The Black Hole of Need. In depth piece on trump's decline and hidden views on homosexuality
Posted by Sia on July 30, 2026, 10:46 pm ADMIN
The Black Hole of Need. In Conversation with Sydney Blumenthal
Mary L Trump - Jul 30
[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]
Mary Trump: I sat down with Sidney Blumenthal, a journalist and contributor at Legal AF, and we had a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation about, of course, Donald’s continuing decline and what that means for the ways in which the Republican Party continues to allow him to bend them to his will.
Sidney Blumenthal: Welcome to the Court of History, Mary.
Mary Trump: Thanks, Sidney. It’s great to be here, as always. Yes, there is a lot going on, and I would add that we’re also on a precipice and a knife’s edge. Although, it kind of feels like we’ve been there for a while.
Sidney Blumenthal: I was talking to my friend James Carville this morning, and he said:
Donald has always been crazy. We know he’s mad, but is the deterioration accelerating, and how fast?
Mary Trump: I think that’s a really good and important point to underscore. This isn’t a different guy. This isn’t somebody who’s suddenly becoming a worse person or a more unhinged person. You see some of Donald’s former allies trying to distance themselves from him by saying, “He’s not the guy I knew.” Yes, he is. He’s been exactly the same person for decades.
What we’re seeing now is the perfect storm of cognitive, psychological, and physical decline simply revealing who he is in a way that’s making it more obvious for people who either haven’t been paying attention or, for their own reasons, wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and pretend he was something he wasn’t. So yes, the decline is worsening, and that’s simply what happens.
If we look at it purely in terms of his psychiatric disorders, these are longstanding, untreated, undiagnosed conditions. When you don’t treat an illness, it worsens over time. The psychological deterioration is also being accelerated by the combination of cognitive and physical decline. He’s 80 years old, and he’s not healthy.
Alzheimer’s runs in my family. My grandfather had Alzheimer’s, and his symptoms began worsening in his early eighties. He was also physically healthier than Donald is.
Sidney Blumenthal: Donald loves strongmen, and he loves to be seen as a strongman himself. He loves to cozy up to Vladimir Putin and stand beside Xi Jinping. He talked endlessly about the love letters he received from Kim Jong Un. Now, however, he’s encountered actual strongmen who are defeating him. This must be a tremendous shock to him.
Mary Trump: Oh, it’s unthinkable. I don’t know that he can grapple with it on a conscious level, which is exactly why he’s becoming increasingly desperate. He’s trying to do several things simultaneously: change the subject, change the narrative, and somehow manufacture a win.
What I find fascinating is that, because of the ways in which he admires and makes himself subservient to so called strongmen, he reveals just how weak he actually is. It reminds me of one of the fundamental truths about Donald that people need to understand. Actually, there are two.
The first is that the thing he fears most is humiliation. And right now, he’s being humiliated on a daily basis by the consequences of the very things he chose to do, from the ridiculous, like the reflecting pool, to something as catastrophic as the war with Iran.
Deep down, he is now, just as he has always been, a terrified little boy. Everything he does is driven by fear and by a desperate need to avoid humiliation.
Sidney Blumenthal: He posts all kinds of bizarre things, as he always has. They tend to fall into a few different categories. One is humiliating other people because that supposedly makes him look strong. Another is portraying himself as a superhero, a He Man, the embodiment of exaggerated masculinity.
One of the latest examples was produced by the White House itself, which now seems to publish AI generated images almost every day. They released what looked like a movie poster depicting Donald as Superman, wearing a red cape on top of Mount Rushmore while rescuing a falling George Washington. The subtitle read:
Donald X Washington: A Time Travel Epic
Interestingly, Abraham Lincoln had been erased from Mount Rushmore.
Mary Trump: Of course he had, because apparently slavery never happened. That’s the story they want people to believe.
Some of this is so absurd that we almost have to laugh. The AI generated material is completely deranged and deeply delusional.
This is another thing that distinguishes Donald from actual strongmen. Vladimir Putin certainly has his own carefully cultivated image of masculinity, but genuine authoritarian leaders are not deferential to one another unless doing so advances their interests. Nor are they constantly engaged in these bizarre fantasies of portraying themselves as superheroes or whatever Donald imagines himself to be.
What is truly dangerous, however, is the extreme disinformation and the lengths these people are willing to go to erase our history. They have enormous power to convince people not to believe what they see with their own eyes or to trust the historical record as it actually exists.
