Trump is strange. I sometimes think it is dementia … that and a slide back into a strange version of mercantilism … and a love of the Monroe Doctrine.
big picture, I’m just plain sad. I’m Canadian. I love the states. I loved Washington before the insanity … just a beautiful capital. So much history. Love your national parks. So many friends and family from California to Iowa to New York.
Laura—Trump is America’s gift to the world—we created/invented him through our versions of reality TV, tabloid newspapers, Fuax News…of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England… but is was Americans who lapped it up! For a year, and then he should have faded to black, but no, corporate NBC and their millions pumped it along for a few more seasons…and somehow, ignoring the facts, Donny-John, the Circus Barker was born! Raping and pillaging! Literally!
So I do judge what we continued, didn’t shut down, our sexism, racism, white nationalists, John Birch, the ill-named Heritage cabal, the tea-party, the maggits, and anti-science evangelicals all built on the foundational KKK.
Very American toxins. I love Canada too, and I’m sure we are good people but it happened on our watch!
This is too much our international brand these days instead of freedom and liberty.
We must take it back! To three short months ago when we were still civilized.
“of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England”
We also stole the foundations of our Constitution (common law concepts and John Locke’s ideas) from England. It’s shocking how so many of us have embraced the culturally foreign governing ideas of Eastern Europe while claiming to protect our heritage. And this is most evident among people who lived during the Cold War. We truly have lost our minds.
It’s so much easier to understand Trump if one accepts that he is afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder. He epitomizes this particular mental and emotional derangement. He is mentally stuck in childhood and thrives on chaos. There is no underlying set of values except for self-preservation (and even then, the need for chaos can override that).
I'm a retired psychiatrist. This is too kind. I say Antisocial Personality Disorder (commonly known as "Sociopath".) There is quite a bit of overlap in traits. Perhaps also some neurologically weird brain that we don't have a name for (usually indicated by "X Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".)
Mary Trump’s first book covered this quite well with the behind the doors look into her family. I’ve gifted her book so people better understand that man and the family. I highly recommend it. Likely available at half price stores too.
Psychiatrists remain that till they die. Retired psychologist would have been a.more convincing hook. Also, a psych would not deem a diagnoses as kind, or unkind. Categorical disorders have overlaps of symptoms. You only armchair diagnose one, and mention no other. Also - neurological weird brain usually indicated by X?
tRump also has a big dose of psychopathy. Add to that ravening greed and an IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Musk is the same kind of goods and is our unelected financial dictator. Together they are a good stand-in for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Millions of us cross our northern border regularly. I love to wander through the stores in St.Stephens and enjoy the food choices unavailable in down east Maine.
My dream is that the US splits up and Canada accepts a merger with the 5 west coast states, New England, the Middle Atlantic States down to Virginia, MI, WI, MN and IL. It would likely be the 2nd largest economy in the world and maybe even the largest. Our taxes would be less and we would have Universal Health Care. We could divide the new country into provinces/states/territories that make sense in today's world. And maybe even Greenland and Iceland would be interested in joining.
Those of us who didn't vote for Trump... we truly love and admire Canada. Please remember that. We are so sad that this is happening. And embarrassed beyond belief.
Laura: Thank you for your words of grace. A lot of Yanks are embarrassed and outraged by what our government has become, as I'm sure you'll know.
Also, only about 30% of American voters pulled the lever for Trump. Yes, the other 70% includes a fair number of non-voters, but even among those who voted, a majority voted *against* Donald Trump (that is, they voted either for Kamala Harris or a third party candidate). He won fair and square per the rules, of course, but it still feels like something of a coup to me. Why? Well, in addition to being opposed by a majority of the electorate, pretty clearly large numbers of the minority that voted Trump in didn't know what they were in for. Many, probably most voters aren't inclined to acquire detailed knowledge of public policy (I doubt US voters are even unique in that regard).
Paul Krugman is right: our government is now being held hostage by a mad king and his mad court jester.
I have 2 substack posts on the subject of Trump’s mental condition, The Methods of Madness: Trump’s IQ and now The Evolution of a Death Cult Leader. Is he demented? In my expert opinion, he has painted himself in a corner that he refuses to get out of partly because of his pathology and partly because of his rudderless approach to running things. So he turns the administration over to an engineer, who knows how to fire rockets but has no clue what the purpose of government is other than to reward him for his inventions. Narcissism galore!
We love Canada and have great memories of vacations in Quebec and on the St. Lawrence River (St. Lawrence Cruise Line!), the kindness and hospitality of our Canadian neighbors. Stay strong.
I think it is a lot Dementia, if you notice a lot of times in a rally he can't figure out what he is talking about or where he is at and then at times like his Debate with biden he was just as clear minded as ever. Its been reported that Trump has been on Adderall and Cocaine for years and his actions seem to berar that out. This reporting goes all the way back to his time on TV and that he has been wearing diapers all this time also and when you see him on the gold course the way his slacks bulge in the front and back would also go to back up that claim. It was also said that his Personel Body Guard had the name Wet Wipes because he was tasked with the job of cleaning the nasty bastard up. And just the same way Trump ignores that way the Russian State TV posted every naked picture of Trump's Communist born and raised wife, he says nothing about these claims either, almost as if adding credit to the claims and his efforts to try to keep it out of the news here.
There may be an overlay of dementia but Trump has clearly demonstrated a whole smorgasbord of personality disorder traits for decades. He’s practically a whole textbook exemplar — no other cases needed. As a physician but not knowing anything about Trump, I realized this when he came down the escalator on June 16, 2015 and I started looking into his background. If only psychiatrist Dr Bandi X. Lee could get him on her couch!
It is a sort of mental compulsive-obsessive disorder combined with pathological narcissism. I have no doubt any independent psychologist would disqualify him from any leadership role - in private or public service.
Had a look at that column (which appeared back in September), and the point that jumped out at me was the author's statement that reporters judge each candidate by a unique set of criteria (which gives rise to skewed reporting) although they claim to apply the SAME criteria to all. Same with the New York Times editors. Are they lying, are they subject to collective hysteria, are they demented, or what?
-But I don’t see how you can look at recent statements by Donald Trump and Elon Musk without concluding that both men have lost their grip on reality.-
You can look at this from putins perspective and it all seems normal
Exactly. You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end? A more interesting question, imho, is what makes people strongly believe in neofascism as the best system of governance. Because that is what Trump, Putin, Musk, Thiel (and his disciple Vance) all have in common, together with Kevin Roberts and the new MAGA Heritage Foundation (and its sister organization, America First... and of course, Fox News, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan etc).
