Re-election to the White House which was once within his grasp seems to be slipping away because, let’s be frank here, Donald Trump is an addict. Donald Trump is addicted to insulting other people. Some people have addictions to alcohol, food, heroin, meth, and even sex. Trump has none of those problems unless you count the MacDonald’s cheeseburgers and endless supplies of Diet Cokes. However, he is addicted to insulting people and producing cutesy, childish names for those he doesn’t like.
Many of his supporters like KellyAnne Conway, Peter Navarro, and Kevin McCarthy have all implored him to stop the insults about Kamala Harris. They know it is not a winning strategy against a woman (and woman of color at that). Of course, the rabid MAGA base have grown to love these childish temper tantrums, but most savvy politicos know it is highly unlikely the road to the White House is paved with insults about Kamala Harris. But the fact is, Trump cannot help himself. He has been doing this for years. He is addicted to it.
Trump may be under the mistaken impression that this same ‘insult your way to the White House’ strategy worked against Hillary Clinton. He seems to be conveniently overlooking the fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a significant amount and had it not been for the last minute, ill-advised press conference by James Comey about Clinton’s emails, Trump would likely not have made it to the house on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Addicts of all kinds tend to have two things in common. They usually build up a tolerance for whatever it is they are addicted to – alcoholics will require more alcohol to achieve the same ‘high,’ if you will. In addition, when addicts are under stress, they tend to use their addiction more and more. An alcoholic under stress will drink more to try to numb whatever pain and anxiety is being felt.
Those two things are currently working against Trump. He has used insults for so long he can hardly utter a sentence without it containing some kind of insult. More importantly, he is under increasing stress because Harris is climbing in the polls and threatening his once almost sure win.
Many in Trump’s orbit are trying to convince him to tone down the insults but, like I said, he is addicted to them. It’s like trying to tell an alcoholic to ‘just stop drinking.’ They can’t. That is the definition of addiction. Trump just cannot help himself. I suspect there might even be the rare instance where something in Trump’s sociopathic brain tells him not to say something and he blurts it out anyway – because he cannot control the insults. He is an addict.
I read an article recently that said something to the effect that trying to give advice to Trump is like trying to steer a hurricane. If Harris continues to surge in the polls and Trump feels more and more threatened, despite any attempts by his advisors and confidants to persuade him to tone down the insults and talk about issues, I predict he will get worse and worse. The more the Harris campaign refuses to engage or respond to his insults, the more frustrated he will become. We could watch him self-immolate right before our eyes during the debate scheduled for September 10th – if he shows up. (I’m still thinking Trump’s handlers might try to switch in Vance at the last minute!)
Trump has been called a sociopathic, pathological liar and I agree with that assessment. He is also an addict. Addiction of any kind will cloud someone’s rational judgment and their ability to make sound decisions. It’s just another reason Trump does not belong in the White House. America needs a Commander in Chief, not an Insulter in Chief! If we really wanted an Insulter in Chief, we could go to any elementary school in the country, randomly select a third-grade bully and install them in the White House. The net effect would be the same.
