Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

We still have time to mess this up!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Everybody saw this coming.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republicans in disarray!

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Come on, man.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Trump Crime Cartel / Der Furor

Der Furor

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This post is in: 

So it appears that Donny Dollhands has been going manic on his little social media site:

Former President Donald Trump spent Tuesday morning feverishly sharing content from supporters on his social media platform Truth Social, posting or re-posting more than 60 times since early Tuesday morning, including content from QAnon accounts and the far-right message board 4chan.

In the face of a DOJ probe over his post-presidency handling of classified documents, Trump has sought reassurance from his most loyal followers, including accounts like “Patriotic American Alpha Sauce” and “ULTRA-MAGA 4LIFE” who post memes lauding the former president.

Trump using Truth Social to push QAnon content isn’t new. Alongside jabs at Biden and prominent Democrats, Trump has amplified QAnon-promoting accounts at least 70 times since joining and actively using Truth Social,” Media Matters Senior Researcher Alex Kaplan tweeted on Monday.

On Monday, Trump who has been attempting to shore up his political base for a potential third presidential bid, called for an immediate re-do of the 2020 election or his instatement as the rightful president of the United States. His possibly illegal campaign-style activities have been overshadowed in recent weeks by the Justice Department’s investigation into the classified documents he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago and whether he may have violated the Espionage Act. The Justice Department is expected to release a receipt of the materials seized in an August raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Tuesday.

This is all happening as Truth Social is taking a nose dive.

At any rate, this is called a narcissistic collapse:

Many people picture narcissists as supremely confident people who never suffer from self-doubt. The reality is quite different. People with narcissistic personality disorder have unstable self-esteem and underlying shame and worthlessness. They depend on other people to give them the external validation they need to feel confident and special.

As a result of their dependence on external validation and their value on their public image, narcissists can experience a debilitating narcissistic collapse when they anticipate a humiliating public failure. The anxiety associated with the idea of being exposed as flawed can interfere with their mustering enough defensive grandiosity to support their self-esteem. Without the prop of their grandiosity, they can sink into a shame-based depression in which they are afraid of the future and can no longer function in the present.

If we look at the common exhibitionist subtype of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) that most people think of when they hear the term narcissist, it is fairly easy to see that they use a simple three-part defense to create a façade of extreme self-confidence. I call this the “GOD defense.”

G – Grandiosity: They act as if they are special and entitled to do or say whatever they want. Grandiose motto: “I am special.”

O – Omnipotent: They make all sorts of unrealistic claims about how powerful and knowledgeable they are. Omnipotent motto: “I can do anything, and I know everything worth knowing,”
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D – Devaluing: They feel free to attack and devalue anyone who is not clearly above them in their status hierarchy. Devaluing motto: “You are worthless, defective garbage, and are here to serve me.”

Exhibitionist narcissists act as if they are special, make exaggerated claims about what they know and what they can do, and devalue other people. As long as their GOD defense is working well, they feel great.

Any of that sound familiar?

At any rate, the man is out of control and likely to stay that way, so strap in. It will be wild and unpredictable, and it could be very dangerous considering the power he holds over a lunatic fringe and given the large amount of intelligence data he had lying all over his gold plated barcalounger. At any rate, google narcissistic collapse and narcissistic rage and you’ll see all the fun kinds of behavior we can anticipate from ole Cheeto Benito.

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Are Downfall re-subs officially passé? Because Trump’s manic posting about how there should be an election do-over and all the QAnon stuff would fit into that framework pretty well.

  2. 2.

    eclare

    Jackson MS, about 180k people, does not have water.  This does not seem to be getting much press.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I wonder if there will be a hurriedly arranged live performance to soothe his wounds

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    It’ll be a great day when we no longer have to even think about Tinyhands Apricot Bankrupt Fascist McLoooserman.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    Martin

    Yeah, I said years ago that Trump would have to be carried out of the WH. I was close on that one. But a 76 year old lifeline narcissist doesn’t fall gracefully. It’s ugly – really ugly. It’ll get a lot uglier.

    I suspect the keeping of classified material was a coping mechanism. It was proof of his greatness. And handing his proof back hurt too much considering the election loss.

    This whole episode tells us something else – how many authoritarian followers we have, and which are in positions of authority. Looking at you Lindsay. Lots and lots of others. Lot of people following him down.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @eclare: The Village does not report on GQp monumental fuckups.  They’d rather focus on Joe Biden’s approval rating.

  10. 10.

    Martin

    @eclare: I’ve been seeing coverage all day.

    Worth noting, this is being cast as a consequence of flooding. But it had already failed. They’ve been under a boil water advisory for like a month now. Flooding just made it worse.

    I think the state government think the residents need to drink their bootstraps.

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    @eclare: that would involve the GOP controlled state to go and ask the Feds, now under Dem control, for help.  If it mostly affects POC (edited, because I was using GOP sotto vocce and it didn’t feel right) everyone in the State Lege (other than MSNBC and CNN) will turn a blind eye.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Martin: I suspect the keeping of classified material was a coping mechanism. It was proof of his greatness. And handing his proof back hurt too much considering the election loss.

    Definitely.  WH aides said that TFG treated classified documents as shiny toys to be shown off to his admirers and those he wanted to impress with his awesomeness.  Then there’s the entire “they’re mine!” temper tantrum he threw every time the National Archives sought the return of all those documents that belong to the American people, not to TFG.

  14. 14.

    geg6

    Yes.  But it’s like ripping off a bandaid.  It’s got to be done and I’d rather sooner than later.

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Martin:

    I suspect the keeping of classified material was a coping mechanism. It was proof of his greatness

    Notice the constant refrain that he’s still president.  ‘Former’ president means losing the biggest external validation of his life.  Also note the claims that the documents are his and he wants them back.  That’s not a demand that serves any practical purpose, only emotional.

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    Ever since this morning, when I heard about Trump’s Truth Social  crazy meltdown, I wondered what his new “well respected” attorney (Christopher Kise) thought about his new client’s behavior. Did they have a discussion about it? That would be a discussion that I would love to hear. I also wondered if Kise is second-guessing his decision to take on Trump as a client.

  17. 17.

    Dan B

    @eclare: Jackson is 83% black.  The water utility has been consistently underfunded for decades.  This is not the first time there has been a failure although it is likely the worst and most widespread.  Mississippi has refused federal assistance for years but is suddenly handing out Biden funds.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    trump has a rally scheduled this Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is to appear with Mehmet Oz and Doug Maistriano, Republican candidates for Senate and Governor, at the Mohegan Sun Casino convention center.

    I think this will be his first public appearance since the FBI search at Mar-a-Loco and it could be very interesting. I won’t try to predict what will happen but I don’t think this rally will help Oz and Mastriano much.

  20. 20.

    ian

    called for an immediate re-do of the 2020 election or his instatement as the rightful president of the United States.

    these seem like unreasonable starting points.  Go big or go home, I guess.

  21. 21.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Geminid:

    I won’t try to predict what will happen

    Hmmm.  The standard narcissist path would be that he will use a friendly audience to build his official self-serving narrative, because he needs the external validation to make himself believe it.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    @Frankensteinbeck: I had to check to be sure, but Wilkes-Barre is in fact the city where President Biden gave his speech today. That could make trump’s mood especially savage, and the crowd’s also.

  25. 25.

    Honus

    @delphinium: well, they’re in a solid republican state so at least the heavy boot of government won’t be on their necks and the invisible hand of the marketplace will turn the water back on quickly and efficiently.

  27. 27.

    C Stars

    Is it true that the RNC has declined to pay legal fees for his document theft? Saw someone crowing about this on Twitter. If true that could certainly have precipitated this meltdown.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    Call me crazy, but I have a strong belief that we should never let a very obvious headcase touch the presidency again in the future.​

  30. 30.

    Honus

    @piratedan: the republican governor is loudly promising the engineers and operators that the state is trying to recruit to fix and operate the system that they will in fact be paid, which may kind of illustrate the problem…

  31. 31.

    Bill Arnold

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Notice the constant refrain that he’s still president.

