For his entire adult life, and for his entire presidency, Donald Trump has created his own alternate reality, complete with his own alternate set of facts.
...
“He has chosen to imagine the worst is behind us when the worst is clearly ahead of us.”-White House consultant.
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“This fool will bring the death of thousands needlessly. We have mobilized as a country to shut things down for a time, despite the difficulty. We can work our way back to a semblance of normality if we hold out and let the health system make it through the worst of it. But now our own president is undoing all that work and preaching recklessness. Rather than lead us in taking on a difficult challenge, he is dragging us toward failure and suffering. Beyond belief.”
-former White House advisor after Trump's March 23 virus press briefing.
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...the pandemic and its economic fallout “overwhelm Trump’s capacity to understand, are outside of his ability to internalize and process, and [are] beyond his frustration tolerance. He is neither curious nor interested; facts are tossed aside when inconvenient or [when they] contradict his parallel reality, and people are disposable unless they serve him in some way.”
-a clinical psychologist
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Trump’s success as a politician has been built on his ability to impose his will and narrative on others, to use his experience on a reality-television show and his skill as a con man to shape public impressions in his favor, even—or perhaps, especially—if those impressions are at odds with reality.
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But in this instance, Trump isn’t facing a political problem he can easily spin his way out of.
[In fact, he is spinning his way out of it.]
But what happens to Trump psychologically and emotionally when things don’t turn around in the time period he wants? What happens if the tricks that have allowed him to walk away from scandal after scandal don’t work quite so well, if the doors of escape are bolted shut, and if it dawns on even some of his supporters—people who will watch family members, friends, and neighbors contract the disease, some number of whom will die—that no matter what Trump says, he can’t alter this epidemiological reality?
[The answer to the rhetorical question is, "Trump will just change the reality and get his supporters to live in it with him." In fact there is evidence that is what is happening. Trump's approval rating has increased. Those who approve of his handling of the Trump Virus Epidemic have increased. This article was written by Peter Wehner and published in The Atlantic on March 25. Four days after publication, yesterday, Trump was provided an alternate reality of 100,000-200,000 deaths by Dr. Anthony Fauci. Trump spun that into "we've done a good job" if we hold deaths between or under those numbers. Peter grossly minimizes the Svengali-like hold that Trump has on his supporters, the Low Lifes. Now, for Trump and the Low Lifes, reality--and a "good job" done!--are defined by those numbers, not the thirty-odd statements Trump made previously brushing off the virus, not his brush off inaction that has led to those death projections. It is a Cult of Personality where the only reality is what the Leader says it is. His followers go along with whatever he says.]
He’ll demand even more cultlike coverage from outlets such as Fox News.
...
All of these things are from a playbook the president has used a thousand times. Perhaps they’ll succeed again...He can’t easily create another narrative, because he is often sharing the stage with scientists who will not lie on his behalf.
[It is crucial that non-cult members recognize the role of Dr. Fauci in this for all of us now inhabit space known as Trump-Fauci Reality. I agree that Dr. Fauci will not lie for Trump. But he will give Trump an out. Fauci is not, as he told recent interviewers, going to contradict or embarrass Trump on stage. And after his interviews with Maureen Dowd of the Times and with Science magazine, where he did embarrass Trump a little, Trump's cultlike media began assailing Fauci. The Times printed an article that Trump was "losing patience" with Fauci. Fauci didn't appear with Trump at briefings for a day or two. On one of those days Trump was asked where Fauci was. Trump said he had just had a "long talk" with him. Fauci will do everything he possibly can do to navigate between the Scylla of the real and the Charybdis of Trump's unreal. As he does, Fauci becomes an enabler of the cult. Trump is using Fauci. He has lashed himself to Fauci so that they are now one. Success, and failure, are now joint.]
He will try to create an alternate story to distract people from an inconvenient truth—but in this case, the public is too afraid, the story is too big, and the carnage will be too great to be distracted from it.
