The Psychology of Trump: Part 3: THE BULLY AND HIS BASE
Dr. TiRo / The Biosynergist
The Totalitarian Trumpians — Bullies, Cronies, & Despots.
A hodgepodge of adorers, tyrants and opportunists are attached to the narcissist in the White House. Whether skimming wealth from Trump Brand, building power through Trump’s presidency, or imagining their reflections in Donald’s shiny mirror, people are in “Trump Base” mostly for themselves, marginally for him, not for America. Donald’s sham promise to Make America Great Again gave hope to Trumpians naive about business, politics, and globalization. They cheered, thinking that if he beat the forces of global transformation, they’d reap the rewards. Trump the Iconoclast energized folks wounded by their own failed attempts to obtain fame and fortune. They roar when the billionaire bad boy fires faltering subordinates and deflates zealous innovators; it relieves their hatred and regret. Then there are the sly Machiavellians who see a celebrity madman, obsessed with power and fame, whose faults and fixations can be used to help them accomplish their selfish schemes. They are coming out as never before, drawn by new dreams of forbidden victory.
While celebrating imaginary success, relieving sublimated hatred, and taking private advantage of Trump’s obsessions, The Base advances myriad personal, social, political, and economic causes that Donald believes are his own, or doesn’t grasp. Whatever their motivations or incentives, when their self-serving President is acting-out for his viewers on a Fox TV show, chanting insults for applause at a rally, or stirring discord on the stage of international diplomacy, members of his Base are becoming aware of the immorality and viciousness of his actions and admonishments. As the election nears, Trump signals to supporters’ their rewards are totally contingent on him staying in power: I must win by any means, at any cost to you or others — if you let me lose, you’re nothing. No matter how selfish and anti-social The Base appears or how belligerent and intolerant they act, the vast majority of totalitarian Trumpians are absolutely obedient to their leader.
Totalitarian Trumpians. Before delving deeper into the psychosocial swamp Trump shares with the members of his Base, a note on their labeling is needed. To understand these people’s beliefs and actions we must set aside professional jargon and political correctness, and describe them in common language. With sympathy for their personal humanity, we think of them collectively as Totalitarian Trumpians. For Trumpians who are soul-searching, we hope your inner sovereignty will be restored. For those who are spreading terror, we hope that benevolent Americans will be able to reform, forgive, and welcome you to become kind and caring partners in American democracy. Nobody deserves to be seduced into destroying the Nation they want to love.
The core of Trump’s Base is composed of people who jumped on the Trump bandwagon during The Apprentice TV-show. Most long-term devotees of Donald-the-Celebrity accept whatever he does or says. Newer Trumpians come almost entirely from the Republican Party and diverse special interest groups; their support for Trump is conditional; he must not openly counter their interests. Pollsters who track attitudes of the US voting public report that Trump’s approval is lower than any other 1st term President. While his loyalists cling to him, Republicans fell from 30% down to 25% of registered voters during Trump’s time in office. If these statistical trends hold and all eligible citizens vote on Election Day 2020, Trump’s 40% of the vote will loose, despite Trumpian ballot tampering. While chunks of Americans abandon the party and the man, rabid Trump supporters still cheer him. President Donald uses the cheers of that hard-core quarter of the American populace to inflate his frightened ego; their affirmation keeps him afloat in the face of a growing onslaught of revelations, demands and failures. The people who support him consistently — Totalitarian Trumpians — divide into three factions that reflect three archetypal characters that Donald panders to and portrays.
(1) Most numerous and common of the three Trumpian types are the Antisocial Bullies (ABs) whose admiration of Trump’s “bully-&-belittle” character inspires their allegiance. Till now ABs dodged politics, daunted by its correctness. Donald conned them into believing that “Trump’s Perfect: His Opponent’s are Awful.” The ABs share Trump’s racist feelings and repeat his punishing proclamations in rallies, marches, and sometimes in voting booths.
(2) The most complex faction is the Corrupt Cronies (CCs) who feign divine virtue while promoting corrupt and immoral acts. The CCs join Trump as a shaky association of single-issue antisocial partisans and doctrinaire autocratic Republicans. Most are Trumpian sycophants with guileful leaders who gerrymandered voting precincts, crippled Congress, and ravaged regulations across the USA to force their ill will on all Americans, from egalitarians to authoritarians.
