Trump has been identified as having several psychiatric personality disorders for some time. This particularly came to the fore during his first campaign for the presidency in which several mental health professionals attempted to bring their warnings to the attention of the public and potential voters.
As a psychiatrist observing his behaviour in the public record, I believe there is a great deal of evidence to support these diagnoses. We have been seeing the on-going deleterious impact of his disordered behaviour on the world around him ever since he has been in the public eye.
Trump has features of three main personality disorders as defined in the American Psychiatric Association’s 5th edition of their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: 1.) borderline 2.) narcissistic 3.) anti-social personality. A common feature in all these personality disorders is the use of manipulative psychological games, popularly known as ‘mind games’. Through his adeptness with playing these games, Trump has been able to exert an unprecedented level of control over both the American electorate as well as world leaders.
On the world stage Trump is currently playing three different games, which I have entitled as the following: – 1.) Tariff King 2.) Cheated Warrior 3.) The Amazing Peace Maker.
By way of background information, psychological games are defined by their hidden agendas and manipulative natures, often involving subtle tactics to influence and gain control over others and cause them to question their own self-worth, and even their own reality.
Examples of some processes in psychological game playing are:
Manipulation – where individuals use subtle or covert tactics such as flattery, hurt or sadistic punishment to get others to act in a way that benefits them, often but not always with the other person being unaware they are being manipulated.
Narcissism/ Over-entitlement – the idea that one is special and therefore more entitled than others to receive special rights, favours and gifts.
Power Dynamics – where one person tries to gain or maintain control over another in situations where there is a power imbalance.
Lack of insight and denial – limited or blocked capacity for introspection regarding one’s motives and lack of awareness of how one is being perceived by others.
Triangulation – playing three people off against each other, including the player themselves.
Examples of specific psychological games:
Guilt-tripping – a tactic used to make another person feel guilty or responsible for something that they may not be at fault for in order to manipulate them into complying with the player’s demands.
Playing the Victim – a tactic whereby someone portrays themselves as a victim to gain sympathy and attention.
Splitting – a fluctuation between affection and distance between the player and other individuals to create a sense of insecurity and/or control in the relationships, particularly seen in borderline personality disorders.
The tariff king
Within days of starting his presidency, Trump announced that he was going to correct the wrongs that had been done for so long to the American people by having been cheated by the unfair trading practices of other countries, despite the fact there is no evidence to support his claim. But the claim was really designed for Trump to present himself and America as poor victims in a treacherous world and therefore justify his plan to use tariffs as a bludgeon with which he could make himself the centre of attention and wield power.
However, due to his erratic nature and lack of systematic thinking, he does not have an overall developed strategy as to how to apply the tariffs. But that does not matter to Trump because what is really of interest to him in terms of his narcissism, is how the tariffs’ financial threat puts all the other countries at his beck and call. Once he is engaged in the negotiation process with the other parties, he then takes on the role of the bullying, sadistic negotiator, in keeping with his sociopathy.
In Canada, we have seen this dynamic at play in our own newly minted prime minister, Mark Carney, who has displayed an odious supplication to Trump. Carney, aware that Trump is the world’s major promoter of military spending, has tried to placate him by significantly increasing the Canadian military budget including committing Canada to NATO’S massive five per cent GDP increase. But, despite Carney’s attempts to mollify him, Trump nonetheless went ahead and cut off tariff negotiations by using the fabricated ploy that Canada was unfairly taxing American multinational tech companies.
Trump does not have any other methodology in mind in administering his tariffs other than this game of humiliating other countries. So, it is of no concern to him that he is concurrently driving up the cost of living for his own American citizens through his sabotaging of their economy.
The cheated warrior
It is a firmly established fact, as military history can unequivocally attest to, that any government spending on armaments has been proven to be highly detrimental for all societies in a multitude of ways. Nonetheless, Trump brags about how the American military is the biggest in the world, feeding his narcissism.
However, at the same time, he loudly and repeatedly complains that he and America are being cheated by their NATO allies because America spends significantly more on the military than their NATO allies. This despite the fact that America has freely chosen to do this.
Based on this blatant illogic, Trump has taken the ‘poor put-upon victim’ stance, using guilt and group pressure to manipulate his NATO allies into increasing their level of military expenditures from the current two per cent GDP to the staggeringly exorbitant level of five per cent GDP. To squelch any objections, Trump manipulates his allies by threatening that he will arrange for Russia to attack them if don’t pay the required allotment. This threat triggers vulnerability and abandonment fears in the allies’ militaries even though it is patently absurd.