    Praises to those responsible for the use of “FPOTUS” (Former POTUS) in that affidavit. That cuts Trump’s narcissist personality deeply.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    MOOD: I figure I got in the neighborhood of 20 years left on this planet. If we can just hold a sane government together for that time and the food riots don’t start before then, I’ll be okay….

  38. 38.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Anyone else notice the positive relationship between narcissists and cult followers?

    Just occured to me…

  39. 39.

    N M

    One must wonder if Trump is doing the posting himself, or if it is one of his lickspittles like Dan Scavino.

  40. 40.

    RaflW

    “possibly illegal campaign-style activities”

    I realize that it is necessary to have priorities, but I sure wish anyone in the DC press pool besides (checks notes) Rolling Stone would notice that Trump is almost certainly breaking campaign finance laws.

    But of course the Beltway can’t really point to the ways Hillary! or Hunter! have run afoul of campaign law so, in the absence of a ‘both sides’ opportunity, silence is the preferred form of letting the nation rot from within from lawlessness.

  42. 42.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @HumboldtBlue:

    If Trump ever willingly skips a rally, we’ll know he’s reached ‘suicidal’.  Seriously.  Part of what we’ve seen over the last 6 years is that nothing, ever in his life, has given Trump anything close to the narcissistic validation of spewing all his toxic thoughts to a stadium audience begging him to be their ruler.

  43. 43.

    Bill Arnold

    The GOP/Trump re-focus on Hunter Biden is surreal. They were telegraphing that that would be a late-election-cycle move on their part for like a year and a half, and were surprised that the US press in 2020 was prepped for it???
    The related recent attacks on the FBI re 2016 are also surreal; do they not understand that the (generally right-wing) FBI arguably handed the 2016 election to Trump? The Comey letter (and related Email news cycles like the Podesta emails) lost HC like 2 percent nationally through seized news cycles, according to polling. Difficult to prove causality, but it did not look like typical end of election cycle tightening.
    (The recent attacks on the FBI re the search of Mar-a-Lago are an even more gobsmacking GOP own-goal.)

  44. 44.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Geminid:trump has a rally scheduled this Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is to appear with Mehmet Oz and Doug Maistriano, Republican candidates for Senate and Governor, at the Mohegan Sun Casino convention center.

    Live performances are quite nerve racking for normal people. Reading that doctors description of how a narcissist really works, I not would be to surprise to learn that Trump is on a lot of drugs to get him past his stage fright and it’s not impossible his doctor cut him off for over doing it, or won’t prescribe more with all the FBI attention on Trump world right now. So, maybe Trump is freaking from the idea of going on stage without his uppers. hehe

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Bill Arnold:

    do they not understand that the (generally right-wing) FBI arguably handed the 2016 election to Trump?

    No, they honestly don’t.  Their takeaway is that Comey admitted publicly that Hillary is a criminal but wimped out on prosecuting her.  I’ve heard them say it enough times.  Which is exactly the way Comey made it sound when he announced she’d done nothing wrong.

  47. 47.

    jonas

    @eclare: Oh, I’m seeing quite a bit about it. But most of the reporting is basically along the lines of: “Tons of rain knocks out Jackson, MS water supply. Whodathunkit?” As opposed to a more accurate take: “Decades of shithole state shortchanging infrastructure investment leads to predictable decay, disaster.”
    Whodathunkit?​

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @C Stars: Well, I thought they said Rick Scott cleaned out the RNC coffers last week? That would also strike at another of Trump’s deep seated fears (along with cellphones, emails and eating a vegetable); the other Republicans beating Trump to the grift.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @twbrandt (formerly tom): Oz and Mastriano might rather pass this one up. But they’re stuck with that crazy churl. They may have to watch him from the front row.

    Speeches are scheduled to start at 4pm, with trump’s at 7. But he typically lets people wait for an hour or more before he takes the stage.

  53. 53.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Good point, but I wonder when the embarrassment of the meltdown finally catches up to him. He knows the walls are closing in and the lack of support he’s now seeing from the TV heads and scared repubs must be driving him insane.

    Elsewhere: I’m not crying, you’re crying.

    @danielx:

    Yes, that and what the hell did Ron Johnson do with all the RSCC money are the ancillary stories.

