'Psychopath' Trump will need to be pushed out of the White House -- according to this mental health expert

We know that Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist. Despite dozens of explanations of this disorder, many Americans still don’t understand. Trump does not care a whit about you or our democracy. He is willing to attack, undermine, and destroy our America in order to save his power and to exalt his very presence. It is the pathology of a dictator. It is the pathology of a menace to our democracy.

Trump’s behavior since losing the election on Saturday has been appalling but predictable. If he cared about us and democracy, he would concede the election and promise to facilitate an orderly transition of power to the victor—Joe Biden. That’s what all normal people would do. That’s what all past presidents have done.

But not Donald Trump. His pathology will not allow him to think about us and the country. His needs, wants, and wishes are all that matter to him. He is throwing a massive temper tantrum because he lost. He has reflexively and instinctually reverted to being a victim in order to maintain his grandiose and superior self-image. In his mind, the only way a great president could lose is if it is stolen from him. Trump’s reliance on projection is seen so clearly: he is now trying to steal the election but is accusing Democrats of having stolen it from him.

Now, Trump is denying defeat and refusing to cooperate with a normal transition process. He is filing lawsuit after lawsuit. He is considering having voter fraud rallies. His conspiracy theories are multiplying by the day. He has fired the Secretary of Defense. He has disappeared from sight to lick his wounds and plan his next nefarious steps. All while claiming victimhood for himself. Trump has never been a victim—he has always inflicted pain and damage.

This is all severe pathology. This is all sinister and destructive impulses by a man who is incapable of being a public servant and of considering the needs of others. Trump is the most psychiatrically disordered president in history. His pathology is on par with other murderous dictators around the world.

Trump’s supporters have bought into his pathology. They cannot see it. They don’t understand it. They cannot conceive how his pathology has transformed their perceptions of him. They believe that Trump really is smarter and richer and stronger than anyone else. They have suspended all critical thinking and judgment to show allegiance to a man who is a con and a psychopath. The sad irony is that Trump despises most of his supporters. He views them as dupes. He describes them as losers. They remind him of his true self—and he has covered that up with his false grandiose self.

But here’s the ultimate problem: Everything about Donald Trump is a LIE. He is not smarter and richer and stronger. Why do you think he is hiding his tax returns? Why do you think he suggested inserting a light in our body to counteract COVID? Why do you think he cannot stand up to Putin? Why do you think he cannot fire people in person? Why do you think he lies 15 times a day? Why do you think he spends most of his day watching television? Why do you think many of his associates are felons? Why do you think so many Cabinet and staff members have resigned?

Trump is in full self-preservation mode. He wants to hold onto power. He needs the adulation of the public. He needs the money he is making off the American people. He does not want to go to prison. Psychopaths like Trump are totally focused on themselves. Nothing else matters—nobody else matters.

All that matters to Donald Trump is himself. Remember that. Let that fact sink in.

We will be rid of Donald Trump one day. But the path to extrication will be difficult and fearful and painful. Our mental health and our souls keep getting punched. Democracy keeps getting tested.

Trump won’t go away on his own. We have to push him away. We have to ignore him. We have to marginalize him. We have to keep explaining the severity of his pathology to his followers.

Donald Trump’s sinister and destructive pathology is still among us.

Alan D Blotcky, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama.