Alejandra grew up in Honduras. One day, she was grabbed off the street, brutally beaten and sexually abused. Logic dictated her going to the police, yet when she did, she was ignored.
She then decided to seek asylum in the U.S. and after a difficult journey through Mexico, she reached our border. She was then placed in a crowded detention center. This occurred because of the Trump administration’s campaign against asylum seekers. This policy called “zero tolerance” was designed to punish those who broke the law.
It is ironic that one of the camps used to house detainees had been used during World War II as an internment center for Japanese-Americans. At the least, the “orange Satan” had precedent for his despicable actions.
There is further evidence that Trump’s immigration policies are Neanderthal. He talked about building a moat on our southern border and stocking it with snakes and alligators. I
f this weren’t enough, he suggested shooting “illegals,” but only in the legs. In fairness to the president, he did back away from these extreme positions acting upon the advice of his advisors.
I now think it useful to look at Trump’s tweets to gain a better understanding of how his mind works. The first thing one observes is his use of superlatives. He didn’t simply attend a graduate school; he went to the Ivy League Wharton School. He didn’t merely create a good economy; his is the best economy in this nation’s history.
Here are some other examples:
We had incredible meetings.. .we finished very strong…Cooked Hillary Clinton went down in flames…I am a VERY successful businessman… I went from a businessman to a TV star to president of the United States (on my first try.) I think I would qualify as not smart, but genius…a very stable genius.
While I am not a licensed therapist, I suspect that these statements reveal a person with a marked inferiority complex. I won’t go further and speculate about his relationship with his millionaire father.
But I will state that such braggadocio reveals much about Trump’s psyche. As a college professor for many decades, I have often thought about how I would handle a student like Donald Trump. I suspect I would ask him to come to my office and I would ask “how do you think your peers are reacting to your boastful statements?”
There is another very revealing habit manifested by our president. He loves assigning nicknames (always derogatory) to people he disdains. There’s Pocahontas for Senator Warren, Low Energy for Jeb Bush and Shifty for Congressman Adam Schiff. One might write these insults off as the work of a schoolyard bully, but I believe they have much more psychological significance.
I think our president cannot leave well enough alone. It may be extreme to say that he has a “death wish,” but he does have a propensity to “shoot himself in the foot.” How many times has he gone off the teleprompter and adlibbed in spite of his advisors’ warnings?
Finally, there is his tendency to make foreign policy without consulting any of the experts in the field. Tom Nichols referencing Trump writes about “the death of expertise.” While the president twitters about his “great and unmatched wisdom.”
Is there any wonder that Democrats fear for the survival of our democracy?
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
