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Donald Trump; Rudy GiulianiDrawing Angerer/Getty Images
One of my casual friends is a lawyer. He is very good at getting people out of trouble – problems they usually caused themselves. My attorney friend would often tell me stories of people getting on the stand and talking themselves into jail. Why? I asked him. He explained that some people know they’re right and think they can prove it, but don’t understand that winning in court isn’t about being right or being the smartest person in the room. Sometimes you just have to be quiet for a while. And if you need to talk, make sure your lawyer does it for you!
Traitor ex-President Donald Trump will be tried for allegedly violating the spy law and committing other serious crimes such as conspiracy and obstruction of justice. It also seems highly likely that Special Counsel Jack Smith will indict Donald Trump and his clique for other federal crimes related to the January 6 coup attempt. If found guilty, Donald Trump could potentially spend the rest of his natural life in federal prison. As such, Trump has certainly been told by his personal lawyers to be quiet. The same advice has also been publicly and freely given to Trump by other attorneys and jurists. However, it seems that Donald Trump is incapable of being quiet.
“Trump’s behavior goes far beyond simple narcissism.”
For example, in a Tuesday morning post on his Truth Social disinformation social media website, Trump railed against Special Counsel Jack Smith and threatened his family like some kind of mob boss:
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO THE CRAZY TRUMP-HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY AND HIS FRIENDS THAT AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I AM COVERED BY THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS CONFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THE FANTASY OF THESE PSYCHOS OF THE NEVER USED FOR SPIONAGE ACT OF 1917.
In various interviews, speeches and other communications, Trump and his spokespersons have offered a series of “defenses” and “explanations” as to why he stole dozens of boxes allegedly containing some of the country’s best-kept secrets, such as war plans, the identities of human assets, i.e. spies, documents describing America’s nuclear capabilities (and vulnerabilities to attack), and other information that could cause catastrophic damage to the country if its enemies were allowed access to it. These “defenses” and “explanations” include that Trump was too busy and distracted to really know what was in the boxes he stole and refused to return to the US government, that Trump has some sort of psychic superpower to release top secret and other classified information with his “beautiful mind” and “big brain” and that he is the victim of a political “persecution” and the documents themselves don’t really matter. Of course none of this is true.
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Confused Trump demanded “my documents” back — after lawyers warned him he would face charges: report
In fact, in an audio recording recently obtained by CNN, the traitor ex-president admitted that the documents in his possession were indeed classified and that he has no right to keep them:
The recording obtained by CNN begins with Trump claiming “these are bad sick people” while his staffer claims a “coup d’état” has taken place against Trump.
“Like when Milley talks about, ‘Oh, you’re going to try and stage a coup.’ No, they tried to do that before you were even sworn in,” the staffer says, according to the audio.
The next part of the conversation is largely included in the indictment, although the audio makes it clear that papers are being shuffled as Trump tells those present that he has an example to show.
“He said I wanted to attack Iran, isn’t it great?” says Trump as the sound of shuffling papers can be heard. “I’ve got a big stack of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me with this – this is off the record, but – they presented me with this. This was him. This was the Department of Defense and he.”
The indictment contains ellipsis where the recording obtained by CNN shows Trump and his aide starting to talk about Clinton’s emails and Weiner, whose laptop caused the FBI to close its investigation into her dealings with classified information in the days before the election. 2016 reopened briefly. lost to Trump.
Trump then returns to the Iran document, according to the indictment audio recording and transcript.
“I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, ‘He wanted to attack Iran, and what…’,” Trump says.
“These are the papers,” Trump continues, according to the audio file.
“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump continued, before noting that the document remained classified.
“Look, as president I could have declassified it,” Trump says. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“Now we have a problem,” his staffer responds.
Trump’s latest apology defense is that he was just bragging and nothing he said on the recording obtained by CNN should be taken as his true intention.
“We must hope that his supporters will finally realize that they are nothing more than prey that he uses for herself.”
