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People say that the problem with Donald Trump is his ego. Wrong!
So let me use a bit of Sigmund Freud to explain.
Freud tells us the we are born all id. The id is the part of our personality that is primal and impulsive, selfish and aggressive, and not subject to logic. Operating on the pleasure principle, the id calls for immediate gratification. It says, “I see it, I want it, and I want it now. Consequences? Who cares. I’m going in—see if you can stop me.”
Sound a bit like a certain President who you might be familiar with? All id, all the time.
According to Freud, two other parts of the personality evolve that are meant to temper and restrain the id. The ego works on the reality principle rather than the pleasure principle. It is supposed to hold the id’s urges in check. You know, like we’re not going to attack until we have a defined set of goals and a clear exit strategy. Or, we’d better consider the effect of tariffs, even if it feels good to make them pay. Thinking of ego from this perspective, the President’s ego appears to be no larger than his private parts.
The superego, which supposedly develops in childhood, is the moral part of the personality, the part that attunes us to issues of right and wrong. When the superego helps us plot a course, it worries about issues of fairness, and guides us away from actions that lead to hardship and suffering.
Trump and superego? On a scale of 1-10, how about minus 4.
So, absent an superego or anything resembling a conscience, and with little evidence of ego in the form of awareness of consequences, there seems to be little internal that might restrain the man. Then we must ask whether anything external exists that might constrain this President from being all-in, all-id, all the time?
Gas prices and food prices? Maybe, but the man is so out of touch he can convince himself it’s nothing, and claim that prices are going down when they’re not—and unbelievably he can count on many others to parrot all of his distortions and lies.
Cost of the war? Maybe, but is this a Congress that dares stand against anything or for anything?
Irate flyers at the airports? Maybe, but let’s solve that by sending in ICE. That way we can shorten the lines significantly by assaulting and arresting all the undesirables who are waiting to get on their planes. Very simply, we take care of two birds with one stone: shorter lines for Christian, white folks, while finding separate lines onto planes that go to South Sudan for others who don’t quite fit the preferred profile.
The Supreme Court? Maybe, but only if Trump gets so offensively personal and distasteful that a couple of justices who aren’t completely in his pocket finally say: Enough, screw you. I fear it’s not something one can count on.
Serious loss of life among American soldiers: I don’t wish it, but if it were to happen, Trump-id would find very strong resistance of many fronts. But let’s hope it doesn’t come to this
Ah, but of course, what about Powerful-President-Trump-Id being toppled by Sexual-Predator-Trump-Id when enough of Jeffrey Epstein’s young girls finally have the nerve to come forward.
Like Humpty Dumpty—and Cesar Chavez–could we finally see Trump come tumbling down, ironically, the victim of his own id.
More than “enough” of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have come forward. Trump may at least on one occasion have had a 13 or 14 year old girl service him. But Bondi and Blanche will continue to obstruct and prevent any clarity on the Prez and the many eminent predators who were involved. Id and Ego in regard to the war? Trump presents an extraordinary admixture of both that Freud does not appear to have theorized. That is to say he will eventually–before “boots on the ground?”–call the War (an “excursion” as he’s called it, unable to recall his briefers’ reference to… Read more »