Not Strategy but Symptoms

 So, things are a mess. But here's an interesting take on Trump from Andrew Wortman: 

"Trump's 2 a.m. meltdowns and dictator cosplay aren't part of a predetermined strategy--they're collapse. A malignant narcissist, weak and unhealthy, colliding with the one thing he can't escape: DEATH. And his team knows it, which is why they're going full-fascist now. As a psychologist, I can tell you: when malignant narcissists lose control, they don't fade quietly. They escalate exponentially--rage, smear campaigns, humiliation, projection, even violence. Every move is about punishing those who expose their weakness to claw back control. This isn't 'toughness.' It's disintegration. In my field we call it narcissistic mortification: the sheer terror, shame, and dread of being forced to confront one's own fragility. To them, it feels like annihilation--as the false self they've lived behind for decades shatters. 

Mortification hits with both physical and psychological shock--chest pain, burning, panic, humiliation, obsessive thoughts. They feel exposed, worthless desperate. That desperation is what fuels the meltdowns you're watching play out in real time like an SNL skit or horror film. For Trump, the trigger is being faced with his own mortality. He can't sue death. He can't cheat it, bribe it, or con his way out of it. It's inescapable. And for the first time in his life, he's powerless--and the panic shows in every crazed rant and wild attempt to project control. That's why you see him suddenly fixated on things like getting into heaven, legacy, and being remembered. Humiliation is the narcissist's deepest wound--and nothing humiliates more than colliding with the truth that you can't escape the end.

The Epstein files serve to make this terror far worse. Not only do they expose what he's spent 30+ years concealing, but if they surface after he's gone, he can't spin them. The thought of being defined by that humiliation--with no power to control the narrative--is devastating. When narcissists face both mortality AND exposure, collapse deepens. They don't reflect or accept responsibility. They deflect, rage, lie, smear, and escalate authoritarian grabs. Anything to keep the mask intact just a little bit longer--no matter who gets hurt in the process. 

So when you hear, 'Many people want a dictator,' understand: it's not strategy. It's the desperation of a cornered man. His inner circle knows his health is failing, which is why they're sprinting to consolidate power for Vance and others before Trump's decline makes it impossible. And this makes him even more dangerous. A collapsing narcissist doesn't calm down--they grow increasingly volatile, reckless, impulsive, and destructive. His unraveling is personal, but its consequenes--given then office he occupies--will not just be national, but global. History shows what happens when leaders in collapse drag nations into their death spirals. The personal breakdown of one man becomes political crisis for millions. That's exactly what we're seeing now. 

Trump's rants aren't strategy. They're symptoms. His unraveling isn't just about him--it's about the danger of what desperate men do when humiliated and terrified. As a psychologist, I see this clearly: Trump is unraveling. And he wants to take America (and the world) with him. Trump isn't 'playing 4D chess.' He isn't following a plan. He's mentally unraveling--and when men like him unravel, they burn everything around the down. That's the terrifying moment we're in. And it's everything those of us in mental health warned about for years." 

If it helps, Craig Calcaterra has a bit of a consolation for the doom: 

"I've said it before, but reading all the medieval history books I've been reading lately has been so comforting. Makes you realize that there have always been mad and incompetent kings and they almost always die in ignominy, and everyone piles shit on them for centuries after they're gone."

Okay, it's barely consolation, but I do find it helpful to know it's not the only time this has ever happened, it's just the only time anything like this has ever happened to us as it bubbles up to affect our own politics and policy. People have endured far worse, and we might actually get to the other side of it all relatively unscathed. Well, except that while Trump's pitching a fit, other baddies are doubling down on war big time, climate change isn't going anywhere, and the CDC is in shambles, all while vaccine uptake is tanking, and Covid is spiking.  

In Demetre Daskalakis' letter of resignation from the CDC, he wrote: 

"The recent term of reference for the Covid vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults." 

And so it goes.