Are they all insane? Or blind followers of just a few insane men (but who is actually following who here?)?
I think it's more helpful (and probably accurate) to think in terms of ideology and the "origins of totalitarianism". What characterizes them is a totally different perception of humanity and human nature. These are people who believe in the Hobbesian hypothesis that man will always be a "wolf" to other man. It's what Trump's father told him when he said that in this life, you're either a killer or a loser so be a killer. It's what Musk and Vance learned when their own parents became their worst torturers. But it's also what quite some people can easily begin to believe after two decades of neofascist propaganda spread through the official communication channels of a major political party, in this case the GOP.
After all, McConnell's attack on Obamacare was that it was "evil", with "the government" coming after your grandmother and killing her.
In the US, the idea that the government is evil has always been more popular than in most Western democracies (which is why health and education levels are so low). All fascist propaganda takes that as its core message, with "the government" being "the elites". And, as scholars of fascism have abundantly shown (and as pro-fascism philosophers such as Carl Schmidt have always argued), ideally, you can find an external enemy to scapegoat too (aside from "the enemy within"). In this case, that enemy is America's best allies, starting with Canada. The GOP is clearly doing what it has done for two decades: repeat again and again how evil Canada is, and more and more people will begin to believe it.
I'm quite certain that Trump knows perfectly well that he's LYING. But lying is how you remain a killer and don't become a loser, in his worldview...
The real man in charge here is Peter Theil another entitled, wounded tech baby. He and Elon have a lot of history. Their warped worldview and fascist fever dreams are music to drumphs ears, as an added plus Theil also has a strong resemblance to and
fosters a similar outlook to Roy Cohen one of drumphs favorite people. The worst boys club ever.
You and Krugman have almost said it all. How did we ever get to this point? Looking back we have been engaged in a struggle since our birth as a nation with wealthy elites who used democracy as a shield to amass wealth and power over ordinary working people. They convinced us to bring revolution and war wherever their status and freedom to exploit natural resources and cheap labor anywhere in the world was threatened. Social Security is such a tempting target. All that money just lying there and more coming in every month. Then there is all that glittering gold sitting in Ft. Knox. Now we have A.I. threatening to replace human labor in an overpopulated world. We are having a replay of the industrial revolution. Musk is the visionary, soon he will not need trump.
I couldn't agree more. What is happening today is not a bug in the system, it's a feature. Oligarchic fascism is always an inherent risk, in any democracy, but even more so in the US, with its Constitution written at a moment when the entire economy was slave-based.
And neofascists see fascism as the pinnacle of democracy, not its opposite. As the GOP tries to make its voters believe, when you vote for a president, he SHOULD have all the powers of government to do what you wanted him to do. Having to deal with Congress and the courts, which may not agree with the president and may represent other parts of the country, is seen as something that LOWERS the degree to which a democracy is truly a government "for the people".
Obviously, what is left out here is the fact that if it's not a government BY the people (which requires and active and independent Congress and judiciary), then it is impossible to have a government for ALL the people, you'll always end up with a corrupt system in which those who imagine to be superior to the 99% violently impose their will onto everyone else.
Each time fascists grab power, however, they are convinced that this time, things will be different. This time, THEY will be SO superior that they WILL know better than everyone else what's good for society as a whole. Even though history has proven again and again that such superior category of people doesn't exist...
A very coherent diagnosis of a national disease. The Heritage Foundation was usurped by an extreme anti-government ideologues who turned it into a mechanism to vomit up the horrible Project 2025 playbook explicitly aimed to destroy the federal government and to foster and implement an explicitly illiberal ideology—look at who they’ve had installed in key government offices— Vought, Bessent, Vance, et al, and then put loonies in other positions such as Ka$$ Patel. We the people have been assaulted by an extreme minority that is totally destructive of our democracy and fundamentally threatens our way of life — and our lives.
"You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end?" - in part to manage own expectations. Trump could have robbed your country blind under the guise of a corrupt, but relatively conventional government, and a lot of people still behave as if he were merely corrupt. It is the fact that he is not so much working on enriching himself, but is actively trying to destroy the mechanisms that create wealth that takes getting used to, and calling this "insane" is one way to remind yourself that this is a terrorist, not a thief. Also there seems to be disagreement on how to counter him, because every uttering of his is viewed as emanation of some evil but brilliant master plan that requires specific counter strategies, and so people berate each other over the proper way to resists instead of fighting against the actual issue. Remembering that stuff he says is mostly gibberish might help against overthinking strategy. The one thing one should not do is to assume anything has been actually accomplished by calling him insane, the actual work comes after that.
At some point (and I suspect it will happen soon and massively) reality will slam into into the "alternate reality" that has been constructed by Trump, Musk, MAGA and the Republican Party and absolute chaos will prevail. Nation-crippling chaos. Chaos that will finally reveal (despite the propaganda coming from FOX News and other right-wing media) that the MAGA Emperor has, in fact, no clothes, no mind, and no concern at all for the citizens of the nation he was elected to govern. When that does happen, I hope we all stay safe, attentive to one another's daily needs and crises, compassionate, kind, and speaking only truth to one another. The fury of the duped half of our population will be cataclysmic and dangerous. There is no knowing how they will finally react to the shattering of their delusions, but -- if we are to survive as a nation -- they will need to be slowly brought back to reason and sense... like divers re-surfacing after long submersion. Be vigilant and be of good hope. We can do this.
Me neither. Even if they come to realize all of this, new grifters (political, social media, etc) will swoop in with some new conspiracy. Feels like there’s no time these days to take a “breather” and make sense of the tsunami of lies before the next one hits. Our society has gone mad.
Agree. And I have seen too little grappling—both among pundits and politicians—with what the underlying motives and end game of this chaos are. Telling ourselves this is merely chaos and destruction for its own sake (or even the result of dementia or psychosis) is too easy, and ultimately a coping mechanism. And I fear it will be a failure of imagination if we don’t try to understand what the *point* of this chaos is. Increasingly I am concerned that what we’re witnessing comes out of Klein’s shock doctrine playbook, with the techno oligarchs engineering a crisis to their benefit.
However we all know he’s chomping at bit to declare martial law. It’s probably now being discussed, and why the dems with the exception of a few are fighting.
The Dems are being CHICKEN SHIT, and STILL think that they should have our votes!
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to why the Left in the US always fails in trying to reach the right - it is more than them being abysmally bad at messaging, there are critical elements to the psychology of the right that most people don't recognize. I am just starting to write on parts of this that I have come to understand a bit. It's a really tough problem.
