Making Sense of POTUS: Part IV--Traits 5 and 6

On to the next two traits! They are:
5--POTUS feels entitled to special treatment and thus also feels victimized by others' criticism of him.

6--When Mr. Trump feels victimized, he becomes angry and publicly shames the object(s) of his ire.

 

Examples of these attributes are ubiquitous. So, let's use the ongoing Trump Campaign-Russian Influence scandal to illustrate them. To frame the discussion, the elements of each attribute will be treated individually.

Entitled to Special Treatment The President requested a loyalty oath from James Comey, former Director of the FBI. The former seems to define loyalty as willingness to publically defend his antics. It is unclear whether Trump includes in this antics that are also illegal.

Criticism Narcissists, like those with other personality disorders, think in black or white terms at a significantly higher rate than the general population. As such, declining to pledge his loyalty (however gracefully it was done) would be interpreted by Trump to mean that Mr. Comey was declaring himself an adversary. 

This was tolerable until two things became clear. First, evidence was mounting that Trump himself would be implicated in the Campaign-Russia scandal. Since then, there have been several unconfirmed reports that POTUS was formally notified that he is the target of a federal investigation. Here is the Department of Justice' general explanation of what that means: 

 

 

Second, it became clear that Director Comey would likely be testifying before congress and, potentially, a grand jury. Since then, he has agreed to publically testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Richard Burr (R-NC), and the House Oversight Committee led by the retiring Jason Chafetz (R-UT).

 

Victimization The combination of being investigated by Mr. Comey's FBI, and likely being publically implicated by Comey's testimony, was not tolerable to Mr. Trump. He concluded that the disloyal Director aimed to bring him down. And at that moment, Comey became President Trump's victimizer. 

So, he fired the Director.

Anger and Shaming Equally important is the way in which Mr. Comey was terminated--disrespectfully and publically. It was done by letter, a copy of which was released to reporters by the White House as the original was in transit. Consequently, the public learned of the termination before Mr. Comey, who then found out from news reports that came out while he was addressing his staff. This outcome was calculated by POTUS, who was obviously acting out anger in the form of public shaming.

Still not a pretty picture. 

Making Sense of POTUS: Part III--Traits 3 and 4

Having taken a close look at the first two of the nine traits that Donald Trump publicly and consistently portrays, let's now turn our attention to Traits 3 and 4. 

As a reminder, they are: 

3. POTUS will not take responsibility for any ill-conceived action   
    or comment, however intense the blowback is. 

4. When he is forced to confront his bad behavior, he ignores it, 
    denies it, or rationalizes it as the result of being victimized.

The best example of Mr. Trump's patent refusal, and probable inability, to genuinely own up to bad behavior is his response to the blowback from none other than the only mistake for which he has apologized!



Here are the facts. On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post released a video revealing a 2005 conversation between Donald Trump and radio personality Billy Bush (both of whom were almost certainly unaware that their mics were still hot). In it, Trump admits to trying to bed Bush's married co-host and says, 

I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything--grab them by the pussy--you can do anything.

This is a direct admission of sexual assault (without a specific victim), and the political blowback was fierce. It included stinging responses--in various forms and forums--from the following twenty prominent, vocal Republicans: RNC Chair Reince Preibis, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan,

Bill Hassan, Robert Bentley, Bradley Byrne, Jason Chaffetz, Joe Heck, Kelly Ayotte, Mike Crapo, John McCain, John Huntsman, Dan Sullivan, Corey Gardner, Deb Fisher, Rodney Davis, Anne Wagner, and--importantly--Mike Pence. 

Unprecedentedly, and perhaps owing to the election being a month hence, Donald Trump apologized. Or so it seemed. Here's the entire transcript.

I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the wordsreleased today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them.

Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve traveled the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me. I’ve spent time with grieving mothers who’ve lost their children, laid-off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries, and people from all walks of life who just want a better future. I have gotten to know the great people of our country, and I’ve been humbled by the faith they’ve placed in me. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.

Let’s be honest — we’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today. We are losing our jobs, we’re less safe than we were eight years ago, and Washington is totally broken. Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground.

I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. 

Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.

Ignoring the meaningless first paragraph (and its poor grammar), paragraphs 2 - 5 clearly show the insincerity and manipulativeness of POTUS' apology; an apology tucked between buffoonish excuses and brand burnishing. Here's the analysis. 

"Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am." In this, his very first substantive comment, he literally disowns what he is about to apologize for. A nine word apology follows, after which he asserts that he has changed. How? As a result of the humility that he acquired by traveling to console bereaved mothers and the unemployed. This is interesting rhetoric for several reasons. 

• Most importantly, Mr. Trump apologized for what he said, not for the behavior that he was describing
• POTUS seems to be implying that he was assaulting women into his sixties, given that his political travels started then. Remember, these travels availed him of the widows and paupers from whom he allegedly learned the humility that caused him to change.
• He talks about helping women to provide a counterweight to the assault charge. Further, his description of himself as emotionally supportive is an attempt to induce identification.
• Mentioning the unemployed allows a pivot into campaign mode which, needless to say, has no place in the midst of an "apology".

"This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today." Simply said, this completely nullifies Donald Trump's apology. It also allows him, thematically speaking, to keep stumping.

"I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people." Here, the President is employing that argument so often heard in middle school, 'Yea, but what they did was worse'. This is rationalization and minimization in service of exculpation.

In other words he's not really sorry, which incontrovertibly proves the accuracy of Attributes 3 and 4. 

TRUMP-NOCCIO

Making Sense of POTUS: Part I--Nine Consistent Things About Donald Trump

Here are nine consistent things about Donald Trump, gleaned from his public persona. In upcoming posts, I'll talk about each one in detail.

1-There is nothing more important to the

   President-Elect than being successful and   

   admired.

2-Morality in general, and honesty in particular, 

   are instruments (among others) used to achieve 

   success and admiration ; neither carries an    

   imperative.

3-The Donald will not take responsibility for any   

   ill-conceived action or comment, however 
   intense the blowback is.

4-When Trump is forced to confront his bad 
   behavior, he ignores it, denies it, or rationalizes 
   it as the result of being victimized.     
    
5-The POTUS-Elect feels entitled to special 
   treatment and thus also feels victimized by 
   others' criticism of him.

6-When Donald feels victimized, he becomes 
   angry and publicly shames the object(s) of his 

   ire.

7-Mr. Trump is   neither insightful nor prone to guilt, partially

accounting for his ability to tolerate his own contradictions and hypocrisy.

8-In his worldview, people are tools and not 

   intrinsically valuable.

9-In his worldview, history, precedent and 

   protocol are irrelevant.

Overall, not a pretty picture.

Stay tuned for more on each of these.

[There is a problem with the mobile reformatting of this post. My apologies.]