Trump is deeply seriously dangerously deluded, that much is clear.
But so are, in fact, most of his voters.
Voters from [northeastern Pennsylvania] who spoke to Newsweek expressed concerns about reports that Trump fired FBI director James Comey over the Russia probe, but they still trusted the president over the news media.
“I believe Trump is doing the right thing,” said Paul Visoky, a general contractor.
He admits it would be troubling if Trump had tried to stop the investigation of Mike Flynn, but he doesn’t trust Comey’s account because he considers his claims just sour grapes — although he would consider a video recording as proof.
“It’s all bullsh*t,” Visoky said. “I’m just tired of it. I wish they would just play well with each other instead of all this infighting.”
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Mark Rabo, a heavy equipment operator, told Newsweek that he was disturbed by reports that Trump leaked classified information to senior Russian officials and would like to see an independent investigation into the president’s ties to the Kremlin.
But his support for Trump hasn’t waned.
“The guy’s only been in office four months,” said Rabo, whose father emigrated from Jordan. “It usually takes over one year of a presidency to judge the direction of the country.”
Exactly how Comey writes “sour grapes” memos dated back to January 27th, several months before he was ultimately fired, seems rather problematic to me. But the larger point his is that despite all the various troubling reports Trump’s base of support remains strong and consequently the willingness of GOP leaders to seriously take steps to curb and fully thoroughly investigate his mendacious actions will remain tepid at best.
The job simply won’t get done until Democrats are once again in control.
However outside his base, things are rapidly crumbling for Trump, even including the value of his various properties around the world as described here by Keith Olbermann who used to live in Trump Palace in NYC.
Keith points out that the behavior we’ve been seeing from Trump, from the rages to the factual and judgement errors may in fact be some form of mental impairment. Perhaps narcissism, perhaps something else, but there does appear to be a pathology or dysfunction at work here as has been noted by some clinical psychologists even in defiance of the Goldwater rule.
In the several days since psychologist John Gartner posted a petition on Facebook declaring that Donald Trump must be removed from office because he has “a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States,” more than 18,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals have signed their agreement.
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Gartner, a psychologist in private practice in Baltimore and New York, author of a psychobiography of Bill Clinton, and a former instructor in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, contends that Trump “manifestly” meets the DSM-published criteria for at least three personality disorders: narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder. They are a “toxic brew” that in his view not only make Trump “dangerous” but add up to “malignant narcissism,” not a diagnosis formalized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual but a label coined by the German-born psychologist and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm.
What makes it possible to diagnose Trump, says Gartner, is that the DSM, version 5 of which is in current use, puts pathology in the realm of the observable. It describes problematic behaviors, not possible motivations. For example, “when Trump declares that he knows more about ISIS than the generals, he is displaying grandiosity,” one of the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder. Or when he instructs the National Parks Service not to display photographs showing empty bleachers during the inaugural parade, he is making obvious his need for admiration.
The Goldwater Rule was established after lawsuit against psychologist who issued an opinion that former GOP Presidential candidate was “crazy” without actually examining him.
When Donald Trump accused his predecessor Barack Obama of wiretapping him, James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, told colleagues that he considered Trump to be “outside the realm of normal,” and even “crazy.” Many Americans share this view, but the professionals who are best qualified to make such an assessment have been forced to remain mum.
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The ban, known as “the Goldwater rule,” is the legacy of an embarrassing episode from 1964. That year, Fact magazine published a petition signed by more than a thousand psychiatrists, which declared that Barry Goldwater, who was then the Republican Presidential nominee, was “psychologically unfit to be President.” Goldwater lost the election, but he won a libel suit against the magazine. The bad publicity seriously tarnished the reputation of the profession.
So when psychologist today speak out about Trump observable mental health, they do so with some trepidation balanced with the urgency of how damaging it may be to have an impaired person in the most powerful position on earth.
Later on, Keith talks about how the tumbling train-wreck of back-to-back scandals that is the Trump administration has begun to have fall-out to his various tenants and property owners who are become more and more desperate to sell their properties even at losses of 5% to even 35% off. And it’s not just at Trump Palace.
Residents living in Trump Tower appear to be trying to leave the building after Donald Trump's win in the presidential election, according to an examination of sales and rental listings by The Hollywood Reporter.
The report finds that no fewer than 31 apartment units in the Manhattan skyscraper—which has been the site of protests and traffic jams ever since the election—are for sale or rent, and including apartments that were recently pulled off the market, more than 14% are available, changing hands or remain unsold.
Although it's not certain why owners and tenants of the building might want to leave, The Hollywood Reporter found that about 39% of apartment prices have been reduced this year, while the number of apartments put up for sale or rent has increased significantly since March. Apartment units for sale in Trump Tower aren't going quickly, either, according to the report; the average Trump Tower apartment for sale has been on the market for 188 days, about 50% longer than the average luxury unit.
So in many area all things Trump are becoming more and more toxic. But unfortunately not yet with his base supporters.
Fox: 96% of Trump Voters still stand behind their vote, only 2% regret their vote.
Even if they do have a jaundice rose-colored view of the issues arguing that after Trump’s first 100 days he [was] likely to be re-elected if the economy does well and people gain back jobs because Democrats have nobody to put on the field of play [note: this broadcast was before Comey was fired, Trump gave classified information to the Russians and the Comey memos showing they Trump tried to impede the Flynn investigation] a lot of their analysis is exactly right — his base of support is a real thing , and while it’s a thing — don’t expect Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell to budge an inch when it comes to seriously removing him from office, even it’s it very likely for the good of the nation.
There are still wide swaths of people who put their trust and faith in Trump being able to improve their lives, they haven’t yet seen him betray that promise no matter what he may have done with Russia or Comey or Yates or Flynn, they won’t give up on that until the jobs don’t show up they way he promised because his trade wars cause us as many or more problems than they correct and then suddenly the water and farms start to get poisoned by pesticides, the social infrastructure begins to crumble beneath their feet, and health care remains fracked up.
They aren’t ready to see the truth, not yet — there is still a chance they may blame those failures on Democrats hounding Trump over his various scandals — but I believe eventually, they will.
We just have to be patient and ready for when that occurs.