So Your Political Leader is a Profound Narcissist
Every once in a while we need to remind ourselves that Donald Trump is a deeply unwell person incapable of existing outside of his ego.
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up below.
Sigh …
The former president is at it again.
By my count, this is the fourth time Donald Trump has asked a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political rivals.
In 2016, he publicly asked Vladimir Putin to find Hillary Clinton’s missing 30,000 emails.
In 2019, he was impeached for pressuring the Ukrainian government to launch an investigation of the Bidens in return for ending a hold on military assistance.
While facing that impeachment inquiry, Trump asked the Chinese government to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
I’m sure there are other examples that I’m simply forgetting, but you get the idea. Trump’s pattern of behavior is quite clear.
What makes this latest incident so particularly inappropriate is that Trump is asking Putin to do his bidding only a week or so after the US State Department accused the Russian military of committing war crimes in Ukraine. Trump is right, I suppose, that “Putin is not exactly a fan of our country.” Unmentioned, of course, is the reason he’s not a fan.
It also bears noting that Trump is doing the same thing he demanded of President Zelensky on that infamous phone call that got him impeached. Then he asked for a Ukrainian investigation of Hunter Biden because he believed that it would embarrass Biden in his run for the White House. Now he’s asking Putin to “dig up dirt” on the president. Again, the purpose here is not to provide information but to harm Biden politically.
The cherry on top of this shit sundae is that Trump is so narrowly focused on his political needs that he sees nothing wrong with asking a foreign leader — prosecuting an illegal and immoral war — to help undermine an American president trying to stop that conflict.
The Ego Is Not Master In Its Own House
None of this is surprising. But that’s the problem. What kind of country are we living in where this isn’t an extraordinary scandal? This statement from Trump was not even a one-day story. Donald Trump is not just some schmo off the street (as much as we might pray that was the case). He’s the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. His endorsement is the most prized campaign bauble for a Republican political candidate. He’s the kingmaker of the modern GOP, and he’s sitting around asking Vladimir Putin for political favors … AND NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME.
There is a reason Trump keeps doing stuff like this: he is a profoundly debilitated narcissist. Most ordinary people would recognize that at a moment like this — as Putin is prosecuting an illegal war in Ukraine that has left more than 10 million people displaced and thousands dead — it is not the time to ask him for a favor (truthfully, it’s never a good time but right now is especially bad). But Trump is incapable of existing outside his ego. Putin “digging up dirt” on the Bidens is good for him politically (or so he believes) and that’s all he can see. There is no world outside his limitless needs for validation and affirmation.
It’s why, for example, he continuously praised North Korean leader Kim Jung Un and even spoke of the two men being in love because of the notes that he sent to Trump.
The fact that Kim is a homicidal killer, who has caused untold suffering to his citizens, never occurs to Trump. Of course, even if it did, it wouldn’t matter because one of the byproducts of his profound narcissism is a complete lack of empathy for the feelings of others.
It’s also why Trump saw nothing wrong in holding military assistance to Ukraine hostage in return for “political dirt” on his opponents. In Trump’s mind, everything is about his needs, and it would never cross his mind that as president he has a larger set of responsibilities to the country he leads. Friends or enemies of the United States are irrelevant to him. Right or wrong certainly plays no role in his thinking. Everything is filtered through the prism of whether or not it feeds his ego. Most of us would be aghast at receiving praise from a sociopathic murderer. For Trump, it is validating.
Again, this will likely seem familiar to many of you, but it’s yet one more reminder of how extraordinarily dangerous Trump is to the country's future. A political leader who is incapable of acting in a selfless manner, who only prizes their own needs, and is incapable of putting themselves in the shoes of others is a leader who cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of the country he helms. Perhaps, above all, an individual so profoundly unwell and so remarkably divorced from the basic social norms that nearly all of us live by on a daily basis is the last person you want as president of the United States. We barely survived four years of having precisely such a leader in the White House. It’s a risk that none of us should be willing to take again.
What’s Going On
I have a new MSNBC piece on while it might be understandable that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is invoking the Holocaust in describing the Russian invasion of his country … it’s not accurate.
Think of all the terrible things done by House Republicans over the past year (Paul Gosar sending around an anime video in which he kills Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s body of work). But guess what is a bridge too far for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: suggesting that members of Congress are participating in cocaine-fueled orgies).
The decision by CBS News to give Mick Mulvaney a paid punditry gig is a black mark for a once venerated news organization.
Smart piece by Mark Hannah on the hawkishness of the DC press corps.
This tweet is an odyssey.
By the way, a new study out shows that ivermectin does nothing to protect people from COVID-19.
Musical Interlude
I really enjoy Mike’s article!
I sit in my barn’s heated tack room at night, surrounded by the barn cats, and relishing in the thought that there is still someone out there with a sound mind to articulate the important issues of our day!