President Pence, POTUS 46

When President Pence is sworn in we can feel confident there will be no debate over the size of the crowd.  That’s a relief all by itself.

This week Donald Trump Tweeted his suggestion that the 2020 elections on November 3^rd be postponed and it turned the American news streams into various levels of dither. Fox News et al, along with most Republican legislators, just tried to dodge the comment or “laugh” it off. This is something they’ve learned to be quite good at.

Some respected Republicans took issue with it publicly. Democrats, left and center, went ballistic, calling out terms like dictator, autocrat, or destroyer of the Constitution…something they’ve learned to be quite good at.

I think they all may be missing the point.

Since 2016 I have been writing in this blog several times my conclusions that Donald Trump suffers from a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and that this condition explains all his actions, short of those he has felt compelled to act on to protect himself. Not to argue this point further, my opinion is leading me inescapably to a final speculation:

Donald Trump will likely resign the Presidency before the November election.

The importance of his Tweet is not the suggestion of a postponed election, something he has no power to do. It is with his reasoning…points he has repeatedly raised. Attaching those points to his absurd suggestion magnifies their importance in his mind.

He has proclaimed that this election will (not might or could) be “the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history”. He neither reflects on the fact there has previously been no inaccurate and fraudulent election in US history or that he assigns all the fraud and inaccuracies to benefit only his opponent. He really doesn’t care a fig about how the election is run.

If Trump truly has a NPD, a major loss would painfully conflict with his self-perception. Intuitively his knowing that a post-election analysis would later deem the contest accurate may be a bridge he is unwilling to cross.  His only out would be to resign. In his mind, the “fraud” in the election makes it impossible for him to win, and that the resulting landslide loss (the election cannot be stopped) will be primarily due to his resignation.

Someone with an NPD faces an imperfect world with subjective perfection. It’s as if he lives his life on reality TV.  His niece, a PhD psychologist, in her book “Too Much and Never Enough” discounts the idea that her uncle has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder, even as she admits that every characteristic of that disorder applies to him. She essentially claims he is too complex to be labeled in that fashion. Having read her book I can understand how she would find it difficult to not include the impact of such a dysfunctional family. However for the rest of us, he is simply a dysfunctional President and NPD fits the bill.

Sure, it’s not inevitable. After all, Trump has to deal with his cowardice and there is no telling for sure in the end. He also could delude himself into thinking he could magically win, delusion and paranoia are later characteristics of NPD. Of course it didn’t work well for him in figuring the Corona Virus was just going to suddenly disappear, and that memory may linger.

I’d give better than even money that come late September or early October Trump will throw up his arms in “disgust” and walk off the set, not waiting to hear the words you’re fired. Ol’Mikey will become the shortest office holder in US history, beating out the previous record holder, Warren Harding, by 27 months. I’m sure they’ll get his picture up in at least one little Post Office in Indianapolis.