'Public humiliation' is pushing Trump into 'a delusional state of mind': psychiatrist

Former President Donald Trump is being driven further and further into insanity by resentment over "public humiliation," psychiatrist Dr. Mark Goulston told Salon's Chauncey DeVega in an interview compilation released on Thursday.

This comes as the former president raises alarm from experts over his increasingly authoritarian-sounding schemes for the U.S., including reshaping the entire federal government in his image and using the DOJ to attack political enemies — to the point he was not even able to deny planning a dictatorship when asked by Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Goulston, not having interviewed Trump directly, isn't in a position to diagnose him formally — but, he told DeVega, he has the clear signs of narcissistic rage, which, per Medical News Today, "stems from a deep-seated fear of exposure as inadequate or not living up to an ideal self-image that the individual projects."

"What is relevant about the above is that the greater the sense of humiliation, the greater the rage," said Goulston. "And if not winning the 2020 election wasn't humiliating enough, the thought of losing to Joe Biden may have been so much of a public humiliation as to push Trump over into a delusional state of mind. If that is so, it is not enough to just claim the election was stolen, but he may now be seeking to expunge it from the record and history books. Trump's latest rants are consistent with this."

Things could worsen still further as Trump spirals, Goulston speculated — for instance, people should watch for him claiming his actions were ordained by God.

As for how to protect the public, he concluded, "Perhaps we could reach out to his base and ask them if they can remember anyone from their high school or college days who in the face of utter public humiliation went off the deep end with destructive behavior. I can certainly remember a few."