The Mysterious Case of the Narcissist and the Horde of Secret US Documents

This post is now paired with Was Trump’s Horde of Secret Documents a Product of Executive Dysfunction? which explores the possibility that Trump’s executive dysfunction caused him to horde the super secret government documents in the poolside closet at his shrine to tacky grasping in Florida.

There has been lots of pixels spilt on the FBI search of Merde-a-Lago (Thanks Tengrain!) for stolen secret documents. There’s been the informative based on the law and the process of obtaining and executing a warrant. Thanks, Sisters-In-Law podcast! There’s been the ubiquitous “guilty, guilty, guilty” chorus from leftist social media, and blatant attacks on the FBI including doxing the agents and judged involved from right-wing media and politicians. And, of course, an endless supply of hot takes about what it all means from the uninformed.

To my knowledge, though, no one has looked at what it means for an unproductive malignant narcissist to have stolen from the White House. However, there are several important implications for the case. First, we’ll review the elements of Trump’s diagnosis since we haven’t posted about it in a while. Then, we’ll discuss implications.

Trump’s Diagnosis

There are three parts, so we’ll take them one-by-one.

Unproductive

This part of the diagnosis refers to Trump’s executive dysfunction. He lacks the ability to have his rational thought process manage his emotions for very long. He cannot plan and execute plans. He cannot control his impulses. He cannot focus his attention for extended periods of time. And he cannot see things from the perspective of other people.

He simply lacks the cognitive skill set that allows us to regulate our behavior. For more, see the linked post.

Malignant

Malignance doesn’t have much bearing here. It is the enjoyment of other people’s pain and discomfort. He deliberately inflicts pain on those around him, groups of people, and entire classes of people. It is the primary driver of his #COVID19 policy and his response to the hurricanes in Puerto Rico.

Narcissism

Since 2016, Ye Olde Blogge has posted frequently about Trump’s narcissism and its implications. So much so that we got sick of it and were secretly praying that we’d never have to post about it again, but… Oh well. If wishes were fishes, I’d be nauseated because I can’t stand the smell.

Anywho, what it does mean is that there is lots to pick and choose from when looking for information on narcissism. Here’s one of my favorite explanations and will serve here:

 (1) [A] narcissist, literally, believes his every thought to be the best most intelligent most penetrating most insightful mostest everything that there has ever been since his last thought. (2) A narcissist, literally, believes his every thought is true. There is no doubt in his mind that what he is saying is true no matter how outlandish the claim is. It’s as if the neurological hardware that underpins shame, embarrassment, and judgment are missing. It is as if he has no ability to distinguish fact from fiction unless forced to carefully use his cognitive rational thought processes to focus on it. (3) A narcissist, literally, believes that since he is the best exceptions will be made for him, his needs, and his desires. (4) A narcissist, literally, cannot learn from experience. No misjudgment, failure, or lapse is ever his fault, so he never needs to analyze the reasons for it occurring beyond having associated with who ever he blamed it on. A narcissist, literally, cannot reflect on his behavior and make adjustments. And (5) a narcissist, literally, cannot stand when his incompetence and misdeeds — of which there are always many — are exposed as his fault beyond any reasonable doubt. In other words, when he is held accountable. When this happens, it is described as a narcissistic wound — the hole in the dancing, giggling, bouncing grotesquery that threatens to cause it to deflate — not only does he lash out, he seeks to utterly destroy that which is causing the wound. Not only must it be destroyed but any and every thought or memory of it must be completely vanquished. And, if that doesn’t give you a chill, ain’t nothing will.

Implications in the Theft of Government Secrets

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING: He doesn’t have the ability to pull off such a caper by himself. Secrets just don’t lay in your hotel room safe waiting for the manager to come unlock it for you because you forgot your super secret combination that no one could ever guess at the White House. It isn’t a common golf resort, you know.

