Por Melvin Goodman
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| Photo by Andres Oropeza |
“This is in a way the anger presidency. Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Mr. Trump is not the first president with a temper. Even the genial Dwight D. Eisenhower was known to be sharp behind closed doors. Lyndon B. Johnson’s tantrums were Texas size. Richard M. Nixon seemed to be on a medium boil for most of his nearly six years in office.” (Peter Baker, The New York Times, March 17, 2026, Front Page.)
The mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post continue to normalize Donald Trump by applying everyday terms to his personality and his presidency. He has been called an “isolationist,” a “neo-isolationist,” and currently an “imperialist.” Peter Baker, who has been covering the White House for the past several decades, now believes that it is “anger” that defines the Trump presidency. These descriptions normalize the Trump presidency and avoid the rages that are unique to Donald Trump.
Two terms that make the Trump presidency unique in American history are “megalomania” and “pathological narcissism.” I discussed his “megalomania” several weeks ago, emphasizing his extreme obsession with power, wealth, and self-importance. In the past year, Trump has used military force in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, West Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the eastern Pacific. He has threatened attacks on Colombia, Denmark, Canada, and now Cuba is in his crosshairs. The joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility points to the risks that Trump will assume. Trump is also threatening to use the centuries-old Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. troops in American cities, namely sanctuary cities, perhaps to compromise America’s elections later this year.
Not even megalomania and pathological narcissism accounts for Trump’s hyper-aggressive acts. His rages go far beyond the tempers of other presidents. His rage causes him to pursue hostile actions against those who have slighted him or have failed to do what he wants them to do.
Now, Trump’s pathological narcissism, a hard-to-treat personality disorder, is on full display. Trump is intoxicated by praise and, as a result, his closest aides must constantly show fealty by engaging in false flattery. Even heads of state have joined this parade, expressing exaggerated praise in order to gain favor. The most recent example was Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who had to endure an obnoxious reference to Pearl Harbor and surprise attacks, but managed to credit Trump with trying to secure peace around the globe. Diplomatic norms mean nothing to Trump.
In addition to being intoxicated by praise, Trump is hypersensitive to criticism. The fact that well educated people were less supportive of his three campaigns for the presidency probably fueled the attacks on institutions of higher learning from the first days of his second term in office. In the 2024 election, 61 percent of men without a college degree voted for Trump, versus 48 percent of college graduates. There was a similar disparity between women with college degrees and women without degrees.
Trump continues to attack such elite institutions as Harvard, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia on the basis of false accusations regarding antisemitism at these institutions. Trump’s attacks are part of an effort to remake American higher education and to strip elite institutions such as Harvard of federal research funding. Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department is a major source of research funding, has joined the campaign. These efforts have created havoc at major educational, medical, and research institutions throughout the country. It could take a generation to correct the damage Trump and Kennedy have inflicted on these institutions.
The invasion of Iran has exposed his combination of paranoia and impulse control, which is now on display in a war that has no clear objectives and no end in sight. There appear to be no limits to his bombast. There is great danger in normalizing Trump’s aberrant behavior. Baker’s reference to Trump’s anger doesn’t capture his bizarre and self-defeating behavior. Trump’s lack of empathy is on regular display; it is legendary.
Six years ago, Mary Trump, Donald’s niece, wrote a study of her uncle subtitled “How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.” The war against Iran has exposed his antisocial personality disorders. His dealings with Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky point to additionally complex behaviors. Why haven’t the mainstream media and clinical psychologists addressed these issues?
Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.
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