(3) The Trump supporters that are least numerous or vocal, yet most powerful and shrewd are the Despotic Oligarchs (DOs). Wealthy autocratic despots worldwide share Donald’s aspiration for giant financial and political payoff. Unlike oligarchic families that amassed wealth and power slowly by ethical means, the DOs are opportunists who advance illegally through terror, theft, and murder. Some believe these malevolent manipulators are running the world. At least two of them run large parts of Trump’s presidency.
The way these Three Trumpian Factions mirror Trump’s archetypal personality traits will be described and analyzed in the balance of this essay. We’ll demonstrate how these Totalitarian persons mold their values and impacts into a deadly dogmatism that will end democracy in the United States of America, and devastate life on this planet, if it continues to subvert and sink our country’s humane, egalitarian, and biosynergistic ideals.
Antisocial Bullies (ABs)
It’s obvious, and ominous, that the core of common Trumpians are TV fans who have stuck with Donald from “The Apprentice” all the way to “The Re-Election.” To be sure, from 2004 onward many TV viewers were duped into believing Trump was a bright billionaire business mogul. Now that his phony antics are daily headlines, only Antisocial Bullies (ABs) who honor autocratic obedience over truth, stay. Trump and his loyal supporters cancelled newspapers, TV channels, and friends that criticize them. Like Donald, Trump’s ABs malign their accusers, and block shameful facts with lies. That helps avoid the perplexity of cognitive dissonance and builds a wall of contradictions that shut out future attacks. Donald’s AB supporters learn quickly which news sources to avoid or delete. Most ABs had changed channels before May 2019 when Trump’s 1985 to 1994 tax returns were released, showing over $1 billion business losses in that decade. It’s likely they don’t know that in 1987 when his best selling book “Art of The Deal” came out, he lost $42.2 million! In 2019 Trump slandered US Judges for releasing his taxes and sued US newspapers for publishing them. He “tweets” bald-face lies to his AB Base claiming he was always a billionaire & now he’s richer than anyone. Many ABs believe Donald’s constant lies, causing his approval ratings to grow from 35% (in December 2017) to 42% (Dec 2019 to Sept 2020). Dissonance-avoidance makes some followers accept his obvious incongruity as a new norm. Five weeks before the 2020 Presidential election, New York Times published a report on Trump’s last 15 tax returns. He paid no taxes in 10 of those years, and $750 in both 2016 and 2017! Donald Trump is either a “total looser” in business, or an un-American tax cheat — likely both! As more fans learn new truths about Trump’s lifelong failures, falsehoods, cover-ups, crimes, bankruptcies, bailouts, and bribes — their admiration dissolves. Still, a baffling bunch of Antisocial Bullies remains enchanted by the Trump fairy tale. The Big Question: will they vote for a Totally Bankrupt Fairy Tale Billionaire?
The most constant core of Antisocial Bullies includes people who admire Donald’s quirks, regardless of, or perhaps due to his despicable language, sinful values, pathological lies, and deviant behavior. As long-time chauvinistic working and middle class Trumpians whose angry Egos have been conflating with Donald’s unsavory Id for years are joined by new cult-like admirers from “The Apprentice” and rich anti-socials from the 2016 presidential campaign, most Trumpian ABs stand ready to blame and bash anyone who argues against their reckless leader. Before Trump, Republican presidential candidates had become rather predictable. Their debates were dull and speeches boring: especially compared to the angst of provocative TV news and talk shows. Many ABs in Trump’s Base are people who feed on open anguish. They disliked the rigors of school, are bored in their jobs; many are ethically aberrant. To be lectured by moral partisans angers them; it reminds them of punitive parents, tough teachers, and pompous professors. These Antisocial Bullies prefer the thrill of rough reality TV, local crime news, and extreme contact sports. When Trump took the Republican campaign stage, he offered an alternative — he was a combatant seeking conquest; not simply a politician soliciting votes.
Many angry Antisocial Bullies were intrigued — “I like Trump’s brashness; he tells it like he sees it, whatever the topic. Party politicians bore me. It’s time for an outsider to shake things up in Washington, and out here in my America; Donald’s daring might do the trick.” This faction of Trump’s base will stay tuned so long as his antisocial bullying doesn’t turn them off, or turn on them. Because they’re hostile and rebellious, they can be unreliable, dishonest, even dangerous. Disgust with faults in Donald’s personality can send new ABs back to the legions of non-voters in a blink. Watching CNN’s Cuomo tear Trump apart, without seeing Fox News dress his wounds, may break their faith. It’s likely that, like Trump, some ABs are lying about their own success with phony bravado. Cheating on taxes is OK in the antisocial playbook. But the new NY Times report that Trump’s lost hundreds of millions annually and paid no taxes the past 10 years can’t please every bigot and bully. Still, until he leaves the White House, most ABs will stick with him. They’ve rarely been, or picked, a “winner” before, and they’ll stay loyal so long as there’s backing for the president who’s as bigoted and cantankerous as they are. Trump, watching these admirers in his narcissistic mirror, is counting on them to be more reliable and less deceitful than he is. They’ve delivered his TV footage: Pro-Trump ABs on city streets belittling Black Lives and cheering federal troops and local police brutality. The ABs ignite Trumpian terror!
