Thread by @gtconway3d

He lies because he’s a sociopath, a con man—to deceive others.

But he also lies because he’s a pathological narcissist—to deceive himself, to protect his fragile ego from narcissistic injury.

That latter kind of lying actually poses a greater danger, because as a narcissist’s lies to himself become bigger, he drifts farther and farther away from the real world.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

If you’re president, you’re going to be criticized even if you do the job perfectly. But Trump isn’t up to the task. He acts incompetently, and irrationally.

That in turn leads to criticism, to which he responds with bigger lies, and even worse judgment, which in turn increases the criticism, and in turn leads to even more mendacity and irrationality.

That’s what we saw over the summer, as he faced increasing pressure because of bad poll numbers and a possibly deteriorating economy, foreshadowed by an inverted yield curve.

I mean, look at his August, brilliantly recounted here by @sbg1.

newyorker.com/news/letter-fr…

And then there was Sharpie September—not that the falsified map was the only deranged thing Trump did that month.

time.com/5669764/trump-…

And then October, which began with his meltdown in front of the President of Finland.

esquire.com/news-politics/…

He’s unraveling. He’s becoming completely detached from reality. You can call it decompensation or psychosis, or just plain lunacy.

But something needs to be done.

Because this continuous downward spiral of criticism, followed by craziness, followed by more criticism and more craziness, is only going to accelerate. The political and psychological dynamics are fixed.

Put simply, he’s only going to get worse. He’s never going to get better.

Someone on this runaway train needs to pull the emergency brake. Who’s it going to be?