The New Republic recently ran an essay titled “There is No Method to his Madness. He’s Simply Insane.” I couldn’t agree more.
The article began by noting that past heads of state have sometimes pretended irrationality in order to confuse opponents, but noted–confirming what any rational observer has already concluded–Trump is not among them. For one thing, he clearly lacks the intellectual capacity to devise such a strategy. Or any strategy.
It’s not just Trump’s unpredictable tariff policy that appears insane. His entire administration is defined by madness—in both senses. On Friday, he went on another incoherent rant on social media, claiming once that the 2020 election was stolen from him and rewriting history to blame all of our current problems, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Joe Biden. In other Truth Social posts, he’s boasted about being a king and claimed that the “European Union was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”
If these acts were merely confined to deranged posts, perhaps one could argue there’s “method in his madness.” After his rant on Friday, Trump gave a speech at the Justice Department wherein he kvetched about various imaginary enemies of the United States (which, coincidentally, are his personal enemies) and made clear that he expects the department to serve as an extension of his personal wrath. Similar delusions have led to the dismantling of USAID, a wasteful visit to Fort Knox to check if the gold had been stolen, and continual talk about annexing other countries.
The article goes on to detail further evidence that our would-be King has no (mental) clothes, despite his courtiers’ efforts to find method in the madness.
What makes the insanity so dangerous, however, isn’t simply Trump’s ignorance of governance and economics, but the venom that characterizes his approach to others, and the festering resentments that impel his actions. Trump is a limited intellect and damaged ego occupying a human body; fears and jealousies and grievances–not strategies or principles–prompt his eruptions, and explain both his grandiose fantasies (comparing himself to Winston Churchill, annexing Canada) and his tacky decorating fetishes (gold toilets).
While it would be inaccurate to describe them as principles, there are a few long-standing grievances that predictably motivate Trump’s constant stream of illegal (and often ridiculous) Executive Orders. Our mad king thinks he is in a position to take revenge, not just over the legal system which (finally) was holding him to account, but over all those people who sneered at him over the years–those “elitists” with their intellectual and cultural bona fides, the businesspeople who made their fortunes without ripping off suppliers or hiding in bankruptcy court, the women who found his “charms” unpersuasive.
Politics gave Trump the adulation he wanted, but from people he clearly despises.
Those long-standing resentments explain so much: Trump’s war on a legal community defending rules he regularly broke–and his special animus for the lawyers who had the nerve to represent people antagonistic to him. His refusal to allow disclosure of his own GPA undoubtedly sheds some light on his efforts to destroy intellectual inquiry on the nation’s campuses. Both his own resentments and the need to pander to his MAGA cult help explain his efforts to turn academia into a mechanism for Right-wing propaganda.
As for the roots of his White Nationalism–his definition of “DEI” as discrimination against White men and his ferocious efforts to return women and minorities to subservience–I can only assume that he agrees with MAGA that his White skin is a sign that he is superior and that any effort to ensure fair treatment for women and minorities is an attack on that superiority. (Unfortunately, his entire administration demonstrates the folly of believing Whiteness denotes even minimal competence…)
Bottom line: the United States has a president who is ignorant, petulant and demonstrably insane. He is also, in all probability, a Russian asset. Our constitutional system of checks and balances is currently not working, because members of the GOP majorities in the House and Senate fear the mad king and are not living up to their oaths of office, and the Supreme Court’s majority is ethically compromised.
The remedy must come from We the People. And it begins by acknowledging the truth of that last paragraph.
The best solution would be for Congress to fear us more than they fear him (and Musk and MAGA and money that may put them out of office), and for us to force them to do their jobs.
For the record, JD Vance’s guru is Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel’s in-house guru. His goal is to destroy the administrative state, and he claims that Trump and Musk are doing a lousy job so far. He wants them to take more action to demolish the bureaucracy and replace it with an authoritarian tech state. We’ll see soon if Vance has any sway over Trump.
