Rumor is circulating that Trump faked his accountant’s signature on his tax documents during the 80’s in service of tax fraud. Dishonest, but maybe not the worst quality in a President.
I have a more fundamental question: Is Trump mentally unsound? Did Trump fake his doctor’s note? Last year he gave the world a note saying he would be the “healthiest individual ever elected President.” But as Salon pointed out, the note was written in a uniquely Trumpian fashion and screwed up even the simple phrase “To Whom It May Concern”.
And, something Salon didn’t notice: the website on the letter, www.haroldbornsteinmd.com, is a fake.
Please share widely!
…Is Trump mentally sound? For months that has been the obvious question a reporter should be asking, because it is apparent to many that the answer is “no”.
After doing so much shameless promotion of the clown car they finally woke up and realized he’s coarse and offensive and likely to torpedo this election season. He has $2 million on hand which is barely enough to win a house primary in Massachusetts, let alone the White House. His $10 billion valuation is likely artificially inflated due to “brand worth” and values he can’t liquidate to cash to fund this operation.
Clintons team is already shoring up the the white collar swing states Obama won or was close in 2012 (CO, VA, NC, NM, NV, FL) apparently either convinced the Rust Belt strategy won’t work, or securing those states first and saving the reserves for those states down the line.
Trump is spending what little money he has on quixotic ideas like winning New York and holding rallies with friendly crowds in states he is likely going to carry quite easily (TX, GA). And apparently “Lyin Ted” and Kasich are working towards a strategy that stacks a convention committee to free up delegates on the first ballot, which would open the convention to chaos.
They could legally strip Trump of the nomination, it’s unprecedented and would likely result in enough backlash to kill them in November anyway, but at this point even a second tier fall guy like Kasich, Cruz or Sasse could spare them a down ballot disaster. And if the rumors that all Trump really wanted was a TV network are true, maybe Ailes and Rupert give him a graceful off ramp. They basically bribed Palin and Huckabee with a show to keep thrm from running in 2012.
So who knows anything at this point? I don’t even think the Donald knows what he wants out of this anymore. His business brand and tv personality brand are permanently tanked by this bigoted campaign season, and it’s unlikely he has a political future whether he loses, or God forbid, if he wins.
thing: the greater glorification of The Donald. Everything else is a means to this end.
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But for something a little lighter allow me to share a joke I heard this morning:
“President Trump is wandering the WH residence at 2AM, unable to sleep. He walks into a room and encounters the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt. He says, “Teddy, you were a great Republican President, what advice can you give me about leading the nation?” TR’s ghost says, “Always tell the truth to the American people.”
Trump walks into the next room and encounters the ghost of Franklin Roosevelt. He says, “I know we are of different parties, but you led the country through depression and war. What advice can you give me?” FDR’s ghost says, “Be sure to take care of the working people of the country.”
Finally Trump wanders into another room and encounters the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. He says, “This is so great. You are the greatest President in history and one of the founders of our party. Surely YOU have some advice you can give me!” Honest Abe says, “I sure do. This Friday evening, take your wife and go see a play at Ford’s Theater. I hear those shows are to die for!”
I emailed it to ma, maybe she’ll send it to some of her Trump supporting cousins too đŸ˜‰
someone without knowing them (or being a trained professional for that matter), but he fits the characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder:
To be diagnosed, a person doesn’t usually need every symptom. I don’t have the DSM, so it’s hard to say. What’s unique about Trump is that he started out with money, so he appears to have the success he feels the need to have. Personality disorders are difficult for the sufferers to recognize and also hard to treat.
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brain. Friend, look to it.
It wasn’t a good road when Senator Frist made political diagnoses, and it is still not a good road.
True enough.
Still, Richard Nixon had clear emotional issues, and millions of Americans witnessed Ronald Reagan’s emerging Alzheimer’s during the 1984 campaign (and voted for him anyway).
It seems to me that when we place so much power in the hands of a single individual, we might do well to have some more effective way of protecting ourselves from the consequences of medical and emotional disorders that can strike any of us at any time.
I don’t think every candidate could be diagnosed, even if it were desirable. There’s just not enough information. I’d put money on Trump having narcissistic personality disorder. (See KBusch’s comment below for a take by professionals).
Moreover, the diagnoses is useful because it 1) explains his behavior comprehensively 2) allows us to predict his (re)actions, and 3) allows those who actually have to deal with him a path toward manipulating him.
a pretty good way to cheapen and stigmatize people with mental illness. Dems are pretty well situated on the moral high ground here; this would be a great way to throw that away and appear to be conniving, unscrupulous shits.
I think when liberal analysis veers into smugness or cockiness, liberals lose. Matt Taibbi and Tom Frank have done a great job in their writing empathisizing with the Trump voter and listing the ways both parties have failed them, including the Democratic Party which uses to be their natural home.
This would only cheapen and stigmatize people with mental illness if it was a cheap ratfucking tactic for amoral use of other peoples stigmatizing.
Democrats don’t do that. The fact that you think you have to point it out to us suggests your more practiced in thinking this way than we are.
Acting like a child is pretty darn good way to be scolded for acting like a child. Scolding you for acting like a child is conniving and unscrupulous only if, in fact, you’re NOT acting like a child. But you are. So knock it off.
to be confused with hesterprynne whose comment on the take by professionals is below.
Face the Nation I’ll be sure not to mention The Donald’s personality disorder.
I’ve got more experience with mental illness than the average person, and I have to say, I don’t see any stigma coming from saying Trump has a personality disorder. Mental illness doesn’t discriminate.
Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter.
in this month’s Atlantic. The author is the chair of the psychology department at Northwestern.
Spoiler alert: Trump has many of the same personality qualities as Andrew Jackson (social dominance, volatile temper, shades of narcissism, populist authoritarian appeal) but seems to lack Jackson’s ability to use his anger strategically to promote his agenda.