'God complex': Psych experts warn Trump's 'narcissistic injury' has made him even worse
Travis Gettys
December 8, 2023 9:56AM ET
Evangelical pastors pray over Donald Trump.
The former president has been presenting himself as a godly figure as he explicitly threatens to behave like a dictator if re-elected to another term, and several experts from various fields told Salon that was an alarming – if somewhat predictable – escalation of his authoritarian ambitions.
"It’s much too late for Republican voters and Trump supporters," said Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party Republican congressman. "Trump has moved from their champion to their cult leader, to a martyr, and now to some sort of deity. You combine the need for an authoritarian with the evangelical/fervent belief in God’s ordained plan, presto – you have Donald Trump."
"My engagement every day with these good folks has made crystal clear to me that this 'God complex' contagion had spread, its spread beyond the GOP base and it’s spread to lower information voters who really dislike either party and believe our political system is aloof and broken," Walsh added. "For them, Trump does not come from the normal political system, he comes from the world they come from, he’s been hugely successful, he’s enormously flawed, but who gives a damn, he’s chosen to turn the political system upside down and make it work for them."
Dr. Lance Dodes, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told Salon that Trump's psychological pathologies have been plainly apparent all along, and he said the ex-president's mental illness made him dangerous, especially as his legal problems grow worse.
"Mr. Trump is an obvious and severe sociopath, an antisocial person lacking the capacity for honesty, empathy or respect for the rule of law," Dodes said. "His endless self-centered drive for power at any cost makes him an extreme risk of discarding democracy in favor of his personal rule. His recent comments about attacking judges, pardoning the traitorous attackers from Jan. 6, and eliminating his 'enemies' are not new ideas, but rather a sign that his façade of decency and normality is falling away under the stress of having to be accountable for his actions, for the first time in his life."
Dr. Justin Frank, a a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center who has written about Trump's mental problems, said the former president appears to suffer from narcissistic grandiosity, which created a need forhim to retreat into his own mind to withdraw into "total self-love."
" Trump has retreated into Mar-a-Lago now," Frank said. "He is also using Truth Social and his rallies as his psychic retreats. The people at Trump's rallies are also a type of psychic retreat. They surround him and keep him safe. They tell him what's happening, they make sure everything's gonna be okay. They reassure him that he's safe and good and right. Trump is now saying God is protecting him. This too is a form of psychic retreat for Trump."
"People like Trump who have narcissistic grandiosity try to predict the future, and part of that is making statements about how they will be safe from any kind of attack and harm," Frank added. "The problem for Trump is that because he is driven by narcissistic omnipotence, he has experienced one of the worst and biggest types of narcissistic injury anybody could ever have. Trump knew he was going to defeat Biden in 2020 — and he didn't. Trump predicted the future and he lost. That is an attack on Trump's fantasy of infallibility, which may be unconscious. Trump's loss to Biden was devastating to him."
Travis Gettys
December 8, 2023 9:56AM ET
Evangelical pastors pray over Donald Trump.
(Official White House Photos by Joyce Boghosian)
Donald Trump's "narcissistic injury" from losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden has grown into something much worse that threatens American democracy, according to psychology experts.
Donald Trump's "narcissistic injury" from losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden has grown into something much worse that threatens American democracy, according to psychology experts.
The former president has been presenting himself as a godly figure as he explicitly threatens to behave like a dictator if re-elected to another term, and several experts from various fields told Salon that was an alarming – if somewhat predictable – escalation of his authoritarian ambitions.
"It’s much too late for Republican voters and Trump supporters," said Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party Republican congressman. "Trump has moved from their champion to their cult leader, to a martyr, and now to some sort of deity. You combine the need for an authoritarian with the evangelical/fervent belief in God’s ordained plan, presto – you have Donald Trump."
"My engagement every day with these good folks has made crystal clear to me that this 'God complex' contagion had spread, its spread beyond the GOP base and it’s spread to lower information voters who really dislike either party and believe our political system is aloof and broken," Walsh added. "For them, Trump does not come from the normal political system, he comes from the world they come from, he’s been hugely successful, he’s enormously flawed, but who gives a damn, he’s chosen to turn the political system upside down and make it work for them."
Dr. Lance Dodes, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told Salon that Trump's psychological pathologies have been plainly apparent all along, and he said the ex-president's mental illness made him dangerous, especially as his legal problems grow worse.
"Mr. Trump is an obvious and severe sociopath, an antisocial person lacking the capacity for honesty, empathy or respect for the rule of law," Dodes said. "His endless self-centered drive for power at any cost makes him an extreme risk of discarding democracy in favor of his personal rule. His recent comments about attacking judges, pardoning the traitorous attackers from Jan. 6, and eliminating his 'enemies' are not new ideas, but rather a sign that his façade of decency and normality is falling away under the stress of having to be accountable for his actions, for the first time in his life."
Dr. Justin Frank, a a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center who has written about Trump's mental problems, said the former president appears to suffer from narcissistic grandiosity, which created a need forhim to retreat into his own mind to withdraw into "total self-love."
" Trump has retreated into Mar-a-Lago now," Frank said. "He is also using Truth Social and his rallies as his psychic retreats. The people at Trump's rallies are also a type of psychic retreat. They surround him and keep him safe. They tell him what's happening, they make sure everything's gonna be okay. They reassure him that he's safe and good and right. Trump is now saying God is protecting him. This too is a form of psychic retreat for Trump."