Donald likes terrorizing his opponents; his dad told him he was a killer, after all. But he’s unaware how many of his admirers are sociopaths, poised to destroy enemies, and eliminate turncoats. Bit by bit, tales of Trump’s duplicity slip out and his base’s toxic demeanor stirs. As a chorus line of corrupt multimillionaires danced onto Donald’s Executive Cabinet, many ABs X-ed out “Drain the Swamp” as an empty promise. Some put it on a list of Betrayals. The rush to pass a Tax Cut for Corporations and the Super-Wealthy was added to both lists. As months pass, different AB factions are upset by Trump’s trade wars raising costs and forcing farm subsidies, by more coalmines closing, by Trump/Republican inherent hatred for trade unions, by growth of outsourcing, by real unemployment at 7% and 30% of employment at poverty wages, by pandemic malpractice leaving Americans to die. Angry Trumpians hate failed promises: some drop out; others lash out.
Women who admired darling Donald in years past do both. The “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump’s loathsome locker-room talk and the parade of women reporting Trump’s assaults raised female Trumpians’ hackles. His swift denials calmed Fox News reporters’ and his more gullible admirers — temporarily. Trump’s misogyny is on many people’s worry list. It has stirred a cauldron of hurt and revived the “Me-Too” Movement that was wavering before his publicity as a perpetrator. Donald’s instant shift from blanket denial to beastly damnation of accusers, and his libelous attacks on their attorneys, relaxed and frightened his followers. Some empathized with the deep insecurity and desperate need for approval reflected in Trump’s impulsive self-protective attacks on accusers. Others saw a chronic sex offender. Some simply cheered the misogynist bully.
Then Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit emerged. Trump’s hush-money payoff to a woman with whom he had a lengthy affair behind his pregnant wife’s back wasn’t his first such cover-up. Corrupt Cronies fretted and forgave the adultery; some Antisocial Bullies thought Stormy’s lawsuit was worse than Donald’s cheating. Chagrin rose when FBI discovered the payoff funds came from a Presidential Campaign bank account. The Antisocial Bullies were relieved when Donald’s consigliore Michael Cohen took the fall for criminal misuse of campaign funds; but Cohen wasn’t pardoned! While Cohen lived behind bars, thrown under the bus without remorse by his morbidly selfish boss, more Trumpians realized they too could be dumped. As Donald praises, insults, fires, and forgets waves of people who serve his cause, Antisocial Bullies realize that Trump’s loyalty is limited to one Man in his Mirror. Now that Donald’s fixer Michael Cohen is out on bail and his tell-all best seller is available on Amazon, Trump’s use and abuse of his Antisocial Bully followers is an open book.
Corrupt Cronies (CCs)
A strong faction of Trumpians share Donald’s proclivity to take pious postures, despite corrupt immoral and illegal tactics and intentions. Like Trump, they often wrap their devious aims in sham alliances and shade their unfriendly actions with pseudo camaraderie: I call them Trump’s Corrupt Cronies (CCs). Many are average, white, working people who were born Republican, slid toward conservatism, and got sucked into the Tea-Party by opponents of one or another liberal cause that enrages them. Trump stirs their rage and stifles their reasoning: they secretly cheer the Antisocial Bullies who run down protesters and shoot up synagogues. There’s a wide array of issues driving the hypocritical crimes of these Trumpians. They support Trump openly for their main concerns, and overlook the rest. They’ll say: “So long as Trump works with the “Freedom Caucus” I’m OK with his lies and thievery.” Or explain: “I don’t care what he does to blacks, queers, refugees. I just want to protect ‘free enterprise’; if he keeps installing more ‘anti-union, anti-regulation’ judges, I’ll stick with him.”
