Narcissistic Injury
Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, posted a great series of tweets delving into the mind of Donald Trump and what he could be expected to do if he faces defeat this fall.
1: Have given it a lot of thought. I think it’s possible. But I come at it from a slightly different POV. https://t.co/gGij7WnRd8
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
2: If the race continues on its current trajectory. Trump may be looking at a situation like this by Sept. Sure he cld drop out and avoid ..
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
3: humiliation. But he wldnt be avoiding it by much. He’d be the only major party candidate ever to simply up and leave the race because …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
4: he’s facing defeat. He’d become the biggest loser, in every way, in American history, though of course he’d try to spin it. The key …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
5: point is that this is someone has virtually no capacity to handle or tolerate loss or humiliation. And he’ll be facing the choice of …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
6: two extreme forms of it. It’s not just that Trump’s narcissism will make the injury more severe. The nature of his campaign will too.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
7: Pro-business economics wasn’t invalidated by Romney’s loss. He just loss. The premise of Trump’s campaign is himself and “winning.”
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
8: As we’ve seen over the last three or four days, Trump doesn’t act well or safely in the face of extreme stress of narcissistic injury.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
9: So if the campaign proceeds on its current trajectory (not a certainty of course), the last 6 weeks of the campaign will be one of …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
10: extreme emotional volatility and increasingly erratic conduct. That’s a very dangerous set of circumstances regardless of whether …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
11: he chooses to bail out or see it through to the end. People like Trump grow more erratic and aggressive under mounting stress and …
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
12: with unavenged narcissistic injuries. It’s not a pleasant scenario to contemplate. But it’s coming.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm)
What a crazy year 2016 is turning out to be.