I think this is also one of the ways the people surrounding Donald manipulate him. They understand his narcissism and his profound insecurities. He’ll approve almost anything as long as he’s getting what he wants in return. Right now, what he wants most is adulation, compliments, power, and money. Mostly money, but the rest matters to him too.
Sidney Blumenthal: Let’s also talk about the plunder.
It has been widely reported that Donald has accumulated an extraordinary amount of wealth while in office, in apparent violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Thank you, Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court.
For the first time in his life, Donald seems to have found a business model that actually works. Throughout his career, he failed repeatedly as a businessman. He declared multiple bankruptcies, and business simply never worked out for him until he discovered that he could use the presidency for personal enrichment.
Mary Trump: That’s exactly right.
This is what happens when somebody who is utterly incompetent and incapable of succeeding in business is continually enabled.
My grandfather created this monster. Throughout his lifetime, he gave Donald approximately $410 million just to keep him afloat and preserve the myth that Donald was some brilliant, self made entrepreneurial genius.
Then the banks stepped in.
After that, Mark Burnett rehabilitated his image.
Sidney Blumenthal: He reinvented Donald and created the illusion that he was Manhattan’s greatest business winner.
Mary Trump: Exactly.
In reality, by then Donald was the biggest loser around. He couldn’t even borrow money from New York banks anymore.
He received approximately $410 million from my grandfather, and by the time my grandfather died, virtually all of it was gone because Donald is so profoundly inept. Then he inherited another $170 million.
By the time Mark Burnett came along, Donald was once again desperate for money.
That’s how bad he is at business.
Thanks to a corrupt Republican Party and, as you mentioned, John Roberts, Donald has stumbled onto an entirely new business model: using the presidency to enrich himself.
It’s disgusting.
His children, despite having accomplished very little on their own, are now making obscene amounts of money as well.
It’s important to remember that Donald isn’t succeeding because he’s suddenly become competent. He’s succeeding because countless people have helped him corruptly exploit the presidency for personal gain.
That should never have been allowed to happen.
Too many people have either looked the other way or benefited themselves.
It’s another reminder that when Democrats return to power, there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to ensure this level of corruption can never happen again.
There are already laws against this behavior.
The question is: where is the enforcement?
It’s despicable.
Sidney Blumenthal: Donald gave an amazing speech. He always gives amazing speeches because they’re so self revealing without being self aware.
He was campaigning in Michigan the other day, speaking to a group of auto workers, and he told them:
I’ve done more for you than your parents.
There’s a lot wrapped up in that statement, especially when you think about his own parents, his own parenting, what his sons, daughter, and son in law are doing now, and what’s happening to ordinary Americans at the same time. It also reflects his projection of himself as the nation’s father figure.
Mary Trump: Yes, because he’s been such a great father.
It’s a very odd thing to say under any circumstances. What we’re seeing increasingly, however, and this is a difference of degree rather than kind, is that Donald has always been self aggrandizing and obsessed with being recognized for qualities he simply doesn’t possess.
Now, though, his rhetoric has become far more all encompassing. It’s no longer enough for him to claim that he’s the greatest leader who has ever lived or that he knows more than the generals. He now insists he knows more about Middle Eastern history than anyone who has ever lived. Apparently, he’s also become the platonic ideal of a parent.
He’s inserting himself into every conceivable role and making it clear that what he most wants is recognition for simply existing. It echoes what he said back in 2016, that he alone could fix everything. Now he alone can deliver everything to the American people, including being a better parent than their own parents.
It’s deeply bizarre, but it’s entirely consistent with the rhetoric we’ve heard from him over the past decade.
The difference now is that much of what used to be intentional political messaging has become something he genuinely seems to believe. Because so much is going wrong around him, and because he cannot confront any of it, he’s desperately trying to fill what I often describe as the black hole of need inside himself with these preposterous narratives, hoping everyone else will believe them too.
Sidney Blumenthal: There’s another aspect to that statement as well.
When he says, “I’ve done more for you,” he’s placing himself above people’s own families and positioning himself as the most important figure in their lives.
Meanwhile, everyone knows that he’s run the economy into the ground. They know he’s broken his promises, and they know he’s mired in a losing war that he has no idea how to end.
Yet here he is presenting himself as the all powerful father figure, almost as though he were the father of the country itself. After all, according to that AI image, he’s even rescuing George Washington.
