The Narcissist in Chief

Impulsiveness

On April 9, 2025, Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs for most trading partners, only hours after those duties took effect. His reversal followed days of market turmoil that erased trillions of dollars in stock-market value. To explain the shift, he said people were getting "yippy" and "a little bit afraid"-a striking illustration of sweeping policy imposed first and reconsidered only after its consequences became impossible for US trade partners to ignore.

Divisiveness

Trump's divisiveness was starkly evident on December 2, 2025, when, during a televised Cabinet meeting, he called Somali immigrants "garbage," declared that they "contribute nothing," and said, "We don't want them in our country." His sweeping denunciation targeted an entire community rather than particular individuals or unlawful acts, casting people of Somali origin as inherently unwelcome and turning national identity into a weapon of exclusion.

Trump's narcissism is not merely a personal failing; it is a danger to a republic whose survival depends on leaders, especially the president, who respect limits, accept accountability, and serve something greater than themselves. What makes matters worse is when Republican officeholders' loyalty to one man supplants loyalty to the Constitution-truth becomes expendable, cruelty becomes permissible, and public power becomes an instrument of private revenge.

Republicans who continue to enable Trump cannot disown responsibility for the damage they help sustain. Their choice is not between Trump and the Democrats, but between submission to a man and fidelity to the republic. Trump's narcissism is destroying America brick by brick. The Republicans do not seem to grasp that the presidency belongs to the American people-not to the ego of its occupant.

Defending that principle is not partisanship; it is patriotism. But the Republicans have long since lost that sense, mindlessly following a narcissist who is anything but an American patriot.