Picture Trump as THE SOLDIER IN WHITE from Catch 22. In the actual story this fellow never says anything, but if it were Trump lying in bed completely swathed in gauze, he’d be saying:
“Everyone except the radical Dems can see that the country is badly wounded, mostly dead, a real goner!”
A severe narcissist like Trump is incapable of seeing or feeling anything but himself, though he doesn’t know that. Consequently one interpretive filter that his statements should be run through is that he is talking about himself even when his words say otherwise.
When he describes the U. S. as a country in ruins he isn’t “lying”. He’s describing the only country he knows, The State of Trump.
He is unaware that he is experiencing diminishing capabilities and attributes. When he assembles himself, when he slathers himself with makeup, when he poufs up his 8 remaining hairs, when he straps on his corset, he denies the things that his eyes and body tell him, and walks away from the mirror thinking he looks fine indeed.
But…there’s leakage. Of several kinds. Including mental leakage. He sees that what’s around him looks like a ruin, as long as it’s not something that belongs to him. His belongings are narcissistic extensions;they can’t be in a state of decay. Things other than himself, well they seem very dilapidated.
And don’t get me started on interpreting his preoccupation with the Southern Border. HIS SOUTHERN BORDER. Good lord, one’s imagination runs wild!