Mary Trump: Who I thought was supposed to be the father of our country.
Apparently Donald is also saving Mount Rushmore from communists, which is very generous of him.
The reality is that everybody, or at least almost everybody, knows what’s actually happening. There are certainly people who remain deeply deluded, and if you’re still willing to attend one of Donald’s rallies at this point, you might want to spend some time reflecting on that.
People know that everything is more expensive now. They know gasoline costs more, groceries cost more, and inflation is rising.
They know he led us into what could very well become a forever war after promising countless times that he would never do such a thing.
They also know he promised to release the Epstein files before doing everything in his power to prevent their release.
I don’t think Donald himself came up with this strategy, but the people surrounding him, Steven Miller, Russ Vought, and others, have once again manufactured a new boogeyman to frighten the base because fear has always been how they maintain control.
Right now, it’s communism, just as it’s always immigrants.
That, too, reflects desperation.
Tragically, they also understand that these tactics often work, particularly when everything else is going badly.
The campaign against transgender children is a perfect and horrifying example of how far they are willing to go to manufacture entirely fictional fears in order to distract from everything else they’re doing.
Sidney Blumenthal: Donald recently posted on Truth Social an image showing the face of Dylan Mulvaney placed onto the body of CNN’s Caitlan Collins, whom he has repeatedly attacked, including at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
For Donald, equating someone with being transgender is the harshest insult he can imagine. It’s the way he attacks members of the press while simultaneously trying to stigmatize an entire group of people.
What does that reveal about his own fears and insecurities surrounding sexuality?
Mary Trump: It’s interesting because I honestly don’t think Donald spent much time thinking about these issues before 2015.
I don’t think he particularly cared one way or the other. I could certainly be wrong, but I never saw evidence of it.
Obviously, the way he treated Roy Cohn after Roy was diagnosed with AIDS was appalling. But I think that reflected Donald’s fear of AIDS more than anything related to sexuality itself.
Not that Roy Cohn deserves much sympathy. He was a monster who played a significant role in shaping the person Donald became.
Ultimately, I think this reflects Donald’s deeply unconscious belief, something so frightening to him that he’ll never consciously confront it, that he is fundamentally damaged.
There is so much wrong with him.
He is the opposite of everything he claims to be.
He’s weak. He’s pathetic. He’s not intelligent.
At this point, I honestly struggle to identify any redeeming qualities.
That underlying sense of wrongness increases his need to attack people who are vulnerable, marginalized, or simply different from him because doing so temporarily makes him feel better about himself.
The same dynamic applies to his business failures.
On some level, however unconscious, he knows he failed as a businessman. That’s why he goes to extraordinary lengths to enrich himself through any means available, even illegitimate ones.
Unfortunately, he now possesses enormous power, and many of the people closest to him use that power to advance their own agendas, including Steven Miller’s profoundly fascistic agenda targeting immigrants.
Sidney Blumenthal: This discussion about transgender people really opens up a broader conversation about Donald’s historical relationship with gay people.
He lived in Manhattan during a period when gay culture was flourishing openly, particularly in the downtown clubs. He spent a great deal of time in those clubs. While he was pursuing models, he was also socializing with many gay people because that was simply part of the culture.
He was certainly afraid of AIDS because of his own lifestyle, but he also seemed comfortable within many aspects of gay culture.
I found it interesting that, at the most recent Kennedy Center Honors, he presented an award to Gloria Gaynor, who is an enduring gay icon because of her anthem, I Will Survive, which became so closely associated with the AIDS era.
His supporters probably don’t recognize those cultural references, but Donald certainly does.
It’s a very strange contradiction.
Mary Trump: It certainly is.
Just think about the Village People. YMCA seems to be at the top of every playlist he uses.
Sidney Blumenthal: And, of course, his little dance whenever it plays.
Mary Trump: Let’s not put that image back into everyone’s head.
Donald is nothing if not a hypocrite and an opportunist.
As I said, I never really saw evidence that he had strong feelings about these issues years ago. Granted, it wasn’t exactly a topic of conversation around the Thanksgiving table during the 1980s.
My family was certainly misogynistic and racist. I also know enough to say that many members of my family were homophobic.
But I never saw that specifically in Donald.
As you pointed out, he spent time in circles where he interacted with many gay people. People sometimes forget that Donald once wanted to become a Broadway producer. You simply cannot spend time in or around that industry while simultaneously being virulently opposed to the people who make it what it is.
