Trump's first few days in office make it clear he's either mad or bad, because there are no other explanations available for what is happening. But is it possible he's both?
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Is Trump mad or bad? I ask the question because I don't know the answer as yet.
What is very clear is that Trump is worse than I expected, and I really had very low expectations. But quite whether he is literally off the planet with regard to his insanity, or he's off the planet with regard to the evil that I think that he is trying to impose upon America, I'm not sure.
The Bishop of Washington clearly was. She clearly thought he was bad. And in a pretty moving sermon that she gave on Tuesday, which Trump had to attend along with his Vice President, his family and others from the administration, she made it clear that he should moderate his views.
He should care about the migrant who is now living in fear.
He should care about the LGBTQ community, who are now living in fear.
He should, no doubt, care about women, many of whom will now be living in fear because Trump is going to remove their rights over their own bodies.
He is, therefore, a threat. And in terms of basic morality, all of which is based upon the idea that we should care for others as we do for ourselves, then Trump is bad. He is clearly wanting to impose a tyranny through fear upon vast numbers of people in the USA, and he's going to back it up with law.
He's already said that those who oppose his ideas about diversity and inequality inside the federal government, and beyond potentially, will face the risk of prosecution.
He's already said that those officers in the law enforcement agencies of the USA who oppose his attempts to deport migrants who do not have the right paperwork will be prosecuted.
He is using fear to literally oppress his opponents. And this is already apparent.
So, it's quite obvious that this is, in a very real sense, a tyranny. A reign of terror, if you like. Because what he is using is fear to drive people to change their behaviour. And they will, let's have no doubt about it. People have a survival instinct. Lots of people will realise that they have no choice if they want to continue in their job but do what Trump wants, even if it goes against every better instinct that they have.
So, there's not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Trump is bad. He is doing evil. In a plain, straightforward, moral sense. Don't bother about whether it's Christian or any other religion that says that. I'm just talking about the standard that we all know about what is right and wrong.
And we all know that the bully, which is what he is being after all - he is using his power to oppress those he knows to be vulnerable and who have required support in the past, which support he is withdrawing - he is bullying those people, and we all know that bullies are thugs, and do eventually, of course, have their comeuppance.
But is he mad? I think that's also a question we have to ask. I watched with care when he was giving the second speech of the inauguration process on Monday. Not the first one, which he gave in the Rotunda at the Capitol, but the second one, which he gave to the people who couldn't get into the Rotunda.
It was a rambling, incoherent, vain, inglorious mess, utterly bizarre in the claims that he made. If anybody else had made such a speech - anybody else literally in politics almost anywhere in the world had made that speech - they would have been thought to be mad. Trump seems to get away with it. But is that because he's mad?
I contrast that speech with that which Biden made when he got to the St. Andrews Air Base on his way out of Washington and into retirement. It's always been said that Biden suffers with cognitive impairment. Maybe he does. But if you compare the two speeches, one was coherent and one wasn't. One was in touch with reality and the other was not. Biden was coherent and was in touch with reality, although he did sound like a very old man. Trump did not sound coherent and most certainly seemed like somebody who was out of touch with reality. Frankly, he seemed mad to me.
And I'd almost describe the way in which he is acting now with regard to - is it 200, is it more? - executive orders, as mad.
He's making declarations, but he hasn't worked out how he is going to deliver these policies into law. And a great many of them do require some form of legislative approval from Congress and the Senate before they can become law.
The Senate he can pretty much guarantee to give the support he wants. There is a Republican majority there, which is solid enough that he will always get his legislation through.
Congress, that's a different story. He has, in theory, got a majority of just five. Mike Johnson, the Trumpite, Speaker of this Congress, is clearly worried about whether he can carry all the Republicans with this Trump legislative agenda.
Why is he worried? Because in the US, they don't have a strong whipping system as we are used to, for example, in the UK.
In the UK, if Labour says to a Labour MP, you will jump and vote that black is white, then by and large most Labour MPs will jump and vote that black is white. In the US, that's not the case.
