#72: The Leader Of The Free World Is A Malignant Narcissist With Pre–Dementia – John Gartner

Richard Nixon once said, “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone and in twenty-five minutes seventy million people will be dead.”

The President of the United States has a degree of power that would make Alexander the Great, Ceasar, Ghengis Kahn, or Napoleon blush. For that individual has unilateral access to the nuclear codes.

So wouldn’t it be crazy if the President was not only a malignant narcissist but also in the early stages of cognitive decline?

Show notes

Selected links

• Follow John: Website | Twitter
• Duty to Warn
• The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, by Bandy Lee
• Erich Fromm, who coined the theory of malignant narcissism
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V)
• The Republic, by Plato
• The Montreal Cognitive Assessment test
• ‘What Trump’s Speech Says About His Mental Fitness’, John McWhorter’s The New York Times article
• Videos of Trump’s paraphasia: ‘oranges’ of the Mueller investigation; ‘Tim Apple’; father ‘born in Germany’; The Daily Show ‘Trump’s words’ montage

Topics discussed

• How did John become involved in the issue of the President’s mental fitness and what are the President’s mental disorders? [6:53]
• Malignant normality. [11:27]
• Trump’s background and mentors. [13:17]
• What is Duty to Warn? [15:38]
• Trump and the nuclear codes. [19:30]
• What is the Goldwater Rule and why is John entitled to diagnose Trump from afar? [22:41]
• Trump’s enablers. [29:32]
• Is there evidence that Trump is sadistic? [34:25]
• Is Trump paranoid or playing a role? [37:03]
• Historical examples of malignant narcissists. [38:28]
• Trump’s early stage dementia. [39:51]
• Does malignant normality connect with other psychological literature? [47:53]
• Trump’s hypomanic temperament. [49:33]
• Why aren’t more people speaking up about Trump’s mental fitness? [51:33]
• Can Trump be removed under the 25th Amendment? [53:09]