I disagree slightly with Trump’s lack of strategy. He trusts his instincts, or what he calls his “gut.” He also thinks women are just playthings for his amusement and sex. He is 100% driven by his EGO with an incredible denial structure. Generally, I’ve only witnessed that kind of denial in addicts. Maybe he’s addicted to golf or fast food – I don’t know.
The bottom line is that he gets lots of advice from his cronies, who tell him what he wants to hear, and then “trusts his gut” to decipher all the input to create a decision. If his denial system weren’t so strong, he’d learn that this pattern hasn’t produced good results since his teen years. His dad failed him, and so did his mother. Roy Cohn failed him. Life has been trying to teach him, but why would you pay attention if you think you’re brilliant and the best businessman ever created?
Whitney Webb spends a lot of time discussing Roy Cohn in her books and articles. He ran around with the worst of the criminal element, bribing officials, politicians, and judges. He worked with the mob and intelligence agencies—Mossad and the CIA. Roy was the lawyer who bailed out Trump and his dad for screwing over black tenants in New York. I’m sure his dad and Roy passed along their racism to Junior.
Trump and his administration have been on X.com, calling the current polls showing Trump’s poor favorability rating a fake media concoction. ‘Trump is told he’s doing a great job, so why should he believe the polls?’
Despite all this, the Democratic Party has surrounded itself with 70-year-old politicians/advisors to set their strategy. I guess Trump isn’t the only one with incredible denial skills. 😉
As each day passes, I’m more convinced that there will not be an election in 2026 or 2028 because what is happening is a coup.
Has the mad Marlboro Man ignoring his medication created a video production set in Mar a Lago to exacting detail of the Oval Office?
A major reason for these current mentally defective takeovers of government is due to the freedoms provided by the Constitution of the United States of America. The nut cases have the right to speak out and act out to a degree; it is up to the elected officials in the Legislature, which is the primary branch of government explained in the constitution to prevent such as Trump, to uphold their Oaths of Office and carry out the duties and responsibilities they are required to perform and they have agreed to do. Once they have been sworn in and begin collecting those paychecks those like Mitch McConnell abuse their levels of power by ignoring their duties and responsibilities and there is no one to force them to maintain their Oath of Office. That is no different that an entire police force standing by, watching a mass shooting and doing nothing to stop it.
The doors of the Federal Cuckoos Nest have been thrown open and a mass escape of the loonies have taken over. Trump’s latest takeover of 160 miles of the border to Mexico and turning over military command of what he considers military property with power to arrest anyone found on the land. After his Tesla car lot fiasco on White House grounds, he now is posting pictures of immigrants he claims are criminals. Is this connected to his takeover of the United States Postal Service and their wall of criminal photos?
Does anyone remember how Alice escaped that rabbit hole?
We are limited in our ability to think on the level of mentally defectives to understand what holds them together in their determination in a government which has worked for millions of Americans for 250 years. It is not perfect; never has been and never will be but not one of us who have lived our life spans under this Constitution “…of the people, by the people, and for the people…” are perfect and will not find a better system by destroying the current system.
Bessent called it “strategic uncertainty.” Well Project 2025 certainly was strategic and it was not uncertain. Other people are preparing the orders. He just signs them. People …Stephen Miller is running the country. His organization -which is not a law firm – is wreaking havoc. The president is mad but there is method to the madness of his goons.
The madness that defines the Ruling triumvirate results from their shutting the world out to focus on the one person who, to them, has it all. Themselves. It’s narcissism in charge of them and us at the moment.
We zigged instead of zagged at the worst possible time. The consequences are global.
While the old world last year was as imperfect as we who have overrun the earth, it was a start towards a functional earth that could contain, feed, and govern us as the single species we are.
Our failure has started, and now is the time to organize and save the country, or at least the parts we can save.
So well-put, Sheila. Thank you. I count on you and Heather Cox Richardson to offer and to help to understand the big picture. Paul Krugman certainly helps, as well. Blessings on you and stay safe.