There is a long and frankly honourable tradition, in many senses, of members of political parties voting against that party and with the opposition when they think that is the right thing to do. There is much less comeback on them when that happens. And there are Republican members of the House who will decide to vote against Trump because either they have enormous majorities in their own seats, or their constituency parties back in the areas that they represent are not MAGA mad, or, because frankly, they intend to leave Congress in 2026 when all the House seats are up for election anyway. Whichever one of those it is, it only takes two or three Republicans to vote with the Democrats. to oppose measures that Trump is going to put to the House.
The fact that Trump has not taken this into consideration, but has simply passed declarations that put ideas into temporary laws, and which demand action now, but for which there is no plan for implementation, suggests that, as I was saying earlier, he may be out of touch with reality.
And madness is being out of touch with reality. It means you simply can't comprehend the world as it really is. And maybe Trump can't do that.
Maybe Trump can't imagine the fear that his release of the January 6ers is creating amongst those who testified against them. or the police who were victimised.
Maybe he can't imagine the fear of those who might now be denied American citizenship because that's what he's trying to do.
Maybe he can't imagine the fear of those people who are technically illegal migrants into the USA, but who have established a life in that country, paid their taxes, become parts of communities and who are now to be expelled to a life unknown.
Maybe he can't imagine what it's like to be persecuted for your gender or other identity.
Maybe he just can't imagine what it's like to be tortured for the fact that you hold moral principles dear.
All of those things suggest a disconnect between him and reality.
Is Trump mad? Look, I can't prove it.
I can look at the evidence and say that evidence does not look good for him.
Is he bad? I think that's beyond doubt. This man is doing terrible things with the deliberate intention of creating fear. If that isn't bad, I don't know what is.
Trump may be mad; he is bad, and the consequences are terrifying.
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As a US Citizen, he is both bad and mad.
Why is he bad? Simple:
He is focused on pushing fear mongered conspiracy theories, dismantling essential services that is keen on keeping America healthy (see HHS, FDA, CDC blackouts), blatantly (and I mean literally BLATANTLY) ignoring the mental health crisis the country faces. We’ve had yet another mass shooting and he hasn’t said a word about it.
Mad? Of course.
He is a senile old man who can’t fathom being told he is wrong so he goes after the one person he thinks is causing the downfall of the country: President Biden. Multiple times he has said that he would be prosecuting people who have opposed him in the past and people who have brought him to trial.
He is trying to make it seem like immigrants are the problem, when in all actuality it is the people sitting with him in the white house are the problem. It is getting tiring how people keep thinking he will make the economy better when all he is doing is creating an even larger class divide between the middle and lower class and the upper class.
America is doomed.
At times like this, there is a temptation to become a bit eschatological – that is to say to become a bit ‘end of days’ when faced with someone like Trump who is truly terrifying I agree. As an antidote I hope, I offer the lyrics of one of my favourite songs ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ by Neil Finn of Crowded House (I have soft spot for them anyway since Finn lived in Forest Hill in London where I lived when I was down there for about 5 years. I am still quite fond of it).
The words – I suppose a love song about a love under threat – also resonates I think more widely in a world that wants to use division to rule and conquer decent people and turn them into collaborators with authoritarianism . Anyhow, see what you think, I for one find them uplifting.
