"Global Astonishment"

It was a beautiful yesterday in Malaga. A day to be out in the country with friends and some of our students. In a relaxed moment after lunch (stewed wild boar!) one friend, an older woman who is clearly conservative in her political views, asked me casually "What's with Trump? That man is not well." I get asked this on a daily basis. Rejection of Trump in Spain is near universal. (Now, we know we can't give too much credence to polls, but one survey taken right around the time of the election showed his support among Spaniards at 3%. It gives you a notion.) Spain, of course, is by no means unique. The top headline of one of Spain's major dailies, El País, at this moment (Monday, January 30, early a.m.) is "Trump Sticks to Migratory Veto in Spite of Judicial Setbacks and Global Astonishment." I was struck by the phrase "global astonishment" ("estupor global" in the original). A more literal translation would be, of course, "stupor" or "stupefaction". That seems to capture quite well the feeling here and no doubt around the globe: people really are feeling stupefied. The world has been turned upside down, with the United States of America projecting itself to all as a place of intolerance, xenophobia, and cowardice. It is disheartening, to say the least. The damage Trump has done in one brief week to US standing in the world is, yes, stupefying. On Spanish state TV (in theory independent of government meddling, but in reality reflective of the current conservative government) it is already normal to hear reporters use the adjectives "totalitarian" and "dictatorial" when reporting about Trump. That is not an alternative fact.
While signing his most recent, and for now most notorious, executive order, Trump said, "We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people." (Awkward! And bizarre, to say the least.) By signing that order he immediately insured that the millions of visitors from all over the world who are not affected by this ridiculous policy will be much less inclined to "love deeply our people." Trump, of course, is oblivious to this. In a few hours I will be interviewing students from the University of Málaga who have applied for a scholarship to spend next year at Dickinson College. Will they be as enthusiastic as in years past?

"Malignant Narcissism"

My first post on this blog ended with a reference to Trump's narcissism. I'm going to comment a little further on this as I just read a brief article about Dr. John D. Gartner breaking the APA code of ethics and offering a public diagnosis of Trump without having evaluated him. His conclusion: Trump suffers from "malignant narcissism." He wrote that "Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president." (Gartner is in private practice as a psychotherapist but also teaches psychiatric residents at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.) I was not familiar with this exact term, but I was happy to see it. For about a year I've been referring to Trump as a "malevolent narcissist." It is hard to imagine that Gartner did not mediate at length about his decision to break his profession's code of ethics. He will be harshly criticized, both from the political right and from his peers. At the moment I'm not so interested in the ethical debate. The deed is done and no doubt the CIA has taken notice. Gartner can expect to hear from them very shortly. The national security apparatus will not ignore this. Maybe his diagnosis is wrong. Maybe. But the public display of symptoms is occurring on an almost daily basis. He whines, he lashes out, he self-congratulates... If high ranking officials in the security apparatus conclude that Gartner has made a reasonable diagnosis, what next? Perhaps leaders in Congress will get the message to take it seriously. (I actually don't see that as likely to happen. At least for now.) Trump himself will see this news of course. And he will rage. Unless Bannon or someone else close can convince him to keep quiet, he will call Gartner a loser. A tricky proposition, even trickier than disparaging major media outlets or highly regarded figures in the entertainment world. But Trump could easily play this as more evidence that the "liberal elites" are out to get him and that Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is just another bastion of the left. Based on actions taken in his first week in office, I do believe the person currently in occupying the oval office is dangerously mentally ill. Yes, it is frightening.

The Problem with "Patriotic Devotion"

On January 25th the United States Federal Register published a text signed by Trump on Inauguration Day. The document, titled "National Day of Patriotic Devotion," has received relatively little media attention because this kind of presidential proclamation is merely symbolic and has no legal impact on anything. Furthermore, there's nothing newsworthy in the gesture itself. The act of signing a symbolic declaration on inauguration day is a fairly recent tradition that began with the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Trump's statement declares his own inauguration "a day of Patriotic Devotion." This is troubling to me. In familiar and predictable fashion, there is not a hint of humility. Rather, the use of the words "sacred" (as in "sacred values and heritage") and "devotion" strike a tone that suggests an authoritarian call to worship. Trump worship. (In fairness, it should be pointed out that in 2009 Obama's proclamation also used the word "sacred"; in his case, referring to the "sacred oath" he had just taken.) For me, the problem is that devotion, by definition, is a sentiment, a posture, that is unquestioning, and patriotism should never be unquestioning. This is especially true for a society that proclaims liberty and democracy as core values. Unquestioning devotion is simply incompatible with democracy. And with freedom. Indeed, unquestioning patriotism has been the drug of choice used by despots throughout history to further enslave those they rule over. (Justin McCurry, writing in The Guardian, points out the use of this phrase in North Korean propaganda.) So what to make of this? Sadly, tragically, this is who Trump is. His megalomania is well documented. And his constant slamming of the media (don't forget how he would continually set his crowds on the press corps during the campaign) illustrates quite well his inability to accept either any kind of criticism or to engage in real dialogue. These are, of course, among the symptoms of a narcissist. He will not change. Resistance.