In a speech to the French Senate on Tuesday March 4 2025, Claude Malhuret referred to this administration as "the Court of Nero". That landed with this reader, as does your short piece this morning Mr. Krugman.
Trump is delusional. Meaning he is convinced of things that are unreal fantasies. For Trump this has been the case since 2015 (or earlier). The Central Park Five was a delusion, one that Trump still clings to. Birtherism? Delusion. Tariffs? Delusion. Canada and Greenland? Delusions. Crime rampant? Delusion. Dangers of immigrants? Delusion. Mayhem destroying our cities? Delusion. The deep state? Delusion. The fitness of RFK jr, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought? Delusions? So many delusions, the list is long.
Trump is like the star of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The moral of said story was that so many fawning, spineless sycophants would pretend to share the emperor’s delusions, so as to curry favor and avoid the emperor’s wrath, even as they scorned him behind his back. So it is with the Republican party - everyone kowtowing to Trump and praising his delusions. He’s so brilliant, no? No. So tragic, so dangerous, so wrong.
Trump will be gone in 4 years (or hopefully earlier), but the people who have knowingly elected this delusional conman will remain and they will be looking for the next (less delusional) conman catering to their despicable biases
If he lives 4 more years, do you really imagine anything will pry him out of the White House? If you do, you’ve been seeing an entirely different Trump than I have. His fat ass is not going to leave just because someone says, ‘times up’.
Could be, but I think the situation is even worse. I think that Trump is not so much mad as treasonous. I think that much of what he is doing is directed by his handlers in Moscow, who are quite sane. And who are on a campaign of destruction of their long-time enemy.
If they have their way, it's entirely possible that DOGE's updates will create a huge rush of US bonds that are sold--with the money being flipped to cryptocurrency and siphoned out of the country. The US would be destroyed.
If it was just Trump, I would suggest it is a sign of dementia. Clinging to a single idea you learned decades back, and violent outbursts of paranoia because an addled brain can no longer understand the world around it and tries to reduce reality to a manageable level (i.e. "they want to hurt me, so I hurt them first") aligns with have I have seen in my first proper day job (in the geriatric ward of a mental facility) all these years ago. I just don't understand the people who go along for the ride, because surely they must have understood by now that burning down the world will not profit them. Whatever has eaten Trumps mind seems to be infectious (and alas it has long spread abroad and is now also rampant in my country, so if you eventually find a cure, metaphorically speaking, please share).
This has to be it, hasn't it. I understood that this is how billionaires feel. They really hate capitalism, because while it made them rich beyond belief, it provided also a decent living for, for lack of a better world, working people, and to really enjoy their wealth they would prefer reduce everyone else to nothing in some sort of feudal society, even if that means they only half or their billions left or whatever. I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires. This evil altruism that says "I am okay with being wiped out, as long as someone else suffers more" is outright bizarre, and then for a lot of them it turns out they are not even okay with it (sorry for venting, I realize that this does not really add new perspective to anything).
RE: “ I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires”
It doesn’t work for them if their goal is to have a long, healthy and happy life. Some people, however, don’t want that. My blue collar unionized coworkers in the mid-1980s made it clear they didn’t want that life as they explained why they voted for Reagan soon after he busted the air traffic controllers union and presided over a recession that gave us the Rust Belt. They explained their dads, grandads, and great grandads had short hard lives and they expected/wanted the same. An entertaining president was more important than one that would make them prosperous and healthy. They prioritized their ancestral identity above all else. The MAGA crowd echoes this mentality. Their ancestral identity is paramount. It could be the same in European countries experiencing a fascist revival.
"Surely almost everyone except Trump realizes that DOGE has been a bust...it has yet to come up with any credible major examples of waste or fraud."
That was never its true mission. They now have massive amounts of personal data on all of us - for sale to the highest bidder, or for their own nefarious use. They got what they wanted.
"...and is now insisting that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, showing that he hasn’t made any effort to understand how the bedrock of American retirement works."
He doesn't need to understand it to undermine it. He just wants to destroy it. Any excuse is sufficient - who's going to stop him?
It doesn't matter if Trump is insane; he has found enough citizens to vote for him, elect him, and run the government. And he runs the government with no blowback; in fact, he is a genius, of a sort. How such a vile creature can run the world must be down to mass psychosis. But no blowback from the Dems, even when they can - like not voting for Rubio! - and most American citizens mean that Trump has found a perfect target for what he's selling. It isn't helpful in the slightest for Americans now to say you didn't vote for him, unless you actively oppose him. This will not end well; and you already have blood on your hands. You obviously don't see what the USA has done to lose its allies in Europe and Canada. As the parody of Kipling went: If you can keep your mind when all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the situation.'
I can advise you to dedicate some quiet time for clear headed thinking about Television and it's role in all this. You believe everything you see and hear on TV, right? Trump is a TV actor and he likely leverages that. Trump was introduced at his Trump Tower in 2015 in front of a staged lobby with preplaced cameras and an audience waiting for him.
I've been warning about a military coup for years. My mind is stressed knowing no one is prepared.
Well Thomas, me, too. However, I think that while it well might open the door on some pretty dire outcomes, it is also possible that the military might be our last resort. As the daughter of a high military officer (now deceased) I can testify by experience that many such officers are deeply loyal to our Constitution, as their vows attest. And yes, some might become corrupted if they should command emergency powers in order to save us, might become as bloated and egomaniacal as our current POTUS, as power is like a drug for some. But which is the better path, a declaration of emergency requiring martial law, or continuing to tolerate the manifestly malign and crazy machinations of men like Trump, Musk, and their shadowy puppet masters? I honestly wonder.
Leigh, I don’t (wonder, that is). However noble its motivations, however necessary its actions, a military intervention would be an unmitigated disaster. I don’t need to spell it out; just ponder on the implications, domestically with the public already bitterly divided (assuming they’re even paying attention) and internationally with friends and enemies alike.
I think you have to add in social media's effect on the population. The disinformation is readily available to any unthinking person that will swallow it.
As I’ve said here before, and been met with some hostility, Trump, and now Musk, are seriously psychologically deranged individuals. Trump has the added element of probably suffering from dementia.
Anyone familiar with the humorously titled, but totally serious, podcast called “Shrinking Trump” would come to the same conclusion. Trump has been deranged for years but the addition of Musk, who clearly is a manic sociopath, has enabled Trump to drive his sadistic tendencies to new levels.