‘There is freedom within
There is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There’s a battle ahead
Many battles are lost
But you’ll never see the end of the road
While you’re travelling with me
Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win
Now I’m towing my car
There’s a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion
But there’s no proof
In the paper today
Tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the TV page
Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won’t win
Now I’m walking again
To the beat of a drum
And I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only shadows ahead
Barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and release
Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it’s over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
You know they won’t win
Don’t let them win (Hey now, hey now)
Hey now, hey now
Hey now, hey now
Don’t let them win (They come, they come)
Don’t let them win (Hey now, hey now), yeah
Hey now, hey now’
Good song
Thank you
https://youtu.be/J9gKyRmic20?si=zmAlv2Fva8Thhj-X
Of course he is not mad. He is in fact rather a clever person with an absolutely abhorrent agenda. When he was shot at ,with possibly a shattered glass or even a bullet injury to his ear, he made the most of it, with a riposte that would have been difficult to script, and added greatly to his personal credibility. Of course he is driven, he is a psychopath who can manipulate every person he interacts with. His purpose is to dominate, so he self-defines as a fascist, and even tries to mimic Mussolini`s facial gestures. The purpose of this domination is to extract every last cent out of his captive population. There doesn`t seem to be a finite purpose, just a sort of feudal status quo, and the sudden evidence suggests that people of colour, our dear brothers and sisters, are to be persecuted yet again.
Don`t grace that person with the least consideration of common humanity, he has none.
Dangerous, you have got it there.
As an ex of mine once said she was perfectly sane, just not in the way everyone else is………..
In an ideal world he would be in a secure mental instituion – with psychologists undertaking an analysis. He is insecure & incapable of taking criticism – part child part mafia don. Even if the entire world was kneeling at his feet, licking his toes, it would still be not enough for the Mango Mussolini.
His election (I and II) are a consequence of the neo-liberal path taken by US policians & rejected by the electorate. The fact that he will not change this neoliberal/neo-con trajectory is neither here nor there. Some of the US citizenry think he will -regardless of evidence (2016 – 2020) to the contrary – thus does belief trump evidence (geddit?).
10 years ago Trump was barely involved in politics. He then had a view and opinions on how things should be done. He had the courage to do something about it. Take those views and opinions to the public, fight and win elections, take on criticism and answer that criticism in public forums. Today he is politically the most powerful man in the world.
10 years ago you were involved in politics. Bashing out blogs from your back bedroom. But no one important paid any attention. Today you bash out blogs from your back bedroom and no one important is paying any attention.
You are.
Which rather proves you are wrong.
Don’t feed the trolls Richard!
Ignoring the personal attack (David Hargreaves? Who is he?) there is a point. Trump stood for office and achieved election to this highest office in the US twice. No one rated his chances when he started, or when he left office in 2021. But he succeeded, twice.
He may be mad (a fair case could be made that he is a narcissist, and perhaps a sociopath, and his father had Alzheimer’s), he may be bad (vain, venal, bullying), and luck always plays a part, but he does have some positive traits and ability. Charm perhaps. Like Boris Johnson. Like Nigel Farage. (Dare I say, like Nixon, or like Mussolini, or like Hitler.)
Andrew
To call your post ‘naive’ is the least that can be said of it.
Trump’s success is not because of his personality traits.
His success is based on tapping into the discontent and the prejudices in society that arise from other politicians’ policies that have led to hardship.
This – aligned with an increasingly unregulated social media and illegal data mining and profiling is what makes Trump a success at getting into power.
Staying in power however, is another matter.
We shall see – but do not underestimate the machinery that got Trump into power.
Trump is both a user and the used in this scenario.
@David Hargreaves
It seems as if you are new here. Read the last blog post
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/01/24/is-labour-now-set-on-audit-failure/
to find out that Richard does a lot, lot more than “sit in a back bedroom”. And unlike Trump, he doesn’t do the backroom stuff for fame or money. Anybody (!) can criticise; having the positive ideas, and working on how to achieve them, comes at a much greater personal cost.
I’d better make clear David is not me using an assumed identity. In no way do I endorse him.
He’s obviously bad. He lies, he cheats, he abuses, he bullies. He ignores science and the rule of law. He does not seem to care about others.
As for mad, you’d need a psychiatrist. But he is very old. 78½ at his inauguration. Older than King Charles. Older than Biden was when he took office four years ago. (Biden is 82 now and clearly has good days and bad days, and his speech impediment occasionally trips him up, but Trump will be older by 2029.). Trump is older now than Reagan was when he left office.