Unfortunately, we are stuck between Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand, we have the madman and on the other we have the self serving jackass. Our Constitution says, if the madman goes away, we WILL get the jackass.
Here’s the current line of succession:
Vance, Johnson, Grassley, Rubio, Bessent, Hegseth, Bondi, Burgum, Rollins,
Lutnick, Chavez-DeRemer, RFK Jr., Turner, Duffy, Wright, McMahon, Collins, and,
last, but not !east, Noem.
Who among that group would you trust NOT to complete the job outlined in Project 2025? Once upon a time, it might have been Rubio. Today, who knows?
The Clown car that makes up the current cabinet would never use the 25th amendment, even though the President is clearly insane. They are looking at the future with no regulations to cut into their bottom lines. It might be a little embarrassing to be contradicted during an interview by a tweet from the boss, but it’s a small price to pay for the perks they get from playing his game.
Time soon for a general strike?
Yes, Lester.
Republicans are not going to do anything to stop him, they know that the J6ers are standing by waiting for him to give the order. He spent 4 years preparing to take over the country, and he is really mad that Xi and Putin tricked him.
JoAnn. I usually agree with what you write, but I have make an exception for your first sentence. Freedom of speech is part of the bedrock on which all our other freedoms depend. There are appropriate restraints on that freedom that have been worked out in courts during our country’s history. If those restraints need to be tweaked it should be done with the utmost care and deliberation. Right now, we must focus on attacking the villains, not the Constitution. IF we manage to avoid becoming slaves to a mad dictator, there will be time to consider those tweaks.
Congress will start fearing the electorate more than Trump when we make the decibel level for impeachment too high to ignore. Let’s raise the impeachment chorale a octave or two or three.
With a broad stroke I would like to attach blame for the dystopia we are experiencing, in two parts. First, the election: my blame goes to the idiots who didn’t vote, rather abdicating the one right we have in this country to take part in its governance. Obligation would describe it best, and they failed; themselves, each of us who voted, and our dear country. Second, I blame the Congress, where the invertebrate GOP – with very few exceptions so far – have become silent with regards to their OBLIGATION to the oath they took when they were sworn in to duty. Either of those groups of our fellow citizens could have prevented this destruction of these United States of America; the first cannot be retrieved but the second still has the opportunity to do the right thing, and i believe they do know what they are allowing by not resisting is just not right. There is still hope, but it is diminished each day without a strong showing of spine and subsequent action.
So, Todd, what is it about Trump’s lack od=f strategy with which you disagree?
The wanna-be man thing is so far off his rocker, he can’t even look back and find it! Narcissists, especially his brand thereof, a Malignant Narcissist, live in their very own world, bereft of any redeemable qualities, bereft of any meaningful connection to any other person, in a life that is NOT “soul-and spirit-deep in that which is,” (Heiddeger); but absent any hint thereof, regardless of what the Evangelicals “believe.”
To borrow this post’s title, “There’s no method to his madness” because it is the madness of a hurt 2 year old, striking out at any real, or imagined, slight, eyes tightly shut, just crying, swinging and spitting.
Check out HCR’s marvelous post about J.D.Pritzker’s recent marvelous speech!
I think we often give him much more credit than is due. He is all of what you say, but to credit him with driving the clown car is mistaken. I think he is being used by forces that are much more intentional and deliberate than he is, people who have real ambitions against the US. T*ump is a tool. Maybe a Russian asset, more likely a useful idiot, but the puppet masters should be exposed as the real enemies.