It’s simply another example of how willing he is to become whatever is politically useful.
Sidney Blumenthal: Let me put it this way. Do you think it’s fair to say that Donald is publicly homophobic while privately something quite different?
Mary Trump: The level of homoeroticism in the way Donald interacts with and talks about certain men is remarkably revealing.
Just as he wasn’t always anti choice, his positions have shifted whenever it became politically advantageous.
At this point, though, it’s difficult to know what Donald genuinely believes because I think he’s gone from knowingly lying to actually believing many of the things that come out of his own mouth.
Either way, it’s cynical.
Either way, it’s dangerous.
And the people who suffer most are some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
Restore MAGA (truth) by vote on next No Kings, 3 November 2026.
Felon is an attention whore. His rewrite of history proves his allegiance to white racism. He is attempting to get his fraud conviction rewritten too. The history he ordered erased from government communications, national parks and monuments is history of color that erases truth to glorify his racist and corrupt concept of MAGA. He and his movement are temporary. Don't ignore them. Fight and resist them.
So yesterday reached a high of 93f. Then we had a rain. Cooled off to 78f. Sun came out and it heated back up to a second high of 88f. Then another rain cooled it down to 77f.
Town of Hartman, Prowers County Colorado declared "abandoned." At town's request. No water, no government, almost no people.
Remember dottir said trees were on fire on US 85 87 in an urban/commercial area from aerial fireworks on 4 July? These are some of the trees that burned.
The next No Kings Protest appears to be 3 November 2026. You can participate by voting. Vote early, by mail or drop box, or in person at your precinct on Tuesday. Between now and then, remind friends and family how important this is. Nothing will make MAGA better than restoration of truth.
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
about an inch, with some loud thunderboomers. A welcome reprieve from the scorching heat we've had lately, reaching 115 heat index. Even the grass perked up overnight.
This morning I sat on the front porch just feeling the gentle breeze and watching the birds and clouds float by, and the fluttering hummingbirds and dragonflies among the flowers. Medicine for the soul... so I will be ready to put on my armor and go into battle.
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 1, 2026, 12:59 pm, in reply to "Thank the Lord...."
This is early for a snow of that magnitude, and fact it stuck after the heat is remarkable. It's gone now, and another period of precipitationless heat is forecast.
The felon suffers from crippling insecurity. His vanity projects are proof. He can't do ANYTHING well. Anything he does, he lacks discipline to improve, and resorts to cheating as compensation. When explanation due to life in a fishbowl is sought, he lies.
My new corps officers are just like him. Yesterday the woman didn't want to print lyrics to the songs we'll sing Sunday because she doesn't want to waste ink and paper. Last week she printed the words separate from the bulletin, and almost nobody took a songsheet. It never occurred to her to fold the songsheet and insert that into the bulletin! We left the matter unresolved, and she was unmoved. Last night I put together a songsheet with the chosen pieces all edited to fit on one side of the paper. I sent a taxt and said I'd bring it early Sunday morning, print it, and I'D fold and put them in the bulletins. She wrote back,
"I already printed them before leaving. I told you I would."
Well I was the last out of the building and she did not print them before leaving. Nor did she tell me she would.
She is so insecure, it cripples her. He is a MAGA hothead. Together they represent Christ about as well as I represent MAGA. It's one thing to frequently if not constantly talk about Jesus. Apparently it's another to ACT like Him, after the example He set.
Last night I tossed and turned unable to sleep thinking about my exit strategy. I can't work with that. By morning much of the angst calmed down, and I plan is when they act like that. I will ignore them and do what I know is right and best. I plan to remove my instruments and amplifiers, leaving only the piano. Then I will be free to just go when insecurity and MAGA hothead become intolerably unbearable.
It's like attitude we saw on that yellow board, where the Xistian right narrow their view and shout is as loud and often as possible, and condemn anything different.
Maybe God's plan is to close that church. Its MAGAness is beyond redemption. Maybe presence of the lying felon as president is the same kind of catalyst with an America that lost its humble leadership way. Maybe trump was sent by God not to restore a racist, misogynist America, but to accelerate its destruction. You know we are not helping anyone anywhere, except for our own billionaire oligarchy.
Like the oil company execs who're reaping in record profits due to price of oil. Who's paying them? We all are. Anyone who drives pays them, and the felon and his poorly planned play war is responsible.
