President Donald Trump has consistently fumbled the U.S. response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Despite literal months of internal administration warnings about the growing virus threat by early 2020, Trump waited ad nauseum to act — not until March did he even impose national social distancing guidelines meant to stem the spread of the virus, but by then, it was too late to stop any kind of wide spread of the disease among Americans. Psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. John Gartner, who taught at Johns Hopkins University and co-founded the Duty to WARN PAC — whose name is in reference to mental health professionals’ supposed duty to warn Americans about Trump’s behavior — says that the president is a malignant narcissist who has essentially been caught harming Americans on purpose as part of his pathological behavior.
Gartner insists that the president is a “democidal maniac,” noting:
‘If you look at human history there is one trait that all malignant narcissistic leaders have in common: They kill mass numbers of their own people. Why would Donald Trump be any different?’
As Gartner explained elsewhere, Trump isn’t just failing to rise to the occasion of the pandemic; he’s “actively interfering with the governors’ ability to do their job” and launch their own responses in the absence of a federal framework.
Gartner insists:
‘Trump is not just incompetent. He is actively engaging in sabotage… Trump’s mind runs on a formula which bends and twists facts, ideas and memories to suit his malignant narcissism. This is why Trump contradicts himself so easily. He lies and makes things up. His fantasies all serve his malignant narcissism and the world he has created in his own mind about his greatness… People such as Trump are malignant-narcissist sadists because they, at some deep level, are driven to cause harm to other people.’
And Americans at large are the ones now on the receiving end of the harm that Gartner says people like Trump are driven to inflict upon other people. So far, over 53,000 Americans have died from the Coronavirus, and the confirmed case count has climbed to almost one million and counting.
Gartner shares:
‘The American people are hostages as well to Donald Trump. We are being abused by him. We know that Trump is lying. We know that he’s doing nothing to help us. We feel helpless to do anything to stop him. It is causing collective mental despair. In this way Donald Trump is inducing feelings of rage and outrage — and he keeps doing it. It is not that all Americans are suckers or dupes, it is that Trump is a master at such cruel and manipulative behavior. Donald Trump knows exactly what he is doing to the physical and emotional health of the American people.’
The 2020 general election is, of course, fast approaching, when Americans will have the chance to make their opinions about Trump heard at the ballot box. Trump consistently loses in polls pitting him against his presumptive general election challenger Joe Biden. Gartner suggests that Trump is likely to lash out once the reality of a potential loss sets in — although he’s pretty much already doing so.