I believe that at least some of the blame for Trump lies with the SCOTUS–they created the fantasy of executive immunity when we all thought that no one is above the law. All that ruling did was embolden Trump, who is seriously mentally ill–always has been–with malignant narcissism, coupled with sociopathy. He lacks any semblance of empathy, compassion or the capacity to love anyone or anything other than himself. He is a chronic, habitual liar–always has been. He loves being the center of attention, and everything in his universe resolves around him and his need for attention, praise, adulation and power. The most-recent example: despite nodding off at Pope Francis’s funeral, and wearing blue, instead of black, as required by Vatican protocol, he staged a “meeting” with Zelenskyy–why, especially after publicly trying to humiliate him–which backfired spectacularly? He could have held the “meeting”, if it was for the genuine purpose of working on resolving the war with Russia, on Air Force One, or at the US Embassy or in a private hotel room–but it was on the actual floor of St. Peter’s Basilica–why? Because there were cameras there, and the pig can’t stand not being the center of attention. He had previously criticized Pope Francis as being “political” for pointing out that someone who builds walls instead of bridges is not a Christian, and for saying that the Bible requires believers to welcome migrants, not abuse them. This is reminiscent of his criticism of Episcopal bishop Budde, who dared to ask Trump and Vance to have mercy and compassion for migrants, LGBTQ and other marginalized people.
Trump’s unqualifying characteristics to be President were always there. So, you have those cynical radical “conservatives”–if that’s what you want to call the authors of Project 2025, who used this pig to get power by pandering to non college educated whites who resented Obama and the strides made by blacks, women and minorities. So, Trump was the vehicle to shove their agenda down our throats–they knew that he just can’t stop lying–about everything–and that he is a showman. So, he hooked the Evangelicals with the promise to “save unborn babies”, and they ignored the fact that he is a criminal, liar, misogynist and that he never denied paying for abortions for paramours. The proponents of Project 2025 had dozens of EO’s drafted and ready to go, and Americans are just now waking up to the reality of what was always really going on–and they don’t like it, so they are taking to the streets.
What to do? Harass the hell out of Republicans–they know, down in their souls, that Trump lied about groceries and inflation just to get elected, that tariffs are killing the economy and peoples’ dreams of a secure retirement, and that if he isn’t stopped, we’re in for an all-out depression. Republicans created and are enabling this monster–and for at least 2 years, we’re going to have to depend on them to stop him.
Much to think about, again, Ms. Kennedy. The comments are perceptive, too.
What has always confused me about Trump is his lack of ideology backing his sociopathy. Destroying and ripping off seemed his only talents, not creating a new political state.
The long term danger is what follows Trump. Yes, there is an immediate danger in the man himself, but we cannot ignore the long term threat. Stephen Miller seems to have an ideology that wants to truly remake America beyond Trump’s vengeful narcissism. Trump may be the battering ram, but is following the ram?
I feel myself far out in the wilderness, too old and far from the mainstream of ideas. Ms. Kennedy, you and your readers, are not. The question is whether there can be an opposition that includes the educated and the working classes. The Democrats have failed to do this.
I think Trump has not so much broken the Constitution as he has taken advantage of its fractures. The Republicans broke the Constitution at the dawn of this century by Karl Rove. The Electoral College was meant to stop men like Trump. His elections prove that it is worthless. The answer is that it is hard to amend the Constitution, means that we lack the will to retain a democratic republic. Is a general strike any harder to organize? Is impeachment really a cure for our ills? Karl Rove created the structures that made Trump President. Time to change those structures – representation in Congress, too – that have put us in this mess.
The same applies to Indiana’s Constitution. If we are serious about reforming this state, then we need to change the structure of power in Indiana. It seems to me, MAGA – and I am still trying to understand MAGA – represents a resentment towards power in this country. The Democrats are seen now as the Establishment (so redolent of 1968 and the radicals of that age) holding the power that is keeping down wide swathes of our population. That I also think this is a con is why I still do not understand MAGA (it may be we have bred a nation of mini-Trumps). Indiana Democrats have ridden along with the state’s Republicans without any call to put more direct power into the people, so why should people vote Democrat in this state?
Trump and Bauer and Rokita and Beckwith are all of a kind. They have only used the tools we left them for their own use. Sorry, if I ramble a bit. It is too early, but this post got me thinking.
Fight fire with fire. If they are ignoring the rules, then we must do the same. We are playing by the rules and they are not and we are losing!