Author’s note: For those new to the CNI think tank, we have never found any justification for the capitalization of the name trump or his three offspring stooges, so you will almost never see that name capitalized here. Frankly this family seems worth far less than the millisecond of time it takes to hit shift, unless of course we are talking about the admirable Mary. In that same spirit, it has often been a struggle to capitalize nazi, hitler, goebbels, etc., so once those names were sprinkled in with all the small t “trumps,” it became impossible to justify their capitalizations as well.
trump’s nazi-narcissist paradox trap
His biggest strength is his weakest link.
From a CNI perspective, trump’s biggest strength and weakest link appears to be his grandiose pathological narcissism.
It is his biggest political strength because by grooming, gaslighting and indoctrinating American moderates and conservatives with an ideology of grandiose yet insecure narcissism for decades to control them, the owners of the Republican Party and the conservative grift machines have served up their voters to be stolen by an even further untethered and unhinged narcissist performing their act with the extreme grandiosity, cruelty and selfishness many now wrongly perceive as strength, manliness, and being the Alpha.
Certainly, based on the pathetic GOP Presidential debates led by sad clowns such as Haley, Desantis and Ramaswamy, their ongoing christo-fascist House of Representatives and overall congressional, and oligarchic Confederate clown shows, they have nobody else who can do a political version of grandiose and insecure narcissism better than trump. Frankly, if DeSantis had more than the charm and charisma of a pre-A.I. robot, we would be in a lot more trouble.
Alternatively, the massive insecurities that subconsciously fuel trump’s particular brand of narcissism are also his weakest link because his grandiose arrogance makes him incapable of admitting a mistake, which also translates into him thinking he always knows everything already, so is barely capable of learning anything.
These issues also cause those like him to have little-to-no self-awareness that they are endlessly needy and greedy clowns in search of narcissistic supply to fill their eternal emptiness, that is usually created by a life of insecurity and selfishness rooted in trauma, abuse, brain-deformity, gene-variation, or most unjustly, all of the above.
A grandiose narcissist’s desperate need to fill the hole in their soul is a big part of what makes them crave any kind of attention and have such a strong need for approval. These cravings also explain why narcissists like trump can be so easily manipulated with a compliment or “baited with a tweet.”
Most insecure narcissists lack the self-awareness to realize they are compulsively trying to prove they are better than everyone else when they are not. This is also a paradox that can be triggered.
Most disordered narcissists at some point will also show, tell, admit or reveal things smarter and stealthier narcissists know not to say. Hint: Trapping them in a paradox can trigger a narcissist’s mask to drop. Warning! Known to cause massive lashing out such as personal targeting, insurrection and multiple coup attempts until barred, bankrupted or jailed.
The below seems to be one of the most obvious examples of the needy and compulsive behavior of a narcissist trying to make himself sound great and making all his competition look weak, by revealing an unspoken political truth about how slavish every Republican running for President in 2016 was for money in politics. Indeed many Americans were charmed by trump pointing out how money in politics gets special treatment, despite the fact he is perhaps the most dishonest and corrupt pay to play hypocrite in American governmental history.
Additionally, beyond the likely monetary donation to a New York Senator, trump’s comments about Hillary should be taken with a grain of salt because trump was just mirroring his Fox News diet of conflating and projecting everything negative under the sun onto her and Obama for the national audience. What another interesting coincidence that conflating enemies and rivals with massively over-hyped negativity and projection propaganda are yet more identical traits of nazis and tells of malignant narcissists.
Here you can learn more about When to Believe Narcissists.
"These politicians, they're so bad,"
“You know, it's interesting. I was looking at the ones I'm running against. I've contributed to most of them -- can you believe it? I've contributed to most of them. And one of them said, No, I don't think you've contributed to me. They found out I did. I contribute to everybody. I've given to Democrats. I've given to Hillary. I've given to everybody, because that was my job. I've got to give to them. because when I want something I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass. It's true. They kiss my ass. It's true.” - donald trump - Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake: January 9, 2016
As we have all seen from the far left to the far right, malignant narcissists in democracies are tricky to bring down even when they are holding literal smoking insurrection guns, because they will skillfully lie and deny anything and everything shamelessly, until the end, or they have consolidated power, whichever comes first.
Their skills in acting and telling stories comes from a lifetime of practice of lying to everyone including themselves about who they really are, because reality is something they cannot handle and/or do not live in for a variety of psychological reasons.
Again, a lifetime has taught most to skillfully hide their truly selfish, insecure and/or conscienceless natures well, however it came about, because many right or wrong have learned that most people will shun shamelessly cruel and antisocial narcissists if they see them behaving in that manner.
This is why one of CNI’s highest recommendations when trying to bring down a malignant narcissist is to find paradoxes that can be weaponized into fully revealing a person that justice demands needs shunning, jail, or at least exposure to those who need to know they wear a “mask of sanity.” Otherwise, they will continue to hide a dark, dangerous and mentally disordered selfish belief system that will never stop abusing and taking advantage of others, until someone else stops them.
The Paradox
By the definition used here, “A paradox is a statement in which it seems that if one part of it is true, the other part of it cannot be true.”
At a recent campaign rally, trump became the first serious contender for President of the United States who has ever felt the need to insist, "I never read 'Mein Kampf.’” For those unfamiliar, this book was hitler's manifesto ("My Struggle”) and was what provided the philosophical foundation for nazism. Indeed trump did need to come up with an answer for why he has been using very nazi-esque terms, again.
In this case, trump has boxed himself into an inescapable paradox where he must either be a fanboy of hitler’s nazi phrasing, ideology and policies, or if he is a person who came to most of the same toxic words and conclusions as hitler all on his own, he reveals he is a malignant narcissist.
In other words, anyone coming up with hitler’s words and behaviors on their own like trump claims to have done proves they are a nazi lying about their beliefs, a “malignant narcissist” or both, because hitler was the primary role model of psychologist and holocaust survivor Erich Fromm who coined the term.
Either way, trump has accidentally revealed to us a new nazi-narcissist paradox that can be weaponized against him and other MAGA narcissists and nazis because in most cases, they appear to be one and the same, so can be easily pointed out as such. Indeed with nearly every category of symptoms, traits and behaviors for malignant narcissists and nazis, the Venn diagram is practically a single overlapping circle.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Sam, I’ve been watching a lively social media discussion about the pros and cons of talking about trump’s incontinence. One side uses it to throw him off his strongman pose. The other insists it’s ableist. I’d love to know your thoughts. I can see both sides. TIA. LOVE your work.