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.
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be Zoom chatting today at 12:30 PM to talk midterms, yesterday’s January 6 hearing, and whatever else might be of interest to you. The link is here.
I will not go over everything that happened at Thursday’s hearing. Philip Bump, at the Washington Post, has a great summary of the case against Donald Trump if you need a quick reminder.
But one thing from yesterday’s hearing has stuck with me. According to testimony from Cassidy Hutchison, an assistant to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, she recounted an episode with the former president on December 11, the day that the Supreme Court rejected a Trump lawsuit to overturn the election results. She said he was furious and kept repeating the phrase, “I don’t want people to know we lost.” That sentence, perhaps more than any other, explains why he lied about the 2020 election — and continues to do so today.
In the lexicon of Donald Trump, there is no worse epithet than “loser.” It’s one that he hurls at many of his political and personal rivals. For a profound narcissist like Trump, the worst thing that can happen to them is to appear weak and vulnerable. At their core, narcissists are stricken by intense feelings of inadequacy — and the positive personae they project to the world seek to cover up those feelings. It’s why Trump constantly boasts about his ratings and crowd size at events or the respect he allegedly received from foreign leaders. He wants the world to believe that he is the opposite of the inadequate loser he sees when he looks in the mirror. But of course, also, he’s trying to convince himself.
Narcissists are deathly afraid of anyone seeing them as they truly are. It’s why they never admit fault or take responsibility for their actions. It’s why they constantly blame others for their unethical, immoral, or malevolent actions. They are, in their minds, victims of circumstance, not flawed human beings. It’s why rather than admit defeat — and risk having the image of a loser — Trump seeks out others to blame.
It’s also why Trump kept railing against a stolen election and claiming he was the true victor, even after he knew he’d lost. One of the significant takeaways from yesterday’s hearing was the mountain of evidence that Trump not only knew he lost but openly acknowledged it. According to one press aide, who walked into the Oval Office as Trump was watching Biden on TV, he complained to her, “Can you believe I lost to this fucking guy?” Hutchison recalled Meadows telling her, “A lot of times he’ll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it.”
Aide after aide — from campaign manager Bill Stepien to Attorney General Bill Barr — told Trump his election fraud claims were bogus. As the committee showed in detailed testimony, four days after the news networks anointed Biden the winner, Trump initiated plans to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and Somalia before January 20, 2021 (Biden’s inauguration). These are the actions of a man who knew he would not stay in office.
Yet, knowing that he lost didn’t stop Trump from pushing forward with his efforts to undo the election results on January 6 — and they haven’t dimmed his unceasing lies about the 2020 election.
On the surface, Trump was clearly trying to steal the election, but the real goal of his lies has been to convince himself that he’s not a loser. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if Trump truly believes he rightfully won the 2020 election. Anyone who has dealt with a narcissist knows they have a preternatural ability to create their own reality. They embrace a lie for psychological reasons — to avoid coming to grips with their inadequacy or personal failures — and over time, fiction becomes fact.
But, of course, it’s not enough for Trump to believe his bullshit. Narcissists rely on constant validation and affirmation. In that sense, Trump’s lies have produced extraordinary success. A majority of Republican voters believe he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election (which also plays to their narcissism and unwillingness to acknowledge that, like the man they so passionately support, they, too, are losers). He’s persuaded the lion’s share of Republican politicians to believe it as well — or at the very least, not publicly state that he lost to Biden (for Trump, the latter is more than adequate). For all of them, Trump is not a loser. The only people who think he lost are Democrats or RINOs, who (as far as Trump is concerned) are losers anyway. So who cares what they think?
It’s bizarre to suggest that the entire 2020 Election lie melodrama of the past nearly two years is a by-product of one man’s fragile ego, yet here we are. Trump’s feelings of personal inadequacy and his profound narcissism have brought American democracy close to a breaking point.
But isn’t this the profile of all mass muderers. Excellent description
I also find it extraordinary that no compares this ridiculous argument to one that a 6 year old would try to and unsuccessfully make. How all these people are going along with it is beyond me. I suppose greed just supersedes everything to these folks.