Many old school democrats are not taking advantage of this and instead squander the opportunity over nonsense like gender-based ideas instead of confronting the felon directly due to his war, policies, tariffs, self-enrichment, weaponization of the DoJ and some Courts (SCOTUS), and his vanity projects.
Some do address it. Ossoff and Talarico for example. There is the missing democrat leadership cowardly Schumer and Schiff can't seem to grasp.
Some argue if any of this matters? Do felon's policies really impact us?
Bought gas lately? Groceries? Paid utilities? Know someone who can never afford a home? Know someone who's health is in jeopardy due to unaffordability?
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
Maybe it's a sign?
Posted by Skye on August 1, 2026, 10:56 pm, in reply to "Tease or trend?" Valued Poster
that the earth is trying to right itself, despite the blunders of mankind?
I think it's good that you allow yourself time to calm down before doing anything rash. Better to take the high road, even if you decide to leave... it would probably be best to just leave quietly and let them reflect on their own wants or needs.
Who knows... maybe they are on edge because they are trying to right their own ship? Maybe they are defensive because deep down they know they have made mistakes but don't want to admit to it?
Either way, I think we all have to do what we feel is right for ourselves, and let others plot their own course. If that means our paths part, then maybe that is for the best. And who knows, maybe in time something good will come of it all?
Thinking things through
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 2, 2026, 6:15 pm, in reply to "Maybe it's a sign?" ADMIN
My exit will be quiet. Suddenly I won't be there. They chose MAGA. See new post to learn why.
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
I agree with most everything you've shared and am GLAD that you are at least
Posted by Sia on August 1, 2026, 1:42 pm, in reply to "Tease or trend?"
considering and planning for a potential exit being necessary so you won't be blindsided or injured if it comes!
You are such a kind, giving, honest soul that I worry about you! You do so much for others, expecting nothing in return, but too often get a kick in the teeth for your trouble. So unfair and so wrong!
I hate the idea that you have to become somewhat jaded and constantly suffer the loss of your optimism and belief in the eventual redemption of those who stomp on you just because they can or because you "squeak" too much about things they surely must know are just plain wrong, but like doing.
I get you doing that with C. She was your wife and your pledge to her is unbreakable no matter the circumstances. But SHE deserves it because she IS redeemable and not basically evil beneath a mask of sincerity like so many fake Christians. She is real and she actually cares about you even though she did some things wrong in the past and continues to tax you occasionally.
But those MAGA church people aren't worth a damn and certainly not for you to worry about what crap they'll do next or suffer from not recognizing their next bullsh!t move beforehand.
At least now you have the lyrics copied and can hand them out if she does the usual and fails you again. If you can stay a step ahead, you'll manage there, but why? When you have to put that much unnecessary effort into trying to stay ahead of hateful people in volunteer position that is already getting your considerable talents for free, you have to ask, is it worth it?
Just a suggestion you can ignore ot think about, but could you be putting up with those crap because it fills a need within where you used to be able to shine in public, giving slices of your very soul to audiences, students, and the public by sharing your extraordinary musical gifts with them? And you miss it?
If so, would researching and joining a different church feed that need and give them something special at the same time? What about a school, public or private, where you offer your talents to help a group of kids who want to be there to shine too by giving a public performance? Or even finding an orchestra where you can perform infrequently or when a member is out sick?
Or better yet, create your own mini-orchestra and perform for pay ar events... or for free if that gets you in the door?
I don't think that Adam Schiff is a coward, fraud, or a phony mouthpiece like Chuck Schumer. In fact, i think he is sincere, reasonably brave, and follows through on his promises/threats. But he IS an annoying horse fly who pisses off others to where they won't back him or actively work against him. Schiff bites off more than he can chew because he can't get the ammo to follow through, so he fails. He's not afraid of a fight, he just doesn't have big enough guns and that'sbecause he doesn't work well with people because he's too "in your face" and lacks enough people skills for them to get past his "holier than thou" attitudes in a place full of regular sinners.
to transform the Dem party to a reasonable and accomplished party, there needs to be a healthy mix of time-tested, older patterns and new, transformative ideas on the table.
Many of the older platforms included revolutionary ideas for their day: civil rights; universal Healthcare; gay rights; abortion rights; equal pay for women; strong unions; an unsuccessful immigration policy proposal; profit sharing; ending child labor; ending poor houses; low income housing; welfare; and so on.
They were pioneers in their day. They built the platform that got so many important things done (that we take for granted today), getting them through Congress as well encouraging acceptance in society.