"People like Trump who have narcissistic grandiosity try to predict the future, and part of that is making statements about how they will be safe from any kind of attack and harm," Frank added. "The problem for Trump is that because he is driven by narcissistic omnipotence, he has experienced one of the worst and biggest types of narcissistic injury anybody could ever have. Trump knew he was going to defeat Biden in 2020 — and he didn't. Trump predicted the future and he lost. That is an attack on Trump's fantasy of infallibility, which may be unconscious. Trump's loss to Biden was devastating to him."
Her Voice Movement founder Jenny Donnelly. (Image: Screengrab via YouTube)
December 07, 2023
Far-right Portland, Oregon-based activist Jenny Donnelly is quietly using her experience as a multilevel marketer to recruit Evangelical women to the cause of Christian nationalism.
A recent Rolling Stone expose delved into how Donnelly —founder of the Her Voice Movement — has been working with pro-Trump pastors to organize a million-woman march in Washington, DC in October of 2024, close to Election Day. Donnelly's group is stridently against LGBTQ+ rights and seeks to outlaw abortion throughout the United States, and has ties to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) tradition. Followers of NAR churches believe that Christians have the responsibility to "subdue" the nations of the world to force Christian "dominion" as a way of bringing about the "end times" prophecy of Christ returning to earth. She warned in a recent speech that if Christians don't seize political power, it creates "a big vacuum for unrighteousness to take over."
"I looked [subdue] up in Hebrew; that word actually means ‘to take it under bondage,'" Donnelly said, quoting scripture that read "I commanded you to look at the Earth, and when it acts up, bring it under the bondage of the kingdom of God."
Donnelly is a seasoned marketing veteran, and was once touted as a "hall of fame" earner for Texas-based multilevel marketing company AdvoCare. While Donnelly herself claimed to have made more than seven figures from AdvoCare, other sellers weren't as fortunate: Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had returned nearly $150 million to more than 220,000 people harmed by the company, claiming they were victims of a "pyramid scheme."
"To recruit people, the FTC alleged, AdvoCare and the other defendants told distributors to make exaggerated claims about how much money average people could make—as much as hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year," an FTC press release read. "The FTC alleged that distributors were told to create emotional narratives about how they gained financial success through AdvoCare and to instill fear in potential recruits that they would suffer from regrets later if they declined to invest in AdvoCare."
Donnelly went from selling AdvoCare to selling Christian nationalism with her company Teletestai Ministries. Rolling Stone reported that the company went from grossing $121,000 in 2018 to more than $1.5 million in 2021 as she became a leading figure opposing Covid-19n related restrictions. She's now recruiting women for her proposed DC march through a website dubbed the "Esther Network," which is named after a Biblical character who fought back against repression of Jewish people to the point where her chief enemy was impaled on a spike. The Esther Network solicits subscriptions for $40/month.
During a speech at the Portland convention center, Lou Engle — an NAR pastor allied with Donnelly and her group — railed against the "transgender demonic spirit," saying "tonight, I call forth Esther. For a time such as this."
READ MORE: 'We're getting close': Ex-Trump official calls on fundamentalist Christians to 'heed the call to arms'
Far-right Portland, Oregon-based activist Jenny Donnelly is quietly using her experience as a multilevel marketer to recruit Evangelical women to the cause of Christian nationalism.
A recent Rolling Stone expose delved into how Donnelly —founder of the Her Voice Movement — has been working with pro-Trump pastors to organize a million-woman march in Washington, DC in October of 2024, close to Election Day. Donnelly's group is stridently against LGBTQ+ rights and seeks to outlaw abortion throughout the United States, and has ties to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) tradition. Followers of NAR churches believe that Christians have the responsibility to "subdue" the nations of the world to force Christian "dominion" as a way of bringing about the "end times" prophecy of Christ returning to earth. She warned in a recent speech that if Christians don't seize political power, it creates "a big vacuum for unrighteousness to take over."
"I looked [subdue] up in Hebrew; that word actually means ‘to take it under bondage,'" Donnelly said, quoting scripture that read "I commanded you to look at the Earth, and when it acts up, bring it under the bondage of the kingdom of God."
Donnelly is a seasoned marketing veteran, and was once touted as a "hall of fame" earner for Texas-based multilevel marketing company AdvoCare. While Donnelly herself claimed to have made more than seven figures from AdvoCare, other sellers weren't as fortunate: Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had returned nearly $150 million to more than 220,000 people harmed by the company, claiming they were victims of a "pyramid scheme."
"To recruit people, the FTC alleged, AdvoCare and the other defendants told distributors to make exaggerated claims about how much money average people could make—as much as hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year," an FTC press release read. "The FTC alleged that distributors were told to create emotional narratives about how they gained financial success through AdvoCare and to instill fear in potential recruits that they would suffer from regrets later if they declined to invest in AdvoCare."
Donnelly went from selling AdvoCare to selling Christian nationalism with her company Teletestai Ministries. Rolling Stone reported that the company went from grossing $121,000 in 2018 to more than $1.5 million in 2021 as she became a leading figure opposing Covid-19n related restrictions. She's now recruiting women for her proposed DC march through a website dubbed the "Esther Network," which is named after a Biblical character who fought back against repression of Jewish people to the point where her chief enemy was impaled on a spike. The Esther Network solicits subscriptions for $40/month.
During a speech at the Portland convention center, Lou Engle — an NAR pastor allied with Donnelly and her group — railed against the "transgender demonic spirit," saying "tonight, I call forth Esther. For a time such as this."
READ MORE: 'We're getting close': Ex-Trump official calls on fundamentalist Christians to 'heed the call to arms'
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