The CC faction welcomes almost anyone whose angst brings power and money to its “faux sacred” causes. Those akin to Trump through inherent fascism, racism, and misogyny will fight for him, even if he’s out on a limb with another radical issue they oppose. For the Corrupt Cronies it’s about advancing their cause at any cost to their opponents, to American values, to the rule of law, and to the principles of democracy. When CCs are conflicted on issues, they’ll choose whatever serves them most, and dump the rest.
*Example 1: Jack is among 80% of Americans who support a raped woman’s right to abortion, but as a gun-toting coyote hunter, he’ll vote for an unequivocal anti-abortion candidate who promises to protect his right to shoot vermin and sheep rustlers.
*Example 2: Jane is a pro-life pacifist who opposes all murder as antithetical to the Bible’s 6th Commandment, but she will acquiesce to her anti-Islam sentiment and support bomb strikes on Muslim civilians in Syria (so long as no American souls die).
In adolescent Trumpian vernacular many of these cronies epitomize the egoistic cliché: “my shit don’t stink!” In the evangelical world, these players seem to believe a priori that “my sins are forgiven.” An archetypal Corrupt Crony is the family-values advocate who bangs his bible for love of God on Sunday, and his secretary for lust of Satan on Monday. In Trumpian politics, these are the Senators who block material witnesses from testifying, and then declare there’s not enough evidence for Trump’s Impeachment. Senator Mitch McConnell may be the USA’s most successful Corrupt Crony; his story deserves dishonorable mention here. The Kentucky Senator does in politics what Trump did in business: use Trump Brand to advance his dirty work. If Trump could write, he would feature Mitch in a book: “Profiles in Corruption and Cruelty.”
Born and raised an Alabama segregationist, the tobacco industry bought and secured Mitch’s Senate seat in Kentucky; he amassed his first millions serving as point man against cigarette legislation. On that foul foundation Mitch built a bastion of anti-regulation, anti-investigation, anti-reparation weapons that he hauls out when banks, insurance and drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, and other wealthy corporations pay him to protect their usurious profits and injurious programs. McConnell bought his leadership of the Senate’s Republican caucus 13 years ago, and with cruel complicity, divided and conquered the US Congress. Mitch operates on a strait “Kill to Win” policy that transforms his opposition into voiceless “hostiles” who are tarred, feathered and lynched into oblivion. While he has mouthed the party slogans of each era, from anti-Russian to Putin apologist, McConnell’s key concern is obtaining personal political power, and money to support it. In his 35 years as Senator, the legislation he’s most proud of is “Citizens United” — a nefarious set of deregulations that allows big corporations and global oligarchs to bribe and control politicians, fix public elections, and stack Congress and the Courts with people they own. While his pious veneer has worn thin, McConnell’s sinful soul assured his ascent to the position of Trump’s self-appointed “Chancellor of Tyranny”.
The perversion of Trumpians like McConnell can be checked only by severe penalty. Whether common man or corporate mogul, senatorial tyrant or cynical reporter, the Corrupt Cronies ignore ethics, break laws, spew hatred and steal power by whichever means fortifies them most. The CC’s in the Republican Caucus of Congress can’t be corralled into fighting for any singular cause, if they’re not paid to support it. That’s why their success in recent decades has been limited to backing wealthy demagogues, opposing honest democrats, removing regulations and cutting corporate taxes. Ironically, legislative success has been derailed by hostility among the new alt-right Republicans. Promoters of morally contrary positions — Pro-Life vs. Death Penalty; Libertarianism vs. White Supremacy; Christian Goodwill vs. Asylum Opposition; Family Values vs. Sexist Misogyny; Law-&-Order vs. Gun Rights — often can’t cooperate. When Trump wrapped himself in the crazy quilt of Corrupt Cronies, he didn’t know it would become a straightjacket. His cries for release from their thousand-armed clutches echo Trump’s highhanded horror through the White House, and across the land.
Despotic Oligarchs (DOs).
The third and final faction of Totalitarian Trumpians isn’t troubled by Donald’s egocentricity. They count on his narcissism to keep him self-absorbed, blind to their strategic thinking, and thus easy to manipulate. There are a handful of global oligarchs who have used their power and money to get Trump into the White House by highhanded means for their own Machiavellian purposes: the Despotic Oligarchs (DOs).
“Across all political spectrums, oligarchs are people who command massive concentrations of wealth and material resources that can be deployed to defend or enhance their own property and interests, even if they don’t own those resources personally. Without this massive concentration of wealth, there are no oligarchs” (Jeffrey Winters, Cambridge U Press, 2011).