Like with Hitler in the 1930’s, the questions also revolve around how our a large portion of our society, particularly the Republican Party itself, continues to support something so obviously destructive.
The destruction will need to affect the Reps directly before they begin to doubt. The way muskrat and tRump are going, it should only be a month or two. I'd love it to be sooner!
Someone has to do something. Are there no horrified, rational people near enough to power to do anything? Of course, not the cowardly, and almost uniformly ignorant Republican Congress persons, but no one?
With the Republicans in charge of the Senate, the House, and SCOTUS, we are significantly boxed in. I remember Lawrence O’Donnell in 2015 saying that the key to everything was the make up of the Supreme Court, and, boy, was he right!
Ironically, our salvation may possibly come when the MAGA horde turns its rage on Trump and Musk, as they tear down the safety net that everyone except the rich actually relies on. But it’s not a sure thing.
I share your distress. All our institutions, our constitution, our democracy, our social safety net, and the very land that we live on may all be in tatters.
We also have a military, the officers of which have taken vows of fidelity to the Constitutions. A declaration of emergency followed by a period of martial law is awful to consider, but is it more awful than what's happening to us now?
If the Republicans hadn’t been able to pack the court, SCOTUS might never have given Trump a free pass on almost everything. He might have been barred from running for a third term. He might have been convicted in federal court.
Yes Michael. John Roberts’ majority opinion on the President’s powers (if it’s within his official duties he can do anything) was the most shocking invitation to autocracy imaginable. All this discussion about “madness” is beside the point: Trump himself could be gaga or senile or on Adderall but there are evil courtiers in the wings who are definitely not, and they continue to wreak havoc.
The biggest problem with the courts is not the courts, its the lack of an agency or other mechanism to enforce their judgments. Trump has established a conspiracy theorist at the head of the FBI and the DOJ as a whole has been largely neutered. So now what?
Well, quite true, and Trump has shown every sign of being ready to defy the courts, up to and including the Supreme Court. But, even though Trump recently lost one high court ruling, I still see little evidence that the court might be willing to stop Trump’s dismantling of our democracy. Still, I fervently hope that I am wrong.
DITTO. They really are barking mad. And that means not only delusional in their desires and beliefs, it also mean they both have extreme character disorders characterized by massively inflated egos, disdain for other people, an inability to ever say enough is enough when it comes to acquiring money, etc, AND it is more than possible that both men abuse and or are actually addicted to drugs, adderal in the case of Trump, and Ketamine in the case of Musk. And all of the above means, at a deep level, that they are irrational actors. They must be removed from the halls of government by any legitimate, legal ends possible. And fast. Millions of us are being put at serious risk by their words and deeds.
Yes and yes. And anyone who is paying attention can see that they are criminals, with the malign intentions of criminals, driven by greed and amorality. But there seems to be no entity to enforce our laws against them. A flaw in our Constitution might be that impeachment is a paper tiger if Congress is supine.
Like during the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, MAGA zealots like the Red Guards are unleashing lawlessness and chaos. Greater destruction is the pipeline.
I have thought about the Cultural Revolution more than once since January.
The complete collapse of society MIGHT not happen. After all, WHO's gonna stop them? Farmers? There's Agribusiness. Academia? Sidelined with the "Anti-Semitism" bullshit. Science? Big bucks from Big Pharma shuts that down. Youth? Too busy praising Andrew Tate to help. Minorities? The power structure ALREADY keeps them under the jackboot.
WOMEN, to me, are the ONLY subsection of the populace to end this & white women voted for him.
The trouble with a coup is that a charismatic leader must lead it. And, though I certainly applaud AOC, Chris Murphy, Jasmine Crockett, et.al., NONE of them fits the bill.
Mitch the bitch was an essentiel stone on which this fascist coup was built. Impeachments, scotus nominations etc. Was he already insane? Maybe not but deranged and demented he is. And the true biggest ponzi scheme remains the junk US treasury bonds.
Trump is strange. I sometimes think it is dementia … that and a slide back into a strange version of mercantilism … and a love of the Monroe Doctrine.
big picture, I’m just plain sad. I’m Canadian. I love the states. I loved Washington before the insanity … just a beautiful capital. So much history. Love your national parks. So many friends and family from California to Iowa to New York.
We love you too Canada! Please don’t judge us by him!
Laura—Trump is America’s gift to the world—we created/invented him through our versions of reality TV, tabloid newspapers, Fuax News…of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England… but is was Americans who lapped it up! For a year, and then he should have faded to black, but no, corporate NBC and their millions pumped it along for a few more seasons…and somehow, ignoring the facts, Donny-John, the Circus Barker was born! Raping and pillaging! Literally!
So I do judge what we continued, didn’t shut down, our sexism, racism, white nationalists, John Birch, the ill-named Heritage cabal, the tea-party, the maggits, and anti-science evangelicals all built on the foundational KKK.
Very American toxins. I love Canada too, and I’m sure we are good people but it happened on our watch!
This is too much our international brand these days instead of freedom and liberty.
We must take it back! To three short months ago when we were still civilized.
“of course we stole all this, along with the Murdocks, from England”
We also stole the foundations of our Constitution (common law concepts and John Locke’s ideas) from England. It’s shocking how so many of us have embraced the culturally foreign governing ideas of Eastern Europe while claiming to protect our heritage. And this is most evident among people who lived during the Cold War. We truly have lost our minds.
It’s so much easier to understand Trump if one accepts that he is afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder. He epitomizes this particular mental and emotional derangement. He is mentally stuck in childhood and thrives on chaos. There is no underlying set of values except for self-preservation (and even then, the need for chaos can override that).
I'm a retired psychiatrist. This is too kind. I say Antisocial Personality Disorder (commonly known as "Sociopath".) There is quite a bit of overlap in traits. Perhaps also some neurologically weird brain that we don't have a name for (usually indicated by "X Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".)
I'm a lay person, but I know that sociopaths are those with zero empathy. Trump plainly fits that bill.
As does Musk
Mary Trump’s first book covered this quite well with the behind the doors look into her family. I’ve gifted her book so people better understand that man and the family. I highly recommend it. Likely available at half price stores too.
X disorder certainly fits!
Psychiatrists remain that till they die. Retired psychologist would have been a.more convincing hook. Also, a psych would not deem a diagnoses as kind, or unkind. Categorical disorders have overlaps of symptoms. You only armchair diagnose one, and mention no other. Also - neurological weird brain usually indicated by X?
You didn't get anything right.
tRump also has a big dose of psychopathy. Add to that ravening greed and an IQ in the low 80s or upper 70s and you have a recipe for catastrophe. Musk is the same kind of goods and is our unelected financial dictator. Together they are a good stand-in for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
This is spot on. Anyone who has suffered narcissistic abuse understands the narcissist’s playbook.
Millions of us cross our northern border regularly. I love to wander through the stores in St.Stephens and enjoy the food choices unavailable in down east Maine.
My dream is that the US splits up and Canada accepts a merger with the 5 west coast states, New England, the Middle Atlantic States down to Virginia, MI, WI, MN and IL. It would likely be the 2nd largest economy in the world and maybe even the largest. Our taxes would be less and we would have Universal Health Care. We could divide the new country into provinces/states/territories that make sense in today's world. And maybe even Greenland and Iceland would be interested in joining.
Okay if you add Alaska and Hawaii there are five west coast states.
Add Colorado please.
Should we have let them leave in 1861?
Leaving millions in chattel slavery? I hope not.
Saving the Union was Lincoln's mistake. The sociopathy that characterized the slaveholders wasn't a concept that was understood then.
Those of us who didn't vote for Trump... we truly love and admire Canada. Please remember that. We are so sad that this is happening. And embarrassed beyond belief.
Laura: Thank you for your words of grace. A lot of Yanks are embarrassed and outraged by what our government has become, as I'm sure you'll know.
Also, only about 30% of American voters pulled the lever for Trump. Yes, the other 70% includes a fair number of non-voters, but even among those who voted, a majority voted *against* Donald Trump (that is, they voted either for Kamala Harris or a third party candidate). He won fair and square per the rules, of course, but it still feels like something of a coup to me. Why? Well, in addition to being opposed by a majority of the electorate, pretty clearly large numbers of the minority that voted Trump in didn't know what they were in for. Many, probably most voters aren't inclined to acquire detailed knowledge of public policy (I doubt US voters are even unique in that regard).
Paul Krugman is right: our government is now being held hostage by a mad king and his mad court jester.
Thank you Charles … thank you everyone. Very very kind.
Which is the king and which is the jester?
🇨🇦🇺🇸✊
You Canadians might have to burn Washington again, I'm afraid.
Ha! Nah…we’d never be able to say sorry ;)
Trump will pardon us at least!
No, he is just a mean, greedy, disgusting human.
It's malignant narcissism, diagnosed by psychiatrists.
https://substack.com/@michaelsecomb/note/c-97045993?r=4mzfmy
Never give in and never give up - do whatever you need to do (closer ties to China, join the EU, whatever works). Maybe you can keep democracy alive.
I have 2 substack posts on the subject of Trump’s mental condition, The Methods of Madness: Trump’s IQ and now The Evolution of a Death Cult Leader. Is he demented? In my expert opinion, he has painted himself in a corner that he refuses to get out of partly because of his pathology and partly because of his rudderless approach to running things. So he turns the administration over to an engineer, who knows how to fire rockets but has no clue what the purpose of government is other than to reward him for his inventions. Narcissism galore!
We love Canada and have great memories of vacations in Quebec and on the St. Lawrence River (St. Lawrence Cruise Line!), the kindness and hospitality of our Canadian neighbors. Stay strong.
I think it is a lot Dementia, if you notice a lot of times in a rally he can't figure out what he is talking about or where he is at and then at times like his Debate with biden he was just as clear minded as ever. Its been reported that Trump has been on Adderall and Cocaine for years and his actions seem to berar that out. This reporting goes all the way back to his time on TV and that he has been wearing diapers all this time also and when you see him on the gold course the way his slacks bulge in the front and back would also go to back up that claim. It was also said that his Personel Body Guard had the name Wet Wipes because he was tasked with the job of cleaning the nasty bastard up. And just the same way Trump ignores that way the Russian State TV posted every naked picture of Trump's Communist born and raised wife, he says nothing about these claims either, almost as if adding credit to the claims and his efforts to try to keep it out of the news here.
There may be an overlay of dementia but Trump has clearly demonstrated a whole smorgasbord of personality disorder traits for decades. He’s practically a whole textbook exemplar — no other cases needed. As a physician but not knowing anything about Trump, I realized this when he came down the escalator on June 16, 2015 and I started looking into his background. If only psychiatrist Dr Bandi X. Lee could get him on her couch!
It is a sort of mental compulsive-obsessive disorder combined with pathological narcissism. I have no doubt any independent psychologist would disqualify him from any leadership role - in private or public service.
Possible dementia?
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-real-reason-reporters-wont-talk
Had a look at that column (which appeared back in September), and the point that jumped out at me was the author's statement that reporters judge each candidate by a unique set of criteria (which gives rise to skewed reporting) although they claim to apply the SAME criteria to all. Same with the New York Times editors. Are they lying, are they subject to collective hysteria, are they demented, or what?
-But I don’t see how you can look at recent statements by Donald Trump and Elon Musk without concluding that both men have lost their grip on reality.-
You can look at this from putins perspective and it all seems normal
Exactly. You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end? A more interesting question, imho, is what makes people strongly believe in neofascism as the best system of governance. Because that is what Trump, Putin, Musk, Thiel (and his disciple Vance) all have in common, together with Kevin Roberts and the new MAGA Heritage Foundation (and its sister organization, America First... and of course, Fox News, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan etc).
Are they all insane? Or blind followers of just a few insane men (but who is actually following who here?)?
I think it's more helpful (and probably accurate) to think in terms of ideology and the "origins of totalitarianism". What characterizes them is a totally different perception of humanity and human nature. These are people who believe in the Hobbesian hypothesis that man will always be a "wolf" to other man. It's what Trump's father told him when he said that in this life, you're either a killer or a loser so be a killer. It's what Musk and Vance learned when their own parents became their worst torturers. But it's also what quite some people can easily begin to believe after two decades of neofascist propaganda spread through the official communication channels of a major political party, in this case the GOP.
After all, McConnell's attack on Obamacare was that it was "evil", with "the government" coming after your grandmother and killing her.
In the US, the idea that the government is evil has always been more popular than in most Western democracies (which is why health and education levels are so low). All fascist propaganda takes that as its core message, with "the government" being "the elites". And, as scholars of fascism have abundantly shown (and as pro-fascism philosophers such as Carl Schmidt have always argued), ideally, you can find an external enemy to scapegoat too (aside from "the enemy within"). In this case, that enemy is America's best allies, starting with Canada. The GOP is clearly doing what it has done for two decades: repeat again and again how evil Canada is, and more and more people will begin to believe it.