  54. 54.

    C Stars

    @HumboldtBlue: Well, that seems fairly legit. I wonder if the provision that they cut off all legal support if he announces is a campaign finance regulation or just a bribe to keep him from running

  57. 57.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    When Dump says “those documents are mine!” he says it to set up a defense. He knows those documents aren’t his which is why he actively hid them from the F.B.I. You don’t hide something that you legitimately believe is yours.

    No, he says “they’re mine” because he will assert reasonable mistake of fact/law. He can’t say he didn’t know they were classified because they’re clearly marked classified, he was on repeated notice by government that he was in possession of classified materials, and the documents included his hand written notes, so he can’t say he had no knowledge of them.

    Instead he’ll desperately assert he thought he could keep classified documents if he thought they belonged to him. It’ll fail because he had written notice he couldn’t keep them. Moreover, the easier charge to prove to a jury is the obstruction. They have testimony and video of the records being moved before and after a scheduled review by DOJ national security lawyers, and therefore obstructing an investigation.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    Campos still insists the Republican Party is going to cancel the 2024 primaries and appoint him presidential nominee by acclamation.

    I think it’s a long way to 2024.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    So as I read this, the best thing for TFG psychologically would be if he suffers a complete mental breakdown, leading to a new personality possibly not suffering from narcissism.

    And if I’ve read that wrong, I don’t want to know.

  71. 71.

    Leto

    Danielle [email protected]

    “Where is she? Where is the pink-haired freak? Where is the pedophile librarian?”

    When a Mich. library refused to remove an LGBTQ memoir, people harassed two librarians out of their jobs.

    Then they voted to defund the town’s only public library:

    Pink-haired and openly queer, the 30-year-old library director stood out in a county that hadn’t backed a Democrat for president since 1864. The kids loved her.

    “She helped bring my son out of his shell,” said one mom.

    “I miss Miss Amber,” said her 5-year-old son.

  72. 72.

    C Stars

    @Citizen Alan: More MAGA than Tate? I just assume he’s pretty MAGA to begin with, not fully read up on the relative maganess of Deep South GOP governors.

     

    ETA oh hell, of course someone crazier will step up. There’s always someone crazier in the modern GOP

  73. 73.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I won’t try to predict what will happen but I don’t think this rally will help Oz and Mastriano much.

    TFG: “The reason — the only reason I am — I am the best ever — but the reason is, is people like THESE — who call themselves MAGA, great again, America great again great — but these two, and others, secretly PLOT against me after I chose them — traitors, is what they are –”

    CROWD: “Kill! Kill! Kill!”

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    It’s more like yanking out 4 transfusion needles at 90 deg angles from their insertion directions and spraying the open wounds with something that stings really, really bad. Then inserting a 1/4 inch prob into his genitalia, 5 seconds after giving him a  numbing shot into his johnson, that takes 20 minutes to take effect.

    And to him this is being redone twice a day. A rather crappy narcissistic asshole is going to take what has happened to this one rather hard because he really, really has nothing else than his extremely narcissistic personality. No warmth, no humanity, no actual friends, because he has fucked over everyone who might have ever been a friend. The only people who hang on to him are looking for something to come their way and they will never see anything because a narcissistic asshole of this magnitude is incapable of having any concept of anyone but themselves. The world revolves around the stick up their ass and the only thing that changes that in any way for them is to die.

  81. 81.

    Andrya

    OK, John, I did think it was an extremely clever title.  Please consider your ego fluffed!  And thanks for starting this blog…

  84. 84.

    CaseyL

    @John Cole: I chuckled; it’s a great pun.

    BTW, Preet Bharara (who I keep wanting to call Preet Baghera) posted a tweet saying there is no Constitutional Law stating that legal briefs have to be filed at 11:59 PM.  He is referring to DoJ’s 40-page reply to Trump’s request for a Special Master… the one the judge OK’d being twice as many pages as these things usually are.

    That reply is due today; that is, at some point before 11:59 PM.

    Delaying until the last possible moment is standard litigation tactics.  Not only does the opposite party work themselves up into a lather waiting for it, but it reduces the time their lawyers have to prepare and file their reply.