They knew HOW to get stuff done even though something broke along the way to getting here today. That was when partisanship became more important to much of Congress than actually doing their jobs representing us. Compromise became a dirty word and everything became a zero sum game rather than everyone ultimately getting some part of a win and sharing a piece of the inevitable loss when opinions differ so much. Of course, the majority got the bigger piece of the pie in any compromise, but also had to eat some of the yucky liver.
That way the "losers" didnt only lose, they also won something whether something they wanted moving forward or something they didnt want not going as far as the other side wanted. In the case of a basically even spkit, each usually got half a win and half a loss. People are far more likely to be reasonable and to compromise when they have choices and get some kind of win too.
Congress NEEDS help finding their way back to employing compromise again and working together to advance priorities for this country. Who better than the old guard in each party to lead the way back to that? So keeping some of those ideals alive to impress upon the newest "stars" who know nothing of those days will show them the basic building blocks of a successful platform that can actually advance their priorities..
At the same time, LYS, they also need NEW ideas to keep up with a radically changed world.
If compromise and at least basic respect doesn't return to congress, everything will require 60 votes to pass and each party will pummel the minority when they get the majority. Elections will be MUST WIN CONTESTS to "save the world" from the evil other party.
..that she doesn't think he's changed much, if at all, in recent years. More of an 'He's always been this way' take, with acknowledgement that he's now 80.
SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
Well, she is a member of his family so had plenty of
Posted by Sia on July 31, 2026, 10:58 pm, in reply to "It's interesting" ADMIN
opportunities to see the unvarnished trump.
I think she's talking more about his character and basic personality, major psychiatric flaws and all. She is a licensed, formerly practicing psychologist. She is not guessing from afar.
Personally, IMHO, I think he's simply lost some steps mentally and hos "filter" is now skewed or broken completely. His public veneer that he wore for decades pretending to be a decent sort has shattered. He can no longer hide his scrambled thinking or his terrible self, so it constantly comes out and he doesn't give it a second thought.
it maps closely to an unresolved negative mother complex coupled with compensatory authoritarian submission and idealized masculine projection.
That's why he resents and minimizes women as a result of his mother's sudden abandonment of him as a toddler after she had his younger brother and her health spiraled out of control, landing her in a hospital and sanitariums for several years of his early life. The mother wound is deep and his father was cold, manipulative, and berated all of his children for not living up to his expectations. trump no longer had his mother to comfort and explain his confusion and upset that she was missing, while his father basically ignored him (as well as all of the other children). Without a mother figure anymore at a critical age he developed a "mother wound" and never developed properly emotionally. He has a love hate relationship with women where he has to conquer them on the one hand to get the missing attention he needed from the first woman in his life but OTOH, has to lord over and control them, eventually discarding them once he had the control.
At the same time, he is constantly chasing strong-men types for their approval to feel confident inside because he he weak, scared, and unsure of himself because of the profound damage that both of his parents inflicted on him as a child. Strong-men being his pal temporarily gives him what he lacks internally. That's why he rejects friendly allies that instead, he sees as powerless and seeks the approval of men he sees as strong, confident, smart, and a "winner". He has no use for a "loser" because internally, he fears BEING a loser. Never being a loser is something his father pounded into him, making his see any loss as him being an utter failure.
I don't necessarily think that he is sexually attracted to the despots he seeks out, but he IS attracted to what he sees as a strong, powerful, accomplished man whose friendship let's that stuff rub off onto him.
If he wasnt SUCH a dangerous monster, I'd feel sorry for him, though I do pity the little boy he once was being broken and abandoned for nothing that HE did
That may all be true, but I don't know that it all goes back to his parents or childhood. I think some of it has to do with the culture of competition and "winning" especially as it relates to boys and men.
Winning is everything to dt, even if he has to lie, cheat or steal just so he can say he won.
He had to declare "we won" on the first day of this current war. And look at how he has to insert himself into the photo with the teams who win the championship games! Just bizarre.
But our culture is saturated with sports competitions and who "wins" or comes out on top. It's reported on the news every day - morning, noon and night. And how can he let someone else get more attention than he does?! Whether it's Fauci or Putin or Netanyahu... he needs to insert himself into every picture, saying ONLY HE can fix it, or end all wars....