For a man in his late 70s with his physique and habits (diet, exercise, sleep) Trump seems to be doing well but anything can happen. No one lives forever. Decline can be long and slow or quick and sudden. But America decided it wanted the next president to be another very old white man. Four years could be a very long time.
Spot on, re the last
Richard, as you may have realised from the number of times I’ve posted comments with links to the MSNBC evening current affairs programs I’m a ‘fan’ of the likes of Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell (the latter being one of the writers of the West Wing, having worked in various capacities in the Senate).
O’Donnell has, over many years, covered the glaringly biased way in which US media (and, to a large extent global media) simply ignore Trumps ignorance, lies, mistakes, mispronunciations, and totally rambling speeches when – for example – they absolutely crucified Biden anytime he made a mistake. See for example, Trump’s speech to Davos which was filled with lies, had no form and was – as always – largely complaints about sleights and insults he thinks he’s (or the US) taken from every other country in the world (though strangely, not that much from Putin and Russia or North Korea).
Furthermore – and again as has been hardly covered anywhere by the US media, much less anywhere else – with Trump back in the White House press briefings have disappeared. God knows what the White House press core do now, but then they put up with that like good ‘sheep’ last time around, so don’t expect much now. But it’s worth contrasting that with the often very aggressive behaviour of those self same people to Biden’s press spokespersons, which at times has been pretty shocking, and to Biden himself.
In short, I think we can safely say – and with plenty of evidence to back it up – that the mainstream US media, and indeed the media generally, are Trump enablers, and have been since he ran for President the first time round. They are so scared of loosing access to him – which they would do if they in any way criticise – and thus their ability to report ‘news’, that they simply cave in and kowtow. Such behaviour does of course lead to us down exactly the road Trump and his supporters want us to follow: totalitarianism.
Thanks Ivan
I usually watch the clips you suggest – and get good journalism, better than that in the UK, very often
Following on from my previous two comments, here’s a link to a segment from Rachel Maddow’s Thursday evening show, which \I hadn’t watched at the time of my previous comments.
How many people know that the US is in the midst of a massive – and I mean massive – outbreak of bird flu, which has now jumped the species barrier into cattle, such that infected cows milk (i.e. raw cows milk) is accepted as responsible for the deaths of several cats that drunk it.
Well, if you remember Trump’s approach to Covid you perhaps won’t be surprised to learn that Trumps officials have just stopped the CDC (Center for Disease Control) from putting out any information on any health related issues – including statistics – while a so called ‘review’ of it’s activities takes place – and we all know where that will go, don’t we.
So, on the basis that what the US has we in the UK usually end up with, I’d strongly recommend watching this clip. Forewarned is forearmed as they say. But very scary stuff, nevertheless, given that on the evidence that emerges every day suggest that Starmer and co may well put growth before public health. I hope not, but who knows: I never thought they’d make growth more important than protecting the environment but they have.
Anyway, here’s the link. Well worth 6minutes of anyone’s time: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
Well worth watching
Incredibly scary.
But also note the interview with Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, which was very good.
I promise I won’t send any more links – today at least – but was so gobsmacked by this I thought it a good illustration of your claim that Trump is mad.
All federal funding for cancer research – and lots of other forms of medical research – stopped. All meetings cancelled. All travel of researchers banned. Etc.
I joke not. Here are the details from MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: https://www.msnbc.com/all
I have cvered this today
Thanks
He’s on the sociopath spectrum for sure.
Decades of getting away with everything thanks to Daddy’s cash or bank’s largesse made him believe he’s a successful businessman. 7 bankruptcies would suggest otherwise.
He thinks people (women) will do anything for his money.
Now he believes he is the political saviour the world needs.
I put him at 5 on a scale of 10
There is an even bigger problem. In many ways he is a symptom rather than a cause of what is wrong in the US , and perhaps wider. They will remain if he dropped dead tomorrow.
They have been greatly encouraged and recruited on a large scale over the last eight years.