    IIRC, the DoJ brief won’t be available to the public.  Sadly. ETA:  The brief has been filed, and it looks like I’m wrong that it’s not available to the public.  WOW.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    “I won’t try to predict what will happen but I don’t think this rally will help Oz and Mastriano much.”

    Gee that breaks my heart….. And no it likely won’t help, because he will likely never even say their names, he’ll be too busy acting like someone who should be expecting the men in white coats coming to get him with a jacket with wrap around sleeves.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: I’m guessing they spread out the documents for the photo, but — given that it’s TFG — I can’t be sure that he didn’t just kept them in an untidy pile on the floor next to the radiator.

    EDIT: The twitter responses claim this is how they found them!?!  Hence the “2A” evidence marker in the photo.

  89. 89.

    Mike in NC

    Back in the day (80s-90s) millions of us saw Fat Bastard on TV as a malignant narcistisst. He’s plotting another coup attempt.

  91. 91.

    Jackie

    @eclare: MSNBC and CNN have been giving it a lot of coverage. Alex Wagner went Rachel Maddow and gave the 100 year history of Jackson’s water woes. Surprisingly, most of it is because of racism://

  92. 92.

    OGLiberal

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Wilkes Barre was, historically, not a friendly place for GOPers but NEPA seems to love Trump.  In the urban areas, not as much, but the swing from Obama to Trump lunacy even in the cities has been significant.  That said, I don’t think NEPA is fertile ground for Mastriano and certainly not Oz.

    NEPA is a bit like the Villages in FL….crazy, local rural folks combined with a recent influx of “refugees” from the boroughs and Long Island, escaping the tyranny of social justice warriors and pissed because taxes aren’t super lower than NY because somebody has to pay for the shit they want and expect.

  93. 93.

    prostratedragon

    OK, I did notice it is a good title. Some might even use it as a handle for the schmo.

  95. 95.

    Mike in NC

    Seems all that long ago that we were worrying about Trump burning and flushing official documents, but now we know he was selling them to the highest bidder: Xi, Kim, Putin.

  98. 98.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ken: that one looks like it could be legit, but I made a google image  search of trump time magazine cover and don’t see anything like that

  102. 102.

    hilts

    George Conway’s reaction on CNN to release of latest DOJ filing:

    “By requesting for the appointment of a special master, the Trump team asked for the Justice Dept to punch them in the face… DOJ has Trump dead to rights.”

     

  103. 103.

    West of the Rockies

    For cryin’ out loud, when will this morbidly-obese, shit-diet-eating, high blood pressure-having loser have a massive coronary?   He’s clearly under a metric shit ton of pressure.

  107. 107.

    CaseyL

    The reply brief is distinctly polite.  I wonder if they wrote a beta version where they got to say what they really thought, got it out of their systems, and then started over on one suitable for filing.

  111. 111.

    El Muneco

    @RaflW: “besides (checks notes) Rolling Stone”

    One of the most damning criticisms of the MSM is that most of the journalistic heavy lifting these days is being done by  the likes of _Rolling Stone_, _Teen Vogue_, _Slate_, and the successors to _Deadspin_…

  113. 113.

    Anonymous At Work

    Too late to ask but the news from other outlets is about how all the Trumpist candidates are removing “Trump” from their websites suddenly.  What will that trigger?

  116. 116.

    Paul in KY

    @C Stars: I think the only one who’s not batshit insane/craven to TFG is Alabama’s governor.

    Georgia governor has been not as bad, due to him finding out his state is more blue than he thought.

  118. 118.

    Chris Johnson

    @Mike in NC: No, he’s been directly serving Putin in specific this whole time. He doesn’t have the kind of agency you ascribe to him. He has this different other kind of ‘agency’ that will become clearer as this all unfolds.

  120. 120.

    PDXBob

    Am I the only one that thinks TFG needs to be locked up, passports taken, and limited to no communication with anyone to keep him from telling our secrets to foreign actors?  And, if he’s already done it, at least keep any more information from getting out?

    In his current state, I feel he would post everything he knows on the internet to spite those that he believes are after him.

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