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 for him 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."