I'm quite certain that Trump knows perfectly well that he's LYING. But lying is how you remain a killer and don't become a loser, in his worldview...
The real man in charge here is Peter Theil another entitled, wounded tech baby. He and Elon have a lot of history. Their warped worldview and fascist fever dreams are music to drumphs ears, as an added plus Theil also has a strong resemblance to and
fosters a similar outlook to Roy Cohen one of drumphs favorite people. The worst boys club ever.
You and Krugman have almost said it all. How did we ever get to this point? Looking back we have been engaged in a struggle since our birth as a nation with wealthy elites who used democracy as a shield to amass wealth and power over ordinary working people. They convinced us to bring revolution and war wherever their status and freedom to exploit natural resources and cheap labor anywhere in the world was threatened. Social Security is such a tempting target. All that money just lying there and more coming in every month. Then there is all that glittering gold sitting in Ft. Knox. Now we have A.I. threatening to replace human labor in an overpopulated world. We are having a replay of the industrial revolution. Musk is the visionary, soon he will not need trump.
I couldn't agree more. What is happening today is not a bug in the system, it's a feature. Oligarchic fascism is always an inherent risk, in any democracy, but even more so in the US, with its Constitution written at a moment when the entire economy was slave-based.
And neofascists see fascism as the pinnacle of democracy, not its opposite. As the GOP tries to make its voters believe, when you vote for a president, he SHOULD have all the powers of government to do what you wanted him to do. Having to deal with Congress and the courts, which may not agree with the president and may represent other parts of the country, is seen as something that LOWERS the degree to which a democracy is truly a government "for the people".
Obviously, what is left out here is the fact that if it's not a government BY the people (which requires and active and independent Congress and judiciary), then it is impossible to have a government for ALL the people, you'll always end up with a corrupt system in which those who imagine to be superior to the 99% violently impose their will onto everyone else.
Each time fascists grab power, however, they are convinced that this time, things will be different. This time, THEY will be SO superior that they WILL know better than everyone else what's good for society as a whole. Even though history has proven again and again that such superior category of people doesn't exist...
Bravo George! See just about any speech made by Theodore Roosevelt.
Two decades? With a few notable exceptions Republicans have been working on the fascist angle since at least Herbert Hoover.
A very coherent diagnosis of a national disease. The Heritage Foundation was usurped by an extreme anti-government ideologues who turned it into a mechanism to vomit up the horrible Project 2025 playbook explicitly aimed to destroy the federal government and to foster and implement an explicitly illiberal ideology—look at who they’ve had installed in key government offices— Vought, Bessent, Vance, et al, and then put loonies in other positions such as Ka$$ Patel. We the people have been assaulted by an extreme minority that is totally destructive of our democracy and fundamentally threatens our way of life — and our lives.
100%
Hitler, it explains alot of the capitulations, what ever their underlying reasons. Constant daily gaslighting for the Country !
"You can declare neofascists "insane" but to what end?" - in part to manage own expectations. Trump could have robbed your country blind under the guise of a corrupt, but relatively conventional government, and a lot of people still behave as if he were merely corrupt. It is the fact that he is not so much working on enriching himself, but is actively trying to destroy the mechanisms that create wealth that takes getting used to, and calling this "insane" is one way to remind yourself that this is a terrorist, not a thief. Also there seems to be disagreement on how to counter him, because every uttering of his is viewed as emanation of some evil but brilliant master plan that requires specific counter strategies, and so people berate each other over the proper way to resists instead of fighting against the actual issue. Remembering that stuff he says is mostly gibberish might help against overthinking strategy. The one thing one should not do is to assume anything has been actually accomplished by calling him insane, the actual work comes after that.
Well said, sadly.
Don't even need to read their statements. Watch the White House Tesla infomercial!
The king bought a TE卐LA! Woo hoo!
King Krasnov is following his orders to the letter.
We just do not share THEIR reality with them. It’s our fault - LOL!
Gaslighting - not ALL are vulnerable
You nailed it!!
That’s some truth right there
At some point (and I suspect it will happen soon and massively) reality will slam into into the "alternate reality" that has been constructed by Trump, Musk, MAGA and the Republican Party and absolute chaos will prevail. Nation-crippling chaos. Chaos that will finally reveal (despite the propaganda coming from FOX News and other right-wing media) that the MAGA Emperor has, in fact, no clothes, no mind, and no concern at all for the citizens of the nation he was elected to govern. When that does happen, I hope we all stay safe, attentive to one another's daily needs and crises, compassionate, kind, and speaking only truth to one another. The fury of the duped half of our population will be cataclysmic and dangerous. There is no knowing how they will finally react to the shattering of their delusions, but -- if we are to survive as a nation -- they will need to be slowly brought back to reason and sense... like divers re-surfacing after long submersion. Be vigilant and be of good hope. We can do this.
We have to do this, but I don’t quite see how.
23rd Amendment. I agree with Paul Krugman that Trump is losing his mind.
25th amendment?
Me neither. Even if they come to realize all of this, new grifters (political, social media, etc) will swoop in with some new conspiracy. Feels like there’s no time these days to take a “breather” and make sense of the tsunami of lies before the next one hits. Our society has gone mad.
From your lips to god's ears.
Agree. And I have seen too little grappling—both among pundits and politicians—with what the underlying motives and end game of this chaos are. Telling ourselves this is merely chaos and destruction for its own sake (or even the result of dementia or psychosis) is too easy, and ultimately a coping mechanism. And I fear it will be a failure of imagination if we don’t try to understand what the *point* of this chaos is. Increasingly I am concerned that what we’re witnessing comes out of Klein’s shock doctrine playbook, with the techno oligarchs engineering a crisis to their benefit.
Sad but true. THIS is the way.
hear hear
However we all know he’s chomping at bit to declare martial law. It’s probably now being discussed, and why the dems with the exception of a few are fighting.
The Dems are being CHICKEN SHIT, and STILL think that they should have our votes!
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to why the Left in the US always fails in trying to reach the right - it is more than them being abysmally bad at messaging, there are critical elements to the psychology of the right that most people don't recognize. I am just starting to write on parts of this that I have come to understand a bit. It's a really tough problem.
In a speech to the French Senate on Tuesday March 4 2025, Claude Malhuret referred to this administration as "the Court of Nero". That landed with this reader, as does your short piece this morning Mr. Krugman.
That was an incredible speech but of course the back drop is horrifying.
Yes. Anyone trying to make sense of the felon in chief’s pronouncements has chosen the wrong analytic model.
