want to tell you now, but right now we have a very strong indication that we know pretty much we have some good ideas. I also want to have … We’ll have video conference or at least a conference call with a lot of very good people having to do with certain fields, whether it’s energy or whether it’s entertainment and restaurants, et cetera, et cetera.
T: You looked at the charts, and the charts are, and the models from early on predictions were 100 and 120,000 people look like if they did well, they were going to unfortunately perish. And we’re going to be hopefully way, way below that number. So that will be a sign of people doing things right, but it’s still just a horrible thing all over the world, 184 countries. This is attribute the wonderful healthcare advisors and experts who have been with us right from the beginning. We appreciate it so much.
13 April 2020
On solipsism
Solipsism is "The belief that only oneself and one's experience exists."
That sentence from the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy captures the gist of solipsism, but barely scratches the surface of an exceedingly complex subject. Nonetheless, with apologies to true philosophers, I'm going to discuss it using only that brief description as a basis.
A great many commentators have discussed narcissism as a major trait of the Great Pretender. Rather than cite any I simply suggest you search "Trump narcissism." You will see that "many commentators" is not an overstatement.
Narcissistic he certainly is, but to such an extreme degree that specialists should be asking what underlies it. I have been of the opinion for some time that Donald Trump is afflicted with a pathological form of solipsism.
Consider his behavior:
"We have a tremendous energy business with hundreds of thousands of jobs. We’re doing great. Number one in the world. So they all got together and they said we’re going to cut it because we have to get rid of this tremendous supply. Now the good news is gasoline prices, I’m seeing 90 cents, 85 cents in different parts of the country, a gallon. Nobody’s ever seen that. I guess you have to go back to the 1950s for that. The big large dollar bills. Remember? You don’t remember, you’re too young. But the fact that you have to go back a long ways to see it."*
There is no direct answer about oil reduction strategy there at all. Because solipsists listen only to their own thoughts, they are limited in the kinds of things they can say and how they say them.
That is all I, a layman, will say about Trump and solipsism. I urge those with knowledge and wisdom greater than mine to investigate the hypothesis.
--Diogenes
*https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task force press-conference-transcript-april-10
**https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
That sentence from the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy captures the gist of solipsism, but barely scratches the surface of an exceedingly complex subject. Nonetheless, with apologies to true philosophers, I'm going to discuss it using only that brief description as a basis.
A great many commentators have discussed narcissism as a major trait of the Great Pretender. Rather than cite any I simply suggest you search "Trump narcissism." You will see that "many commentators" is not an overstatement.
Narcissistic he certainly is, but to such an extreme degree that specialists should be asking what underlies it. I have been of the opinion for some time that Donald Trump is afflicted with a pathological form of solipsism.
Consider his behavior:
- He cannot endure difference of opinion, so he has fitted most major administrative offices with a revolving door. Solipsism does not recognize or even admit the existence of the thoughts of others, so when a contrary thought comes his way, out goes the offending person.
- He seemingly has no control of his vocal responses. He answers questions with a flood of words, repeated phrases and unrelated comments in strings of words that are impossible to parse intelligibly. Here's a recent response to a question about reducing oil production:
"We have a tremendous energy business with hundreds of thousands of jobs. We’re doing great. Number one in the world. So they all got together and they said we’re going to cut it because we have to get rid of this tremendous supply. Now the good news is gasoline prices, I’m seeing 90 cents, 85 cents in different parts of the country, a gallon. Nobody’s ever seen that. I guess you have to go back to the 1950s for that. The big large dollar bills. Remember? You don’t remember, you’re too young. But the fact that you have to go back a long ways to see it."*
There is no direct answer about oil reduction strategy there at all. Because solipsists listen only to their own thoughts, they are limited in the kinds of things they can say and how they say them.
- He lies. Throughout the press conference cited above he repeated several times that COVID-19 case numbers were declining. In point of fact, on the day he spoke the number of new cases in the U. S. reached 33,752, the second-highest number since the pandemic began**
That is all I, a layman, will say about Trump and solipsism. I urge those with knowledge and wisdom greater than mine to investigate the hypothesis.
--Diogenes
*https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task force press-conference-transcript-april-10
**https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
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