Donald Trump has fought all his life to obtain the power of an oligarch, to no avail. He couldn’t amass enough personal wealth, nor command the massive material resources required to defend or enhance his own property and interests. He’s had to rely on others — his father and mother’s wealth, bank loans, aggressive lawsuits. Before he gave up land development to become a celebrity brand, over a dozen Trump projects — hotels, resorts, casinos, apartment and office towers, an airline, university, charity — had gone bankrupt for lack of personal funds to fix his mistakes. His childhood aspirations to become “King” and his delusion that he’s perfect keep him from paying umbrage to bankers or backers. Trump’s unearned arrogance is his Achilles heel; it trips him up again and again, forcing him to beg a lift from thieves.
Oligarchs with egalitarian values may rule by lawful means, but DOs are addicted to power: they take autocratic offensives to control politics, wealth, and resources in their homelands and beyond. Despotic Oligarchs (DOs) usurp democratic power and disregard, dump, and destroy the rules, leaders, and social systems that impede them. By secret dealing, open swindling, or military conquest, DOs took over many sovereign nations in the last century. Local dictators financed by Despotic Oligarchs from outside their borders run most third-world countries today. Laissez-faire Capitalism breeds and feeds a global band of dominion hungry oligarchs who want to criminalize, capture, and control the democratic nations on earth — including the USA. Trump is using US funds and resources to boost his private interests. In his first three years as president the US Treasury spent $300-million at Trump Resorts: yet another corrupt bid for oligarchy!
While Trump and a few rich friends financed most of his bid for the Republican candidacy in 2015–16, two powerful Despotic Oligarchs (DOs) conspired separately and succeeded jointly to get him elected US President. These men and their cohorts control the third segment of the Trump Base. Their oligarchies are known by personal names that represent two power centers in the modern world of global public influence and social control. Vladimir Putin’s Russian Oil Oligarchy has been promoting Trump’s elections with Russia’s cyber-warfare and social-media propaganda machine. Rupert Murdoch’s Global Media Oligarchy organizes Trump’s lies and cover-up with (Fox) News Corp’s political-warfare and public-media propaganda machine. Trump’s obligations to both oligarchies are causing traitorous corruption of his presidency.
Donald’s duty to Putin began in the 90’s when the Russian dictators’ rich friends and national banks loaned Trump money while American financiers considered him a catastrophe. Murdoch won Donald’s devotion as his News Corp began promoting Trump’s candidacy with phony praise, while most commercial and cable media called him a political disaster. Putin protects and Murdoch bolsters Donald’s reputation by duping millions of Americans with a constant stream of lies. Trump’s fate is in their hands; if these two principal Despotic Oligarchs abandoned him, the Donald could be relocated from the White House to the penitentiary.
Unlike the shortsighted Corrupt Cronies (CCs) and Antisocial Bullies (ABs), Despotic Oligarchs (DOs) require major plays and lasting payback from politicians they support. Murdoch and Putin are helping Donald Trump to serve their own covetous global purposes. They color his campaign and pervert his policies, shape his orders and shelter his fraud, push him into the fray and bail him out, all for their shady payoff. The Dance of Donald and the Despotic Oligarchs is choreographed as a quid pro quo but Trump and his backers must hide the truth about his tangos with Putin and Murdoch. The Truth is — the Oligarchs own Him!
Oligarchs also own the Republican Party; billionaires organized for a decade by Koch Industries are the “citizens united” who buy the services of nearly every Republican politician. Donald’s Corrupt Crony Base is already in the Despotic Oligarch’s bag. Many don’t regret enabling foreign criminals to torpedo US sovereignty and greedy billionaires to rob the US Treasury, if it advances their own power and plunder.
Most GOP voters are OK with vote meddling and grateful for phony propaganda. But many Independent voters don’t like duplicity! Donald’s treasonous attachment to Russia and subservient connection to Fox News could sink his presidency, if it’s uncovered fully and believed. Even if the unaffiliated Independent voters split equally into egalitarian, libertarian, and authoritarian, the first two factions will be outraged to know the details of how foreign and American Oligarchs control Donald Trump. Internet libraries are filled with volumes revealing the treasonous, corrupt, cruel and cavalier actions and attitudes of Donald Trump. If only Americans would turn off Murdoch’s Fox News, set aside Putin’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds, and read an honest book.
Or better, if they would read The Psychology of Trump! — TiRo
