Trump is insane
I realize that the word “insanity” is largely useless in the clinical world. A professional psychologist would require a specific diagnosis such as obsessive-compulsive, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and so on. But for everyday use it has some value.
For example, I think that the late American chess genius Bobby Fischer was insane. I don’t know what clinical diagnosis would apply to him, but I am sure he was insane. And yet in a casual acquaintance you wouldn’t necessarily know it. For the most part he seemed high-functioning, rational, even nice.
But Fischer was a virulent antisemite. He was positively out of his mind with hatred for Jews. The day after the September 11, 2001, attacks on America, Fischer went on a local radio station in the Philippines and positively exulted about the attacks, thanked Bin Laden and was delighted that thousands of Americans had died. He hoped the 9/11 attacks would end up creating a “Seven Days in May” scenario where the American military would take over and kill or expel all the Jews in the United States.
All of which is awful enough. But that’s not why I think Bobby Fischer was insane. I think he was insane because both of his parents were Jewish. And on some level, Fischer knew this. The irrationality of Fischer’s obsessive hatred of the Jewish people can’t be squared with reality. There is a massive disconnect that simply can’t be rectified.
In much the same way I think Trump is insane. There is a disconnect with reality there that can’t be rectified. It’s one thing that Trump is a criminal, a liar, an evil man, I get all that. But some of what he does makes absolutely no sense, and eventually will make life unnecessarily difficult for him and almost certainly turn the vast majority of the American people against him. And it’s going to all come crashing down on Trump later this summer.
That is when the American supply chain is going to reach levels so dire that it will make the Covid-19 crisis look like a minor shortage. Executives at Walmart, Target and other major consumer staples are begging Trump to end his tariffs. But Trump either refuses to listen to them or he isn’t even getting their messages.
There is no long term gain coming at the end of short term pain. It’s going to be all pain. Unlike Bobby Fischer, Trump isn’t playing chess. There is no hidden genius agenda that will shortly be revealed. Trump’s tariffs are an unqualified disaster for everyone, good for no one, and you ain’t seen nothin yet.
The argument can be made that Trump knows all this and his ego won’t let him back down. I disagree. A scenario could easily be devised, indeed it already has, where Trump could back down as part of some master plan. His yo-yo policy on tariffs — one day they’re on, next day they’re not, then they’re on again — is proof of this. There is no scenario that Trump can’t twist, that MAGA won’t fall for and his sycophants won’t praise to high heaven.
Eggs — a major part of Trump’s 2024 campaign— are either extortionate or missing from the shelves. Gas prices are creeping up again. Consumer confidence is deteriorating. The stock market has tanked. What’s more, the GDP was negative for Q1, and if Q2 is also negative — and all indications are that it will be — then that is the definition of recession. So by late summer America could be facing massive supply chain issues in the middle of a recession.
Which in turn will lead to mass layoffs, runaway inflation and consumer panic. This is the America that Trump is creating. There is absolutely no rational reason for him to go down this road. And yet, down that road he is going. And that, my friends, is insane.
Like a pathological liar (which I believe Trump also is), Trump is telling lies that don’t serve any purpose and are actually dangerous to him. Just as there was no “why” to explain Bobby Fischer’s virulent hatred of Jews, there is no “why” for Trump’s tariffs, or his policy of deporting American citizens, or his hatred of America’s allies and love for America’s enemies. All we can do is shrug and admit it. Trump is insane.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.