Trump is delusional. Meaning he is convinced of things that are unreal fantasies. For Trump this has been the case since 2015 (or earlier). The Central Park Five was a delusion, one that Trump still clings to. Birtherism? Delusion. Tariffs? Delusion. Canada and Greenland? Delusions. Crime rampant? Delusion. Dangers of immigrants? Delusion. Mayhem destroying our cities? Delusion. The deep state? Delusion. The fitness of RFK jr, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought? Delusions? So many delusions, the list is long.
Trump is like the star of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The moral of said story was that so many fawning, spineless sycophants would pretend to share the emperor’s delusions, so as to curry favor and avoid the emperor’s wrath, even as they scorned him behind his back. So it is with the Republican party - everyone kowtowing to Trump and praising his delusions. He’s so brilliant, no? No. So tragic, so dangerous, so wrong.
It certainly seems that way, but have you noticed his delusions always conveniently brought him increasing power?
Like the Pied Piper he lures with false promises.
Trump will be gone in 4 years (or hopefully earlier), but the people who have knowingly elected this delusional conman will remain and they will be looking for the next (less delusional) conman catering to their despicable biases
If he lives 4 more years, do you really imagine anything will pry him out of the White House? If you do, you’ve been seeing an entirely different Trump than I have. His fat ass is not going to leave just because someone says, ‘times up’.
I am counting on Melania poisoning him so he has horrible diarrhea continuously
🤔 rumor has it that he’s in diapers
There wasn't a German in 1946 who remembered how they voted.
Let's see how many Americans remember how THEY voted in 2024...
John Ranta. I'm glad to see someone else sees the similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's story.
Stevie Wonder "Superstition".
Could be, but I think the situation is even worse. I think that Trump is not so much mad as treasonous. I think that much of what he is doing is directed by his handlers in Moscow, who are quite sane. And who are on a campaign of destruction of their long-time enemy.
If they have their way, it's entirely possible that DOGE's updates will create a huge rush of US bonds that are sold--with the money being flipped to cryptocurrency and siphoned out of the country. The US would be destroyed.
If it was just Trump, I would suggest it is a sign of dementia. Clinging to a single idea you learned decades back, and violent outbursts of paranoia because an addled brain can no longer understand the world around it and tries to reduce reality to a manageable level (i.e. "they want to hurt me, so I hurt them first") aligns with have I have seen in my first proper day job (in the geriatric ward of a mental facility) all these years ago. I just don't understand the people who go along for the ride, because surely they must have understood by now that burning down the world will not profit them. Whatever has eaten Trumps mind seems to be infectious (and alas it has long spread abroad and is now also rampant in my country, so if you eventually find a cure, metaphorically speaking, please share).
They go along with it because even if they are hurting their neighbor will hurt even more. This pleases them.
This has to be it, hasn't it. I understood that this is how billionaires feel. They really hate capitalism, because while it made them rich beyond belief, it provided also a decent living for, for lack of a better world, working people, and to really enjoy their wealth they would prefer reduce everyone else to nothing in some sort of feudal society, even if that means they only half or their billions left or whatever. I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires. This evil altruism that says "I am okay with being wiped out, as long as someone else suffers more" is outright bizarre, and then for a lot of them it turns out they are not even okay with it (sorry for venting, I realize that this does not really add new perspective to anything).
That is Peter Theils concept. Read about him. Only they deserve the spoils!
Sometimes we need to vent.
RE: “ I just do not understand how it works for the poor, the middle class, or the "mere" millionaires”
It doesn’t work for them if their goal is to have a long, healthy and happy life. Some people, however, don’t want that. My blue collar unionized coworkers in the mid-1980s made it clear they didn’t want that life as they explained why they voted for Reagan soon after he busted the air traffic controllers union and presided over a recession that gave us the Rust Belt. They explained their dads, grandads, and great grandads had short hard lives and they expected/wanted the same. An entertaining president was more important than one that would make them prosperous and healthy. They prioritized their ancestral identity above all else. The MAGA crowd echoes this mentality. Their ancestral identity is paramount. It could be the same in European countries experiencing a fascist revival.
Well, ancestry (usually expressed as blood) is a key part of the fascist's talking points, so MAGA tends to attract those who respond to the argument.
It's kind of like a zombie apocalypse. The only cure is decapitation.
Ha ha? This might become a great rallying cry.
Don't zombies do a Sleepy Hollow thing?
That's the general idea.
So, they get decapitated and climb on a horse?
Vought and Project 2025 still believe they can achieve their goals by way of this presidency.
"Surely almost everyone except Trump realizes that DOGE has been a bust...it has yet to come up with any credible major examples of waste or fraud."
That was never its true mission. They now have massive amounts of personal data on all of us - for sale to the highest bidder, or for their own nefarious use. They got what they wanted.
"...and is now insisting that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, showing that he hasn’t made any effort to understand how the bedrock of American retirement works."
He doesn't need to understand it to undermine it. He just wants to destroy it. Any excuse is sufficient - who's going to stop him?
He's readying the country for Putin to destroy it.
It doesn't matter if Trump is insane; he has found enough citizens to vote for him, elect him, and run the government. And he runs the government with no blowback; in fact, he is a genius, of a sort. How such a vile creature can run the world must be down to mass psychosis. But no blowback from the Dems, even when they can - like not voting for Rubio! - and most American citizens mean that Trump has found a perfect target for what he's selling. It isn't helpful in the slightest for Americans now to say you didn't vote for him, unless you actively oppose him. This will not end well; and you already have blood on your hands. You obviously don't see what the USA has done to lose its allies in Europe and Canada. As the parody of Kipling went: If you can keep your mind when all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't understand the situation.'
Giving the devil his due is wise policy.
I can advise you to dedicate some quiet time for clear headed thinking about Television and it's role in all this. You believe everything you see and hear on TV, right? Trump is a TV actor and he likely leverages that. Trump was introduced at his Trump Tower in 2015 in front of a staged lobby with preplaced cameras and an audience waiting for him.
I've been warning about a military coup for years. My mind is stressed knowing no one is prepared.
Well Thomas, me, too. However, I think that while it well might open the door on some pretty dire outcomes, it is also possible that the military might be our last resort. As the daughter of a high military officer (now deceased) I can testify by experience that many such officers are deeply loyal to our Constitution, as their vows attest. And yes, some might become corrupted if they should command emergency powers in order to save us, might become as bloated and egomaniacal as our current POTUS, as power is like a drug for some. But which is the better path, a declaration of emergency requiring martial law, or continuing to tolerate the manifestly malign and crazy machinations of men like Trump, Musk, and their shadowy puppet masters? I honestly wonder.
