Trump’s megalomania is running amok, and it will eventually destroy him

By Robert A. Vella

In what would be welcome news to many, I don’t believe Donald Trump will finish his first term as President of the United States.  The man isn’t sane, also my opinion, and the stress he’s enduring will eventually become too great for him to bear.  That stress is being caused by a deep psychological collision between external realities and Trump’s warped subjective perceptions of everything around him.  A coming day of crisis is a near mathematical certainty, in my estimation.

Trump is suffering from megalomania, which is defined as having an obsession with acquiring and exercising power, a compulsion to dominate others, and the delusion of self-importance.  Megalomania, in its political manifestations, is characterized by individuals also suffering from sociopathy, psychopathy, or even psychosis in advanced stages.  The first two of these are antisocial personality disorders.  Megalomania is also known as narcissistic personality disorder.

Although the American Psychiatric Association (APA) defines these conditions as mental disorders and not as a mental illness like psychosis (see:  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), such clinical distinctions appear irrelevant to the layperson.  People typically have no problem recognizing craziness;  and, in the case of former FBI Director James Comey, that’s precisely how he described the man who abruptly fired him this week.

From Comey called Trump ‘crazy’ after Obama wiretapping claims: report:

Former FBI Director James Comey reportedly told associates in March that President Trump was “crazy” for suggesting former President Obama had wiretapped him.

Comey also called the president “outside the realm of normal,” according to a report from The New York Times on Wednesday.

The Times said that, in return, Trump was furious when Comey publicly refused to back his claims that he was wiretapped during the 2016 campaign before the House Intelligence Committee in March.

Comey said during the March 20 hearing that the FBI had “no information” supporting Trump’s allegations.

The Times report highlights lingering tensions between the president and Comey that led Trump to decide to fire the FBI chief on Tuesday, a decision that stunned Washington. [emphasis by The Secular Jurist]

Now that the proverbial shit-has-hit-the-fan uproar has struck Washington D.C. and the nation, which is equating Comey’s firing with President Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre during the Watergate fiasco, Trump is reacting irrationally and violently as would be expected from someone who is not in control of their emotions just like Nixon did.

From Trump Threatens Retaliation Against Comey, Warns He May Cancel Press Briefings:

WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened on Friday to retaliate against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director he fired this week, if Mr. Comey leaks anything negative about the president and warned the news media that he may cancel all future White House briefings.

In a series of angry, early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump even seemed to suggest that there may be secret tapes of his conversations with Mr. Comey that could be used to counter the former F.B.I. director if necessary. It was not immediately clear if he meant that literally or simply hoped to intimidate Mr. Comey into silence.

“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Trump appeared agitated over news reports Friday that focused on contradictory accounts of his decision to fire Mr. Comey at the same time the F.B.I. is investigating ties between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Some megalomaniacs manage to hold onto power as Joseph Stalin did in the USSR.  Others, like Germany’s Adolf Hitler, inevitably self-destruct.  Stay tuned…

Further reading:  Trump’s Comey firing sets off new round of leaks