[I do not think that is going to happen.]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/presidents-character-unequal-task/608743/
...
“He has chosen to imagine the worst is behind us when the worst is clearly ahead of us.”-White House consultant.
...
“This fool will bring the death of thousands needlessly. We have mobilized as a country to shut things down for a time, despite the difficulty. We can work our way back to a semblance of normality if we hold out and let the health system make it through the worst of it. But now our own president is undoing all that work and preaching recklessness. Rather than lead us in taking on a difficult challenge, he is dragging us toward failure and suffering. Beyond belief.”
-former White House advisor after Trump's March 23 virus press briefing.
...
...the pandemic and its economic fallout “overwhelm Trump’s capacity to understand, are outside of his ability to internalize and process, and [are] beyond his frustration tolerance. He is neither curious nor interested; facts are tossed aside when inconvenient or [when they] contradict his parallel reality, and people are disposable unless they serve him in some way.”
-a clinical psychologist
...
Trump’s success as a politician has been built on his ability to impose his will and narrative on others, to use his experience on a reality-television show and his skill as a con man to shape public impressions in his favor, even—or perhaps, especially—if those impressions are at odds with reality.
...
But in this instance, Trump isn’t facing a political problem he can easily spin his way out of.
[In fact, he is spinning his way out of it.]
But what happens to Trump psychologically and emotionally when things don’t turn around in the time period he wants? What happens if the tricks that have allowed him to walk away from scandal after scandal don’t work quite so well, if the doors of escape are bolted shut, and if it dawns on even some of his supporters—people who will watch family members, friends, and neighbors contract the disease, some number of whom will die—that no matter what Trump says, he can’t alter this epidemiological reality?
[The answer to the rhetorical question is, "Trump will just change the reality and get his supporters to live in it with him." In fact there is evidence that is what is happening. Trump's approval rating has increased. Those who approve of his handling of the Trump Virus Epidemic have increased. This article was written by Peter Wehner and published in The Atlantic on March 25. Four days after publication, yesterday, Trump was provided an alternate reality of 100,000-200,000 deaths by Dr. Anthony Fauci. Trump spun that into "we've done a good job" if we hold deaths between or under those numbers. Peter grossly minimizes the Svengali-like hold that Trump has on his supporters, the Low Lifes. Now, for Trump and the Low Lifes, reality--and a "good job" done!--are defined by those numbers, not the thirty-odd statements Trump made previously brushing off the virus, not his brush off inaction that has led to those death projections. It is a Cult of Personality where the only reality is what the Leader says it is. His followers go along with whatever he says.]
He’ll demand even more cultlike coverage from outlets such as Fox News.
...
All of these things are from a playbook the president has used a thousand times. Perhaps they’ll succeed again...He can’t easily create another narrative, because he is often sharing the stage with scientists who will not lie on his behalf.
[It is crucial that non-cult members recognize the role of Dr. Fauci in this for all of us now inhabit space known as Trump-Fauci Reality. I agree that Dr. Fauci will not lie for Trump. But he will give Trump an out. Fauci is not, as he told recent interviewers, going to contradict or embarrass Trump on stage. And after his interviews with Maureen Dowd of the Times and with Science magazine, where he did embarrass Trump a little, Trump's cultlike media began assailing Fauci. The Times printed an article that Trump was "losing patience" with Fauci. Fauci didn't appear with Trump at briefings for a day or two. On one of those days Trump was asked where Fauci was. Trump said he had just had a "long talk" with him. Fauci will do everything he possibly can do to navigate between the Scylla of the real and the Charybdis of Trump's unreal. As he does, Fauci becomes an enabler of the cult. Trump is using Fauci. He has lashed himself to Fauci so that they are now one. Success, and failure, are now joint.]
He will try to create an alternate story to distract people from an inconvenient truth—but in this case, the public is too afraid, the story is too big, and the carnage will be too great to be distracted from it.
[I do not think that is going to happen.]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/presidents-character-unequal-task/608743/
