I started this post over five years ago, about the time I stopped adding to my blog. Having resurrected the blog, I finally finished the post. I trust you’ll enjoy it.
8--In his worldview, people are tools and not intrinsically valuable
9--For the former POTUS, history, precedent, and protocol are irrelevant
As in preceding parts of the series, the elements of the final two traits will be treated individually.
People Are Tools and Not Intrinsically Valuable
People Are Tools and Not Intrinsically Valuable
It has been obvious for decades -even to the casual observer- that Mr. Trump values people only if, and only to the extent that, they fit into the current form of his pursuit of power and adulation.
One oft seen form of this pursuit and objectification is his use of media surrogates. If well managed, surrogates can play a central role in effectively manipulating the media and electorate by acting at multiple levels, even simultaneously. For Trump, I’d guess the calculation is ‘more is better’. That is, until a surrogate criticizes him, or until a skilled journalist, and/or a surrogate’s grandiosity, forces the surrogate into admitting a truth uncomfortable for Trump.
Chris Christie is the best known example because he serially publicly criticized and exposed Mr. Trump at the same time. The former New Jersey Governor is also the best known example of a Trump surrogate who fell out of grace because of the repeated, massive, public humiliations he endured as Trump slowly took his revenge. Here’s an excerpt from Musings on 11/28: Multitasking while Cabinet Building, with some details. After a series of critical comments about Trump’s public statements and comportment, some in real time, Trump’s vengeance came in the form of giving Christie a series of bones (for instance, allowing him to act as a surrogate, run the transition early on, and be interviewed for a cabinet position) without, in my opinion, any intention of ultimately giving him a position in the new government. Christie was dismissed from his transition job and finally seem[ed] to understand that he ha[d] nowhere to go in Trump-land.
Donald Trump views and reacts to being publicly contradicted -even if he’s lying- in the same way that he views and reacts to being criticized. He views public contradiction as interrupting his receipt of all the power and adulation to which he’s entitled. Interrupters are disloyal. To him. Then they are publicly maligned, undermined, and discarded to balance the scales. To get them back. I give you as examples the end of the congressional careers of Senator Liz Cheney, as well as Representative Adam Kinzinger and seven other House members who voted to impeach then-President Trump for the Big Lie. Republicans all.
History, Precedent, and Protocol Are Irrelevant
Donald Trump eschews history, precedent, and protocol for many reasons. Of course, bucking the system shows strength. Conversely, demurring to the system would put him in a relatively weak position. A position that, to Trump, threatens his ability to suck on the teets of his supporters to produce more power and adulation, his substitutes for a sense of self.
Demurring would also require him to have stopped defending against becoming aware of the psychological abuse he suffered at his father’s hand. Defenses here take the forms of compulsively repeated reenactments of the interpersonal aspects of the abuse, and of identifying with his aggressive father in these reenactments. They also take the forms of denial, rationalization, and his well known affinity for the projection of his inadequacies, toxicity, immorality, and misdeeds onto others.
Simply said, Donald Trump is unable to threaten the source of his sense of self or to deconstruct his defensive constellation. Even if he had sufficient insight to pursue the habituation of decades of conditioned patterns of cognition, emotion, and behavior, he’d never do it. It is unconsciously avoided by Trump because it would be completely intolerable and psychologically overwhelming.
Finally, there is a multitude of examples of the former president rejecting precedent, protocol, ritual, and rules. The most frequently occurring example is Trump ignoring the moral, ethical, religious, social, and legal dictates that demand honesty. The best known example is, of course, The Big Lie. That is, Donald Trump’s incessant lying about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
For a scholarly dive into the topic, I commend to you Donald Trump and the Norms of the Presidency. https://pfiffner.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Donald-Trump-and-the-Norms-of-the-Presidency-Jim-Pfiffner.pdf
This essay was written in 2022 by James P. Pfiffner, Professor emeritus in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. In it, three categories of norms flouted by Mr. Trump are explicated in detail. They are
- Norms of the Presidency and Common Civility
- Undermining Governance Institutions
- Abusing National Security Institutions
Sadly, there will be more of the same if Donald Trump is elected in 2024. In all likelihood, he will continue all of the atrocious behavior recounted by Professor Pfiffner because the former president is unable to change. To do so would require him to deconstruct his defensive structure, and disconnect from his source of a (false) self. This is instinctively prohibitive to the former president because it would be unbearable. Trump would be unable to cope; it would break him.
If voters give Trump the nod, surf’s gonna get real choppy again.
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