But sports and life has rules, judges and referees. He has no use for that if it gets in his way of "winning" or taking center stage, no matter what it is. He cannot accept or stand to be a "loser" nor to be ignored. So he seems to equate everything to winning or losing, and when he talks about the "art of the deal"... it has to be a deal where HE comes out on top.
And that's why he doesn't know how to get out of this war. He HAS to be seen as coming out on top or "winning" something that is not winnable. He had even talked about not getting into unending or unwinnable wars, but he got sucked in by Netanyahu after he was feeling like he was on a roll after going into Venezuela. All Netanyahu had to do was appeal to his ego and suck him in, just as with Putin and others. They all know exactly how to play him, including the wealthy oligarchs who want fewer rules or regulations to restrain them.
I knew something was terribly wrong when immediately after he took office this time, he stood up there during the inauguration with all those oligarchs and started talking about "the golden age" and "taking" Greenland, Canada and Panama. Apparently he has been around guys like Putin too long and thinks he has to compete with them now.
Putin's war will not end well for him or Russia, and things will not end well for trump, nor for us, unless we cut him off and get him and his cronies, handlers and leeches OUT of our government.
That may all be true, but if you read up about his father and his history
Posted by Sia on August 1, 2026, 8:04 am, in reply to "I don't know...." ADMIN
you'll get a very clear picture of the home environment he grew up in where his father was raising a "killer" who could only win, never lose. The death of his oldest brother, Freddie Jr, had a profound effect on him because he'd disappointed their father and ultimately drank himself to death at a young age as a result. Their father was brutal to him because he wanted to be something other than a "killer" in the family business to please Fred Sr. He was an artist and an commercial pilot for major airlines. Not good enough!
Between the whacky, absent mother and the cruel, heartless father who twisted him into having to always win and to do anything it took to come out on top, trump never developed self confidence and was hell-bound to be the strongest, baddest, b@st@rd out there no matter what it took - lying, cheating, pounding others into submission. Did you know that when he was 6 years old he attacked and pummeled his teacher? He had no friends whatsoever outside of purely transactional situations where he could use them to his benefit.
His early childhood set the stage for an adult who was 50x worse than the average bear in the misogynist, competitive culture you're talking about.
native country by illegally leaving rather than fulfilling his duty to serve in their military. He was a coward and a scoundrel. He changed the family name from Drumph to trump. I don't remember all of the details know about him, but he was NO PRIZE and contributed to the twisting of his son, Fred. Frederick was the name he gave him to Americanize him. The father was born Freidrich Drumph but changing it made it impossible for Germany to locate him.
He was messed up enough, but his son, trump's father Frederick, was a sociopath who didn't need much encouragement to become the monster he was. He damaged ALL of his children, but donald the most because he was already defective and the stage was set in his earliest years to be molded into what his father wanted from him.
The only time Fred, Sr recognized or praised donald was when he did something underhanded to beat someone else. He encouraged it and contributed to Donald's emotional destruction. He knew it, but didn’t care because it supposedly reflected on him and made him even more "bad@ss" in business. So he invested heavily in donald. But donald WASN'T who his father wanted him to be in reality. He was weak. Nothing but a scared bully who pounded those weaker than him to win. When facing someone who wasnt weak, he'd crumble because he had nothing behind his bravado. So he'd lie outrageously to change the narrative, somehow thinking that others HAD to buy into his lies due to his sheer force and demands. He never learned to compromise. Never learned to share. Everything in his life was a zero sum game, including every relationship he ever had. One sided where only HE was entitled to glory and to win. Everyone else HAD to lose.
Well, the real world doesn't work that way and even with the power of the presidency, he is face to face with that reality. He has NO CLUE what to do now.
In essence, this story illustrates the epitome of white privilege and toxic masculinity in this country, and in the world.
This also shows up in religious concepts throughout the world... of a "too big to fail" 'God' who cannot be wrong and instructs his 'chosen ones' to go and conquer, while showing favor and protecting the 'favored ones' from failure and consequences.
Mistakes and failures are not really such a bad thing, IF we learn from such. And IF... we allow our children to learn from their own mistakes, failures and consequences. Very hard for a parent to do at times, however.
He sees women as 'weak' and looks down in them; when one steps up and speaks out against him, however, he's fearful and then furious. He attempts to humiliate her in turn.
Not a 'man' in any meaningful sense of the word..
SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
True
Posted by Skye on July 31, 2026, 12:57 pm, in reply to "I'm sure it is" Valued Poster
on July 30, 2026, 10:46 pm
