I’m just going to add to this one a bit in the context of Trump’s narcissism.
Narcissists aren’t creative thinkers. They aren’t capable of free thought like brainstorming new ideas.
Their entire lives are a two-step of reading a room and plotting how to game the audience.
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Narcissists aren’t creative thinkers. They aren’t capable of free thought like brainstorming new ideas.
Their entire lives are a two-step of reading a room and plotting how to game the audience.
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Their thinking is fundamentally grounded in a compulsion to manipulate human relationships by acting in ways designed to impact others’ opinions of them.
While they think they are quite cunning, they are incredibly easily controlled by people who know all of this.
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While they think they are quite cunning, they are incredibly easily controlled by people who know all of this.
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If you provide someone like Trump with raw information and present it in a way that makes him think one option will make him look bad and another will make him look good, he is going to choose the latter every. single. time.
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It’s not dissimilar to how toddlers work.
Ask a toddler “Should we have all broccoli tonight or just have chicken and a little broccoli?”
They’ll choose “CHICKEN AND A LITTLE BROCCOLI!” and think they made the wise pick when you had already made the choice for them.
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Ask a toddler “Should we have all broccoli tonight or just have chicken and a little broccoli?”
They’ll choose “CHICKEN AND A LITTLE BROCCOLI!” and think they made the wise pick when you had already made the choice for them.
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Trump’s narcissism is so profound that he truly can’t choose the option that accrues less to his benefit no matter what the topic.
And the two biggest benefits for him are sides of the same coin:
1) Avoiding shame*
2) Seeking adoration
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And the two biggest benefits for him are sides of the same coin:
1) Avoiding shame*
2) Seeking adoration
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I asterisked that first one because people are going to jump in to say “But he feels no shame!”
That isn’t exactly true.
He feels no shame for his actions themselves. He is shamed by people seeing him as shameful.
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That isn’t exactly true.
He feels no shame for his actions themselves. He is shamed by people seeing him as shameful.
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Trump has no internal mirror to hold himself up to. He has only the world to serve as his mirror.
When the ‘reflected self’ of others’ judgment is one of disapproval - one that sees him as unworthy of others’ admiration and love - it hurts his fragile, fractured ego.
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When the ‘reflected self’ of others’ judgment is one of disapproval - one that sees him as unworthy of others’ admiration and love - it hurts his fragile, fractured ego.
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And all of that makes him putty in the hands of people who know how to play him.
He will jump through a hoop if he believes their is admiration on the other side.
He will run through fire if he thinks the public will look down on him if he doesn’t.
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He will jump through a hoop if he believes their is admiration on the other side.
He will run through fire if he thinks the public will look down on him if he doesn’t.
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All it would take for a Mike Pompeo to talk a Donald Trump into starting a war with Iran is a constant repetition of the same couplet.
People think you’re weak for not acting. People will think you’re strong if you do.
That’s it.
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People think you’re weak for not acting. People will think you’re strong if you do.
That’s it.
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It wouldn’t matter how many briefings he took on the subject. It wouldn’t matter what the true risk-reward was. It wouldn’t matter what the contrary views were in the administration.
Convince Trump of that simple couplet and he would absolutely choose war.
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Convince Trump of that simple couplet and he would absolutely choose war.
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He is psychologically unable to *not* choose the option presented to him which better serves his need to avoid shame/seek adoration.
He is indeed a puppet to anyone who knows how to pull his strings.
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He is indeed a puppet to anyone who knows how to pull his strings.
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The two things that mask that are:
1) He truly believes otherwise. He thinks the opposite. He thinks he’s the puppeteer. The person in control.
2) His bravado. He blusters about being the person in charge because he truly thinks he is.
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1) He truly believes otherwise. He thinks the opposite. He thinks he’s the puppeteer. The person in control.
2) His bravado. He blusters about being the person in charge because he truly thinks he is.
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I used to work for a guy a bit like that.
We used to have a tactic called “gifting him the idea”.
We’d present two options with one accruing to his brilliance and one that didn’t and then we’d act like we were looking to him to solve the tough choice.
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We used to have a tactic called “gifting him the idea”.
We’d present two options with one accruing to his brilliance and one that didn’t and then we’d act like we were looking to him to solve the tough choice.
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He’d invariably pick the one we had walked in fully intending to walk out with his approval for... and then we’d watch as he did so and went out to tell everyone about how he had brilliantly come up with the solution.
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The Iran strike reads as having been one of these scenarios.
Trump was fed two rival scenarios:
Do nothing. (Look weak.)
Hit Soleimani. (Look strong.)
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Trump was fed two rival scenarios:
Do nothing. (Look weak.)
Hit Soleimani. (Look strong.)
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The Pentagon may think there were multiple options on the table but if Pompeo, et al, attached those outcomes to those two particular options, there was really only one thing that was ever going to happen:
Hit Soleimani.
Trump is the President. He isn’t in charge.
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Hit Soleimani.
Trump is the President. He isn’t in charge.
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He is a hardwired, dysfunctional thinker programmed to compulsively lurch toward certain choices...
...and all one has to do to control him is present the preferred choice in the way that makes him jump at it.
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...and all one has to do to control him is present the preferred choice in the way that makes him jump at it.
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While we’re all busy gnashing our teeth about Trump’s recklessness and bravado, behind the scenes, a broken little puppet is being made to dance by people every bit as amoral and far more capable of engineering evil.
Trump is the face. He isn’t the brains.
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Trump is the face. He isn’t the brains.
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While that’s super grim, if the public narrative becomes:
1) The Soleimani hit was reckless; AND
2) Pompeo led a weak Trump into it
Pompeo would be gone.
Trump can’t handle being seen as the puppet an advisor (see: Steve Bannon).
And he scapegoats at the drop of a hat.
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1) The Soleimani hit was reckless; AND
2) Pompeo led a weak Trump into it
Pompeo would be gone.
Trump can’t handle being seen as the puppet an advisor (see: Steve Bannon).
And he scapegoats at the drop of a hat.
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I’m rambling. You get the point.
Trump is the simplest of automatons being led around by people who know how basic his programming is.
The people pulling his strings are the more grave danger.
And that starts with Pompeo.
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Trump is the simplest of automatons being led around by people who know how basic his programming is.
The people pulling his strings are the more grave danger.
And that starts with Pompeo.
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