Ian Stevenson is right. This goes beyond Trump himself. His lack of filter (whatever the cause) and lack of compassion has energised Americans who must always have held—in the back of their hearts and minds—his so-called ‘vision.’ He has made it okay to hold and express these views, to create havoc, to commit crimes and behave as feral individuals whenever the mood hits them. Just like he, himself, feels free to do. Yes—as he stated years ago—he could go out onto the street and shoot people, and he would still get the votes.
There aren’t too many fascist leaders who haven’t had tons of support from like-minded people to get into office. Hitler couldn’t have done what he did if he’d been on his own. It’s not Trump, as such, who worries me. It’s the people who support him in high places, but ALSO the people in low places who won’t hear a word against him and voted for him and his ilk. THEY are the problem.
This is a case of a long-festering, insane infection coming to a head, when many of us thought it had been cured forever. How wrong we were. If there was ever a wake-up call for non-Trump supporters, this is it.
Here’s an absolutely clear example of what I said in my previous comment. This should be compulsory viewing for any reader of this blog and anyone else for that matter. Absolute and utter double standards and hypocrisy from the US media and elsewhere. As I said: their silence makes them enablers. Pure and simple.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-you-can-be-guilty-of-using-child-pornography-and-trump-will-pardon-you-for-jan-6-230031941835
Trump believes he is a genius and anything he says is “correct”. Those not part of his elite world are suckers who will do as I tell them.
Trump did not prepare Trump 2025. US extreme right work donors/groups funded and set up the necessary groups to produce this.
It is difficult to see how Trump’s campaign team produced the deluge of Presidential orders that have been unleashed.
It was the Trump 2025 team whom I believe did this job.
Trump 2025 made clear that Federal/State employees would be targeted with criminal prosecution if for example they as librarians/teachers ” promoted gender diversity and so on”.
The chaos created by Trump 2025 and for the moment Trump himself is a massive political power grab to extend Presidential power.
What to do? Read Trump 2025.
Do what the Bishop of Washington has done, shame all politicians/people who pander to this pernicious brand of fascists.
Mock Labour ministers who say Trump should not hurt the UK because we are not an economic threat. What craven crap.
Get the truth out first.
Somehow a new information network must be established to bypass the right wing media.
When the EU is castigated for being unfair to US tech companies by trying to control them, you can see who is “right”.
Challenge everything.
Allowing narcisstic/sociopathic capitalists anywhere near the levers of government is a recipe for trouble period!
A surreal account by TJ Clark in the LRB – of Trump as an aspect of the ‘spectacle’ that is the US society and economy in decline
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n01/t.j.-clark/a-brief-guide-to-trump-and-the-spectacle
” When writing about Trump, there’s a question of distance. He gives every sign of being an odious human being, and he flaunts the odiousness, knowing that it maddens his opponents and electrifies his cult. What he did as president last time, and what he promises to do next, will cause misery for millions of people.
Isn’t writing obliged to answer the loathsomeness and cruelty with spleen? But isn’t that what Trump-fiction depends on? Go in close, grapple and smear, and one immediately feels Trump-fiction exulting in one’s distaste. He rides the late-night laughter. The things they say about me! His Arnold Palmer swells.”
Dont forget that dissenting Republicans have been targetted / their seat threatened by Maga, and affiliated rightwing interest groups with access to money. So those wanting to continue serving will toe the line.
I suggest that Trump is just totally unable to relate to other people; he is unable, for the vast majority, to see things from their viewpoint. He also, perhaps as a mental self protection measure, does not want to. Deep down, he probably knows he shouldn’t stray mentally into that area; it’s a can of worms which, if peered into, would, he knows, drive him mad.
