Profiling

 

Profiling

         Arriving at a reasonably accurate analysis of any individual’s personality is daunting at best. We’re not talking about “nice’ or “nasty” or other generalizations, but as true a picture as possible of what’s “inside” based on external indices.

Generally, across the spectrum of Psychological practitioners, the majority  have settled on a similar inventory of traits generally referred to as the Big Five:

They are:

Extroversion: gregariousness, social dominance, enthusiasm, reward-seeking behavior – the outward projection of the inner individual.

Neuroticism: anxiety, emotional instability, depressive tendencies, negative emotions – the inner demons, if you will

Conscientiousness: industriousness, discipline, rule abidance, organization – how the individual accommodates societal expectations

Agreeableness: warmth, care for others, altruism, compassion, modesty – the manifestations of emotional response to the needs and concerns of others

Openness: curiosity, unconventionality, imagination, receptivity to new ideas - perhaps best characterized as receptiveness to ideas requiring adaptation, responsive change and/or critical thinking.

        Many, if not most, of us tend to score near the middle on any given dimension, but some score toward one pole or the other. (Hitler, Robin Williams?). Recent research indicates that higher scores on extroversion are generally associated with greater happiness and broader social connections, higher scores on conscientiousness predict greater success in school and at work, while higher scores on agreeableness are associated with deeper (better?) relationships. By contrast, higher scores on neuroticism are always bad, both for the individual and others, having proved to be a risk factor for unhappiness, dysfunctional relationships, and mental-health problems. From adolescence through midlife, many people tend to become more conscientious and agreeable, and less neurotic, but these changes are typically slight: These five personality traits may be more or less overt with time but are generally stable across an individual’s lifetime.

So where is this headed? To Donald Trump, of course.

        In the first category, Extroversion, he is off the chart, driven by his compulsive need to “put himself out there” as he desperately wants to be seen, masking his inner issues. Remember this is a man, who once described his ideal social interaction as “A great piece of ass.”  He also touted his own “ratings,” while downplaying a pandemic. I defy anyone to identify any individual (who truly knows the man) who fits the description of “friend “for DJT. He has none. Even many of those who echoed his racism and foreign policy goals have abandoned him in disgust. Even the tragically flawed and paranoid Richard Nixon had Bebe Rebozo. Trump has Trump. period.

        As for the second category, neuroticism, his emotional instability was legendary within the Trump Organization years before he even considered public office. His father was more controlled, but just as inflexible, demonstrating his anger by withholding affection instead of childish outbursts. His mother’s punishment response was cold silence. For adults, temper tantrums reflect a lack of ability to deal with disappointment and frustration. But these are not just skills one did not develop. They are missing components in a sense of self.

        Learning the "right" phrases does not fill the hole. That is why giving Donald Trump a script just doesn’t work. As soon as someone asks the ex- President a question he does not like or corrects one of his factual errors, or says “no” to him, he is at risk of becoming the object of a temper tantrum. Having a president, or “re-presidential” wannabee who has temper tantrums is not just self-destructive, it is destructive to all of us.

        During a meeting with Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, which both susequently discussed, there was a prime example of this Presidential short fuse, deteriorating to wild gesticulating and red-faced rage, reminiscent of a child during a temper tantrum. Ms. Pelosi understood that when she said later explained, “I was the Mom.”

        The obverse of this is his desperate need for approval. He pathetically seeks it from those who are at a distance, simply because it is unavailable from those who are in his presence regularly. The MAGA hats across the Arena see what he wants them to see, and it frees and strokes the similar neuroses in them. Those in his inner circle see the real man, tearing classified documents into pieces and yelling at staff in fits of temper. This need for approbation seems to be fulfilled in only microscopic quantities from peers, so he has inflated his own estimates of his abilities, especially the intellectual ones, while refusing to even discuss his inability to get into graduate school, or his lack of any academic honors. Similarly, he has stated his belief that he’d have been “a great military man.” More likely, he’d probably have been “fragged” on his first patrol.

Conscientiousness:

        Trump’s frequent mishandling of classified material, while President and afterward signals his disdain for the rules as they apply to him. This speaks volumes to his general lack of conscientiousness. Similarly, the man who trashed Barack Obama for playing a lot of golf at (usually) local courses, and who promised he’d be “too busy to play golf,” easily eclipsed Obama’s 8-year golf frequency, flying millions of miles at our expense to do so. Another example of this lack of conscience is the fact that, at all his golf clubs, rooms for Secret service were reserved and paid for at year-round, at peak season prices, even if he was there but two weeks annually. The same was true at Mar a Lago. Other examples abound, but you get the drift.

        As for “agreeableness” one almost chokes on the word. Trump has, for his adult life shown essentially zero compassion, sense of fair play or even the ability or desire to process or comprehend at any level, the feelings and needs of others. Oddly, and on the flip side, he feels “hurt” and, of course, angered when gratefulness isn’t effusively forthcoming, even when he’s really done nothing to deserve it. Hurricane victims were simply annoyances who needed money (or paper towels). Puerto Ricans, reeling from Hurricane Maria, weren’t “real” Americans until someone pointed out to him that he shouldn’t say that aloud.

        As for the rest of us: a senior staffer once pointed out that Trump’s gigantic budgetary deficits, incurred during what he constantly bragged was the greatest economy ever, were threatening the nation’s future economic stability. He got a typically Trump response. “We won’t be here.”

          Although it covers most of the five indices, one story limns the man in almost incomparably damning terms. One day, apparently deciding he needed a “family man” photo op, he decided to take younger son (and victim) Eric, to a Yankees game. When he went to Eric’s dorm room to pick him up, Eric stepped into the hallway wearing a Yankees jersey. As reported by a witnessing student, Trump slapped his son’s face and ordered him to go back and put on a suit and tie.

        It should be noted that I have not yet addressed Trump’s incompetence in the area of economics as the results speak for themselves. Begin with a tax cut to kowtow to fellow rich folks - $1.47 trillion in decreased revenue while adding only $600 billion in growth and savings. Add to that, imposing tariffs against the advice of almost every sane economist - costing American companies $46 billion since February 2018, while U.S. exports of goods hit by retaliatory tariffs have fallen sharply, according to an analysis of Commerce Department data. The cost of these tariffs has been borne almost entirely by American households and American firms, not foreign exporters. Although estimates vary, economic analyses suggest that the average American household has paid somewhere from several hundred up to a thousand dollars or more per year thanks to higher consumer prices attributable to the tariffs.

    The lesser-known side of the tariff issue and its impact is the increased farm subsidies paid out by “fiscal conservatives???” to farmers hurt by Trump trade decisions. the Department of Agriculture determined that subsidy payments to farmers ballooned from just over $4 billion in 2017 to more than $20 billion in 2020 – driven largely by programs meant to offset the effects of President Trump's failed trade war. To make another point:  this is a 500% increase in welfare to farmers from those who decry welfare for those in need as “excessive spending”. These decisions stem, to varying degrees, from all the character weaknesses outlined above.

We simply cannot afford Donald Trump or those like him in the White House or even the Congress again. He should remain the sad, lonely, self-loathing, socially isolated man he truly is.