Trump picked the figure of five per cent not based on any public review of its statistical validity but rather it appears that he personally pulled it completely out of thin air. This demonstrates the sheer arbitrariness and personal animus of his outrageous financial demands. Nonetheless, except for Spain, all the NATO members have lined up and obediently pledged financial fealty to Trump’s extortion.
However, as many financial analysts have already determined, this level of public military expenditures is destined to rob the economies of the participating NATO members of their future financial solvency. This is all except for that of Spain, who have quite rightly chosen to put their own national financial needs ahead of Trump’s. For which, in turn, by reaffirming their position has led Trump to loudly and profusely berate them at a NATO meeting. It should be noted that not one of Spain’s fellow NATO members came to their defence.
Such is the measure of the absolute control that Trump’s games have achieved over the NATO alliance, who nonetheless continue to believe their own lies that they are a democratic organization.
The amazing peacemaker
In fairness to Trump, the fault for America’s contribution to the cause of the war in the Ukraine rests squarely at the feet of Joe Biden. It was Biden, who during his long tenure on the Foreign Relations Committee, promoted NATO’s on-going eastward expansion over the continuous and vehement objections of the Russians. And it was Biden, and Biden alone, who spoke with Putin on the eve of Putin’s threatened invasion of the Ukraine. And it was then, further in turn, Biden who failed to negotiate what was at that point an eminently achievable agreement with Putin, the failure of which has led directly to the current war.
However, the on-going failure at this point of the Ukraine war to achieve even a rudimentary peace agreement represents the squandered opportunities that Trump’s personality disorders have contributed to.
Trump’s odd and inappropriate relationship with Putin was initially used by Trump as a source of narcissistic self-flattery. That I, Trump, am so special that I can have a special close friendship with this dictator who trusts no one else but me. On the strength of this relationship, through his own narcissistic lens, Trump claimed during his second presidential campaign that he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. But because of his use of triangulation through playing Zelensky, Putin and the European and other world leaders all off against each other, Trump has been unable to take the leadership role needed to provide a consistent framework and the on-going stable relationships that are essential for a successful negotiation process. This has also led to the squandering of any possible use that his friendship with Putin could have played.
The effect of this chaos has been that others have attempted to fill the vacuum left by Trump. In particular, the European nations have flailed away trying to find a role in the peace process. But, with being unable to achieve this, and becoming increasingly fearful of the Russians, they have tragically and ominously opted for massive military build-ups in their own countries and rushed, if possible, to join the NATO military alliance.
The continued failure to end the war, and its subsequent escalation, has led to apocalyptic threats from Putin about his possible use of nuclear weapons. While these threats are only threats, they are nonetheless an existential warning of just how high the stakes of Trump’s failed games are getting.
At the beginning of his second term as president, Trump decided to resume the Iran nuclear talks that he had cancelled during his first term. The goal of these talks is for Iran to forgo creating nuclear weapons in exchange for the dropping of western sanctions. One of the reasons that may have factored into Trump’s decision to resume the talks may have been his narcissistic fantasy of wanting to be revered as a peacemaker. In his inauguration speech, Trump stated that his proudest legacy would be that of a “peacemaker and a unifier”. And as mentioned above, he claimed that he could achieve a peace deal in the Ukraine war within 24 hours. He has also speculated on several occasions that the Nobel committee might be considering him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Predictably the talks with Iran have run into disagreements about what level of uranium enrichment could be mutually agreed upon. This had begun to challenge Trump’s inherent impatience.
Amid these talks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, who pointedly sings Trump’s praises, launched a sizeable and targeted unilateral bombing attack on Iran. Trump’s response was instead of chastising Netanyahu for sabotaging and undermining his talks with Iran, was to become uncertain as to how he should proceed.
He announced he needed to have two weeks to determine whether he should talk or bomb, not understanding the difference between the two. In the end he chose to bomb without really explaining why. This begs the question as to what role did Netanyahu play in this decision. Netanyahu’s military action may have created a sense of insecurity in Trump regarding his fear of criticism for the pace and progress of his negotiations, and it may have also challenged his need to be a ‘tough guy’, just like his friend Bibi. So, in the end, instead of being the patient peace maker, Trump chose to be Netanyahu, the impatient warrior.
Because of the inherent limitations posed by his personality disorders as described above, Trump does not have the emotional or intellectual capacity to be the statesman that he believes himself to be.
I have written this paper with the aim of trying to understand and educate ourselves about one of the most emotionally disturbed individuals in high office in recent history. The more all of us can understand Trump’s disturbances and how they impact on our world, the better we will be able to determine how we, both as individuals and as well through our governments, best manage the malignant chaos that he inevitably creates.
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