Whose Nervous Breakdown Will Come First, Donald Trump's Or America's?

TIME MAGAZINE

The feeling grows -- and grew by leaps and bounds last week -- that Donald "The Chosen One" Trump's longtime flirtation with the banana peel will soon result in a spectacular fall.  Yes, there's a great deal of wishful thinking wrapped into that hopeful thought and it is informed by the nightmare that he has visited on those of us who care deeply about our once great country, which for your Faithful Correspondent translates into a daily flirtation with losing his shit over a monster who long ago lost his. 

This past week was, of course, one for the books:

Trump threw a fit over not being able to buy Greenland from Denmark. 

He canceled a state visit to Denmark while calling its prime minister "nasty," his go-to insult for women who stand up to him. 

Declared in an anti-Semitic outburst that Jews who vote Democratic are "disloyal to Israel." 

Ordered American companies out of China as he stage managed a needless trade war. 

Pretty much assured that the long-predicted recession at home will commence sooner if not later. 

Called his handpicked Federal Reserve chair an "enemy" of the state. 

Again falsely claimed that Barack Obama had initiated a policy of separating children from their migrant parents. 

Suggested overturning the right of birthright citizenship. 

Continued to use the El Paso and other mass murders for self promotion and said he should be given a military Medal of Honor for his valor. 

Threatened to release ISIS fighters in Europe to punish loyal allies. 

Hinted that his term of office might last another 14 years, saying that he is considering an executive order to change the Constitution to make that happen. 

Tried to blow up the G7 meeting in France with his go-it-alone acrobatics. 

Boasted that he will invite Vladimir Putin to the next G-7 meeting, a move opposed by allies since Russia has been ousted from the group.  

My dear friend, the eminent psychoanalyst and mythologist Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, diagnosed Trump as being a classic malignant narcissist -- that is, mentally disordered and profoundly evil with an insatiable need for attention and proclivity to lash out recklessly no matter the damage done  -- well ahead of the pack.  As in late 2015.  

And as anyone familiar with this pathology knows, Trump's repeated humiliations on the world stage, his long-moldering realization that many people understand he stole the 2016 election, his probable impeachment, and that the odds of him being reelected in a fair election are slipping away and will be zero to none if there is a recession, are manifesting themselves in his almost daily rages. 

Then there is the malignant narcissist's lust for cruelty and inflicting pain on the powerless that is so evident in Trump's treatment of migrant children detained in his concentration camps, where it took a court order for them to get hygienic necessities like soap and toothpaste.  No matter, because they won't be getting flu shots although three children in Customs and Border Protection custody infected with influenza have died since December. 

It is because of this cruelty that Trump's vaunted "base" loves him and Republican officeholders who might speak out against him have second thoughts lest he sic a primary opponent on them.    

The president's malignant narcissism is metastasizing into a messiah complex with a growing number of king-like pronouncements.  This should not be surprising for someone who thinks the president has the power to order companies around -- in the current case to stop doing business with China -- despite a free-market economy.  From the outset of Trump's disastrous tenure, he has declared himself above the law in word and deed, and rails against House Democrats carrying out their constitutional mandate, Robert Mueller, the ACLU and any other organization or individual who would hold him accountable.   

If there is an irony in this rolling disaster, it is that Trump was a reality TV show star long before he descended that golden escalator and announced his candidacy, and has played the part with a madness of King George insouciance since. 

Our king-president is one truly sick dude, and his deterioration has been accelerating. 

What is especially disturbing about this is that he keeps finding new ways to weaponize his psychoses, with the victims extending well beyond those concentration camps to include, among others, farmers whose crops are rotting because of his trade war with China and workers whose plants are closing despite his fantasy-driven promises to keep them open. 

That proverbial banana peel is lurking around the next corner.  Or perhaps the corner after that.  And it can be argued that Trump has never stood on his own, suckling on his father's fortune as a young businessman, then relying on dirty tactics, laundered money from Russian oligarchs and mobsters and carpet bombs of lies to survive.  Indeed, he may already have gone down, but is being propped up by the likes of Mick Mulvaney, Mitch McConnell, the NRA and Fox News. 

When Trump's ultimate slip and fall does come, it will be a long overdue relief.  We can only hope and pray that it precedes our own collapse and that he doesn't blow up the planet as he goes down.