To get secrets, especially SCI class secrets out, you have to go through lots of rigmarole. You just don’t walk up to a filing cabinet, thumb through it, and take out the folder you want.

Trump don’t do no work, either. So, we have the following questions to answer:

• Who helped him get the documents out of their secure settings?
• Who helped him select the documents?
• Who helped him pack the documents and remove them from the WH?
• Who helped him store them at Merde-a-Lago (Thanks, Tengrain!)?

MALIGNANCE

While malignance, cruelty, doesn’t play a big role in the espionage, it does have a small role. You may have heard that the names of the FBI agents were published by right wing media sources. This information could only have come from Trump releasing his copy of the warrant. The court would’ve redacted it.

He means for the flying monkey brigade to go all Alex Jones on their asses and make their lives a living hell until someone pulls a Ricky Shiffer and shoots them with a nail gun.

NARCISSISTIC THOUGHT PROCESS:

• Since narcissists believe that their every thought is the best thought ever thunk in the history of humankind, whatever reason he has given himself for having to have these documents is legitimate.
• Since narcissists think everything they think is true, Trump believes that he declassified the documents. He believes he had a standing order that any document he took to the residence was to be declassified, too.
• Since narcissists believe that exceptions will be made for them, he assumes that we’ll all understand that he either needed or wanted these documents and we’ll approve of it. He’s special. We should let him have them.
• Since narcissists cannot learn, it doesn’t matter how many times he’s been told about maintaining and protecting secrets. He knows he’s the best, he knows more than everyone else, so he knows what to do with secrets (Hint: sell them!) Remember, he’s the same guy who lost a carrier group because he didn’t bother to follow the chain of command and “appointed” Sydney Powell to be a super secret special prosecutor. He doesn’t follow procedure.
• Since narcissists must destroy whatever points out their imperfections, is it any wonder that he has published the names of the FBI agents who were on the search? That his minions in Congress are threatening to investigate and impeach Merrick Garland? That the GQP is fomenting violence in general?

SELF-SOOTHING: Why would he take this material? As I understand it, he doesn’t read. He preferred charts and graphs and verbal presentations to reading his briefing material. His desk and workspaces were empty, devoid of paper or any semblance of modern work.

He obviously didn’t want this memorabilia so that he could read it when he got all nostalgic for the good old days.

He liked to show it off. Reporting suggests that he kept Obama’s letter in the Resolute Desk drawer, in a ziplock no doubt to protect from all the pee that paid the pee-hookers to pee on the Resolute Desk, the Constitution, and American values (allegedly), so he could show it to visitors. Why’d he do that?

When he’s making the rounds in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago, he’d send an aide to fetch an executive order to show people. Why’d he do that?

Having lost 2020 was a huge blow to his bloated ego. He took all of that crap in part to help sooth his narcissistic wound. It made him feel better. He could assure himself that he was still important. He might have even told himself that it was proof that he had actually won.

JARED: During the winter of 2020 as we anxiously awaited Inauguration Day, many people speculated about this very event: Trump would steal top secret documents from the White House and sell them.

As pointed out above, Trump just isn’t capable of doing it. He lacks sufficient executive functioning. But, you know who does have the executive functioning, the moral degeneracy, and the security clearance to do it? Jared.

Didn’t you wonder about the two billion dollars that MBS gave him for his start-up investment firm? Really. Invest in the guy who bought 666 Fifth Avenue for such an exorbitant price that it nearly bankrupted him? You want to invest in that guy’s business acumen?

What did MBS say about him? He had his balls in his pocket? Something like that.

You gotta at least consider the possibility that there is a conspiracy to sell these secrets to China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, right? But, just like the 6 January Insurrection, Trump didn’t organize it. He enabled it. He benefited from it. But, he didn’t organize it, and he hasn’t organized the theft of these documents either. He’s still responsible for all of it and should be prosecuted as such, though.

Image Attribution

“Top Secret” by Malakhi Helel is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.