Leigh, I don’t (wonder, that is). However noble its motivations, however necessary its actions, a military intervention would be an unmitigated disaster. I don’t need to spell it out; just ponder on the implications, domestically with the public already bitterly divided (assuming they’re even paying attention) and internationally with friends and enemies alike.
We need people like your late father's friends to make sure all the services know their duty to refuse illegal orders.
Alexander Haig? Michael Flynn?
I think you have to add in social media's effect on the population. The disinformation is readily available to any unthinking person that will swallow it.
I recall reading that Trump wasn't actually doing too well financially by the time of the Apprentice and was basically saved by that show.
"Hi, I'm not a real successful businessman, but I play one on TV"
Here is a famous poem from Dutch resistance, widely and illegally spread during the occupation of the Nazi's in the 40's. Again very applicable today.
The translation into English is not as elegant and at the same time heartbreaking as the original, but here goes:
We stand together before the choice between good or evil.
A nation that yields to tyrants,
will lose more than life and property,
then the light goes out.
As I’ve said here before, and been met with some hostility, Trump, and now Musk, are seriously psychologically deranged individuals. Trump has the added element of probably suffering from dementia.
Anyone familiar with the humorously titled, but totally serious, podcast called “Shrinking Trump” would come to the same conclusion. Trump has been deranged for years but the addition of Musk, who clearly is a manic sociopath, has enabled Trump to drive his sadistic tendencies to new levels.
Like with Hitler in the 1930’s, the questions also revolve around how our a large portion of our society, particularly the Republican Party itself, continues to support something so obviously destructive.
The destruction will need to affect the Reps directly before they begin to doubt. The way muskrat and tRump are going, it should only be a month or two. I'd love it to be sooner!
Someone has to do something. Are there no horrified, rational people near enough to power to do anything? Of course, not the cowardly, and almost uniformly ignorant Republican Congress persons, but no one?
With the Republicans in charge of the Senate, the House, and SCOTUS, we are significantly boxed in. I remember Lawrence O’Donnell in 2015 saying that the key to everything was the make up of the Supreme Court, and, boy, was he right!
You are so correct, but is the country helpless to stop destruction? Perhaps there is no salvation.
Ironically, our salvation may possibly come when the MAGA horde turns its rage on Trump and Musk, as they tear down the safety net that everyone except the rich actually relies on. But it’s not a sure thing.
Indeed. And by then what will remain of our country and our world? That is what so distresses me.
I share your distress. All our institutions, our constitution, our democracy, our social safety net, and the very land that we live on may all be in tatters.
We also have a military, the officers of which have taken vows of fidelity to the Constitutions. A declaration of emergency followed by a period of martial law is awful to consider, but is it more awful than what's happening to us now?
Meanwhile here's a chance to pick up an electric car on the cheap.
No, he wasn't right. What is the power of the courts when no one pays attention to it? That's where you are.
If the Republicans hadn’t been able to pack the court, SCOTUS might never have given Trump a free pass on almost everything. He might have been barred from running for a third term. He might have been convicted in federal court.
Yes Michael. John Roberts’ majority opinion on the President’s powers (if it’s within his official duties he can do anything) was the most shocking invitation to autocracy imaginable. All this discussion about “madness” is beside the point: Trump himself could be gaga or senile or on Adderall but there are evil courtiers in the wings who are definitely not, and they continue to wreak havoc.
Absolutely true.
The biggest problem with the courts is not the courts, its the lack of an agency or other mechanism to enforce their judgments. Trump has established a conspiracy theorist at the head of the FBI and the DOJ as a whole has been largely neutered. So now what?
Well, quite true, and Trump has shown every sign of being ready to defy the courts, up to and including the Supreme Court. But, even though Trump recently lost one high court ruling, I still see little evidence that the court might be willing to stop Trump’s dismantling of our democracy. Still, I fervently hope that I am wrong.
DITTO. They really are barking mad. And that means not only delusional in their desires and beliefs, it also mean they both have extreme character disorders characterized by massively inflated egos, disdain for other people, an inability to ever say enough is enough when it comes to acquiring money, etc, AND it is more than possible that both men abuse and or are actually addicted to drugs, adderal in the case of Trump, and Ketamine in the case of Musk. And all of the above means, at a deep level, that they are irrational actors. They must be removed from the halls of government by any legitimate, legal ends possible. And fast. Millions of us are being put at serious risk by their words and deeds.
You mean they're psychopaths.
Any method of removal is legitimate. They're literally criminals.
Yes and yes. And anyone who is paying attention can see that they are criminals, with the malign intentions of criminals, driven by greed and amorality. But there seems to be no entity to enforce our laws against them. A flaw in our Constitution might be that impeachment is a paper tiger if Congress is supine.
In Trump's second impeachment, wouldn't enough GOP Senators have voted to convict except for the fact that MAGA thugs threatened their families?
The threats are there now everyday for the Republicans to feel. tRump is a mob boss, period.
That's one of many flaws in our Constitution. Article II is another big one.
Like during the Cultural Revolution in Mao's China, MAGA zealots like the Red Guards are unleashing lawlessness and chaos. Greater destruction is the pipeline.
I have thought about the Cultural Revolution more than once since January.
The complete collapse of society MIGHT not happen. After all, WHO's gonna stop them? Farmers? There's Agribusiness. Academia? Sidelined with the "Anti-Semitism" bullshit. Science? Big bucks from Big Pharma shuts that down. Youth? Too busy praising Andrew Tate to help. Minorities? The power structure ALREADY keeps them under the jackboot.
WOMEN, to me, are the ONLY subsection of the populace to end this & white women voted for him.
The trouble with a coup is that a charismatic leader must lead it. And, though I certainly applaud AOC, Chris Murphy, Jasmine Crockett, et.al., NONE of them fits the bill.
Mitch the bitch was an essentiel stone on which this fascist coup was built. Impeachments, scotus nominations etc. Was he already insane? Maybe not but deranged and demented he is. And the true biggest ponzi scheme remains the junk US treasury bonds.
Mitch is cold, calculating and not insane. Just evil.
Let us not forget that his wife is at least a mega-millionaire, and maybe a card carrying member of the Bloated Billionaire Club.
Did you ever notice he has lifeless eyes like a shark?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUuH4TEmgLo
Yes. And this is diagnostic of psychopathy.
Dead eyes.