I just wonder if he has actually been like this all his life. I suspect so, but it is only now he is the President and everything that can be known is an open book, that those that want to can understand and see the true underlying character of the 47th President. And it’s not pleasant to look at, in any way, shape or form. To some, he may just seem ruthless in pursuing objectives which they too want, but to many, the reaction is revulsion.
so – his 200 or so executive orders equate to his 200 or so word vocabulary. Many people have remarked on this lack of vocabulary in the past, and on the ways in which he repeats himself within a sentence. Is this madness or is this because he never progressed from a certain stage of childhood? – at 2 years of age many children have a vocabulary of 200 words or more. His lack of vocabulary was remarked upon in his 1st term as President when he was 70 (he is now 78) so maybe he was already in his second childhood, if indeed he has ever left it. Allegedly he was a difficult child.
Einstein said that “three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed”. Martin Luther King (Jr) said that “nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”: is Trump ignorant or stupid – conscientiously or otherwise ? As for fear, Trump has instilled fear into very many US citizens as Richard has already noted. Greed, whether for money or for power, certainly overtakes morality and care and Trump should care for the population that he is now in charge of (see Richard’s previous article on needing a world that cares).
When Trump was President in 2017, various people questioned his mental state. More recently some have stated that he shows “unmistakable” signs of dementia. Trump has refused to make his medical records public.
Bad? Undoubtedly, but then so was Biden in supporting genocide. I don’t think Trump is mad. He has a clear and classic narcissistic personality (almost as described by Freud), paranoid and protecting the inner void by constant aggression to avoid a catastrophic disintegration of self. Don’t confuse that with the tactic of ‘flooding the arena’, which is what the flood of executive orders is. He’s lighting fires everywhere, and enabling his followers to take what she want and develop it. He won’t get a lot through, but the big tariff stuff like rounding up brown people will be getting the headlines, while his tech bro backers become the demigods they believe themselves to be. TBH I’m more concerned with the direction of Starmers government, which is taking massive corporation authoritarian and zionist leaps right wards, with no clear opposition.
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
Even more dangerous after being elected.
Not either/or, both surely
Your reflection makes sense. I think, both, mad and bad – typically this comes in the form of a mental disorder. A big red flag of psychopathic traits is black and white thinking.
He’s not bad he’s evil. And the danger isn’t that he’s mad, but that he’s not mad & knows what he’s doing. That he knows exactly what it’s like to feel the fear he’s creating – though when your whole livelihood & indeed life is being threatened, ‘terror’ is a better word – & that’s his intent. If he’s mad as you define it, he ‘might’ get his comeuppance as things fall apart (though how often have we predicted that?) But if his plan for ruling America is modelled on Putin’s rule of Russia &/or Kim’s rule of North Korea, (rulers we know he admires) then ‘mad’ isn’t the word. As long as he’s got his well-guarded palace the rest of the country can go to hell & he will die peacefully in his bed. And so far that’s exactly how he’s behaving. Further evidence being his revocation of the state provided security for those of his last administration who opposed him: Fauci yesterday, Bolton & Milley within hours of his ‘coronation’, (I’m sure there’ll be more) & even threats to to ‘prosecute’ Biden, who he said ‘should have pardoned himself’ (Biden’s refusal to do so being another of his selfless acts that have gone unrewarded & indeed barely acknowledged). Trump’s message is clear to everyone: oppose me at all in any way & I’ll set my dogs on you. And when the laws you thought might protect you have clearly been shown to be toothless, who could stand up to that? But nobody should be surprised: all this is exactly as he promised & every sensible voice in America predicted. And then two thirds of America (I will not let the 37% of voters who didn’t vote against him evade their responsibility) thought making him president would be fine…
Richard Murphy, I wondered if you had seen the quite long article by Laurie Macfarlane – one who doesn’t seem to be on the dark side (?). I found it deeply troubling. It seems to indicate that there is a lot more behind Trumpism than he, himself, may not understand.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trump-second-term-new-age-authoritarian-capitalism-china-musk/?utm_source=SEGMENT%20-%20Newsletter%3A%20oD%20weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=This%20is%20not%20the%20same%20Trumpism%20as%202016&_kx=1h1hRnRZdLiqjwxKGJQhxZJiOBP7vatMAKkv_bo1ihM.YjCYwm
I will read this evening.