READING TIME: 3 minutes
SUMMARY: Most of your Sunday show and cable news show pundits read Trump’s Easter weekend Iran social media posts and concluded that Trump is crazy, should be Twenty-Fifth Amendmented, and left it at that. But, there is so much more there than that. By understanding Trump’s narcissism, we can make a few predictions about how he’ll conclude his war crime in Iran.
KEY TERMS: War Crime, Iran, Social Media Posts, Trump, Narcissism, Narcissistic Wound, Bullying, Ralph Kramden, Narcissistic Equilibrium, Delusion of Perfection
COMMENTS: How do you think Trump’s misadventure with war crimes in Iran will end? How does he get out of the mess he’s created?
Most pundits, reporters, and sane people are reacting to Trump’s explicit threats of civilization destroying violence with some form of “This shit is crazy.” As well, they should. We’ve seen multiple calls for Twenty-Fifth Amendment ING his dumb flabby hairless white ass. And, as accurate as that is, I think it misses the wider more important point. But, before we get to the important points, let’s look at the social media posts that set the world’s hair on fire.
Trump’s Crazy Social Media Posts
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.
The Four Most Important Points
One Tool: Bullying
The first point is Trump’s limited toolkit. Trump is in the most unique hole he’s ever dug for himself. He has one tool, bullying, so he has only one option, to keep digging. Unfortunately, the Iranians can’t be bullied. They know their history. Every major war since Korea, the US has been defeated by waiting us out. Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were all lost when the US public all gave up on the endless wars. The Netanyahu-Trump War Crime will be no different, only shorter.
Cosplaying Ralph Kramden for his Base
The second point is that he’s playing to his base. His cosplaying of Ralph Kramden seems designed to appeal to the 1950’s Leave It To Beaver vision of a tough guy. For all of his bluster, you get the impression it is all bluff. Even his threats to rain hell down on the Iranians is just another version of “To the moon, Alice!” And, just like Ralph, it is Trump, not NATO, that is the paper tiger.
Self-Inflicted Narcissistic Wound
Why is Trump making such an obvious empty threat? Why hasn’t he realized that the world figured him out when they labeled him TACO? This is where you gotta understand his narcissism. The Netanyahu-Trump War Crime is the perfect example of a self-inflicted narcissistic wound.
The whole war with Iran thing was meant to be over quickly, cast him in the light of a military jenius who knows more than his generals, and rally the nation to him. We were to realize just how great he is after he slew America’s greatest enemy and be grateful to have him in office. We were to beg him to remain in office in violation of the Constitution and our democracy.
When it was clear that the generals were right and this was a dumb as a bag of rusty hammers idea, he felt humiliated. Then, it slowly dawned on him that there is no good way out of this mess, especially after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. In short, Trump is frustrated. He can’t end the war. He can’t beat Iran. He knows it.
He’s terrified that he will be revealed to be the impuissant, ineffective incompetent that he is. The line, “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards…” betrays it all. It is the epitome of impotence. He’s left tilting at windmills on social media.
Returning to Narcissistic Equilibrium
A narcissist’s delusion of perfection cannot be deflated for long. After jactating to the five year olds at the White House Easter Egg Roll, he felt like his flaccid facade had been reinflated. By Tuesday, he felt confident enough to enter into a bit of self aggrandizement.
The line, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” is a pretty unmistakable casting of himself in some god-like position. He is Trump destroyer of civilizations! Look upon my delusion ye mighty and despair! Jebus! What a maroon. Seriously.
Now, that he is back to some kind of equilibrium, he pushed the ultimatum’s date with destiny back by two whole weeks.
Because Trump has flown too close to the sun, he’s probably less enamored with military adventurism. He’s less confident of his ability to intuit the right military moves. Eventually, he will produce some spectacular spectacle in Iran, declare victory, and walk away from the mess. Europe will negotiate a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump will then focus his attention on the mid-terms and return to terrorizing Americans. It’s much easier to play jack-booted thug at home than it is abroad… at least that’s what he and Stephen Miller think.
Image Attribution
This image was found on Timeless & Timely and has a Creative Commons license.
He also got everybody in the world (pretty much) begging him not to go through with the threats. The relief when he agrees to the cease fire at the last moment is huge. This morning the stock markets are up, big up, everywhere. Of course, there is some disagreement already as to what the terms of the deal mean. Two weeks isn’t a solution to the problem.
No reblog button?
Howdy Bob!
Other than the blatant market manipulation, I imagine there is a dopamine connection to having the entire world freak out because they think you’re going to nuke 90 million people. It is the only way he can sustain his sense of importance.
The two weeks of calm makes me wonder if after it is over whether Trump will do anything. By then, he’ll have another distraction going. He may just quietly let the whole thing drop. Quietly begin drawing down the troops and try to never mention it again. Seriously, he’s been so humiliated by the entire affair, it will be a major narcissistic wound, but it probably will leave him vowing to never intervene militarily anywhere again. Of course, the narcissistic wound means he has to annihilate Iran.
So, consider this. He really meant to nuke Iran, but enough of his top military officers refused to follow the orders that he decided to back off of the threat. And, the munitions have been so badly depleted that we can no longer sustain the blistering barage of bombardment that would keep Trump’s attention. All of that feels possible.
Huzzah!
Jack
PS Oh, I made a change to a non-public facing aspect of the blog and it changed a lot of stuff. I’m trying to undo it and hope that it goes back to the way it was, including the reblog button.
It is getting to the4 point that nothing Donny says is surprising….he is a predictable d/bag. chuq