All in all, the CNN recordings and Trump’s other lies, evasions, and attempts to justify his apparent criminal behavior related to the Espionage Act, the January 6 crimes, and his decades-long public crime spree (including proven assault). in the case of E. Jean Carroll) are a kind of classroom or clinic, a terrible “teaching moment” about a man’s obvious extreme mental illness and other pathological behavior. Moreover, the past seven years and the era of Trump have taught the American people and the world the same terrible lesson ad infinitum.
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I asked dr. Justin Frank, author of the book “Trump on the bench,” for his take on the CNN recording of Trump talking about top secret and other classified documents in his possession. He told me via email that “Trump’s behavior goes far beyond simple narcissism.”
Donald Trump’s attachment to his boxes reminds me of a humorous list sent to me about dogs’ attitudes toward their objects of desire: “If I see it, it’s mine; if it’s been in my mouth , it’s mine; if I can handle it yours, it’s mine…” This is how Trump feels about the piles of government documents he illegally took from the White House. Simply put, the boxes are his and no one else’s, and Uncle Sam can no longer play with them.
Trump’s behavior goes far beyond simple narcissism. It even goes far beyond grandiose omnipotence.
For Trump, the factual truth about the custody of the documents and his actions is irrelevant. They are his because he says they are his; and two, because he never does anything wrong. Trump’s psychopathic behavior reflects the disturbing fact that to him (and his cult followers) the only “truth” is what comes out of his mouth at any given time. If he faces jail time, he will most likely continue to foment hatred against the DOJ, against the press, against anyone who tries to hold him accountable for his destructive actions. The sway Trump has over his mindless supporters is chilling, and we’ve seen that he will have no reason for their violent actions either. Nor will he lift a finger from his little hand to repair the damage he has done. Trump’s behavior is dangerous in a democracy and for a democracy.
I also asked Dr. Lance Dodes, a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a training and supervisory analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, for his insights into Trump’s behavior and apparent inability to remain silent about violating laws. espionage law and committing other crimes. Dr. Dodes explained to me via email that:
The fact that Trump keeps boxes of classified documents regardless of the law, endangering the security of the country and its people, fits exactly with what we know: he is a dangerous psychopath, acting only for himself and completely incapable of cares about harming someone else. His remarkable ability to attract crowds of adoring people, despite the many evidences that he constantly lies, is the same ability as successful predators in the animal kingdom. Like them, he senses the vulnerability of others as prey, and uses code words and ideas to trick them into believing he is safe and on their side. As we have often seen, someone who has been in his bondage to stop fully supporting him immediately turns against them. Like his adoring crowds, they’ve been tricked into thinking he cares.
As his various trials progresshe is more likely to lose touch with reality and insist all the more that he is not only innocent, but a divine figure persecuted by evil men. He will likely renew his calls for a violent revolution to end democracy and install him as a dictator since, as he has psychotically claimed in the past, only he can save us. We must hope that his supporters will finally realize that they are nothing more than prey that he uses for herself.
For those of us, myself included, who have direct experience with sociopaths and other such dangerous people, it has been and remains remarkably frustrating and exhausting to warn the American people of the disaster. For most of the Trump era, people said we had “Trump Derangement Syndrome” when we were just telling an inconvenient and unpopular truth.
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If Donald Trump were just one man, he would still be a public threat and a problem because of his vast wealth and potential reach. But Donald Trump is much more than a man, he is now a fascist symbol, a deity of sorts, a political cult leader and a Great Leader to the tens of millions of people who follow him. In all, Trump’s blatant mental, emotional and other pathologies and malaise are now a collective social problem that won’t go away any time soon. Sick leaders attract sick followers; sick societies create sick politics like Trumpism and the larger American neo-fascist movement.
Donald Trump, because of the many kinds of privileges and other undeserved advantages he enjoys (his skin color, gender, money and inherited wealth, a political and media machine that supports him, tens of millions of followers and other forms of power, no matter how small) they can are now) has largely been able to escape the dire consequences of its decades-long public crime spree. But now that he’s been arrested and charged with federal crimes, Trump can finally be held accountable. If he does end up in jail, Trump usually has no one to blame but himself and his inability to shut up and be quiet. For most people, that’s relatively easy, but for a pathological person like Donald Trump, it’s a daunting task.
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