Trump's actions are a textbook case of the danger posed by a malignant narcissist reacting to failure

After Donald Trump's recent nationally televised speech, cable TV news outlets trotted out the usual bunch of pundits and politicians who engaged in the futile task of fact-checking his litany of lies and interpreting Trump's remarks through a political lens.

What these news outlets should have done is brought on a panel of mental health experts to analyze what they just heard. That's because Trump's speech was a textbook case of how a leader who is a malignant narcissist reacts to failure.

It would have been interesting to hear what someone like Dr. John Gartner, a clinical psychologist and former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, had to say about the president's speech.

Since 2015, Gartner had been warning of the dangers posed by a malignant narcissist like Trump. Last year, Gartner again sounded the alarm in a video.

He described Trump as having "an anti=social personality disorder – so lying, breaking laws and norms, having no remorse for violating the rights of others, also paranoia and finally sadism.

"A lot of what he does is gleefully destructive and harmful, and it actually gives him enormous pleasure to hurt people and destroy things."

Gartner was not alone in his assessment. In October 2024, just weeks before the election, he joined more than 200 other mental health professionals in signing an open letter that ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times, warning that Trump is dangerous because of “his symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder – malignant narcissism.”

Unfortunately, that warning went unheeded. Trump's condition has only worsened during his second term. Last month, Gartner, in an episode of The Daily Beast podcast marking Trump's 80th birthday, said the president's disinhibition resulting from dementia is amplifying his narcissistic and sadistic impulses. Gartner said that Trump's deterioration from dementia "is accelerating" as reflected by his "tangential speech" in which he drifts away from questions to ramble on about his personal vanity projects like his White House ballroom.

What happens when a malignant narcissist has to deal with failure after failure? The candidate who promised no more forever wars is trapped in the quagmire of the Iran war with no exit path in sight. Inflation is on the rise thanks to rising gas prices and tariffs. His brutal mass deportation policy is increasingly unpopular. And he is under fire from both the left and the right over covering up the Epstein files.is

Trump's grandiose plans to celebrate America's 250th birthday turned into an embarrassing flop. Even his efforts to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool were an unmitigated disaster. And these are just the tip of the iceberg of failures by this corrupt, anti-democratic authoritarian president.

Trump's overall approval rating sits at a dismal 37%, reflecting pessimism about Iran and the economy, according to The Washington Post. That has left Trump panicking about being held accountable should Democrats win control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterms.

Just hours before the president's July 16 speech, New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni accurately predicted how it would spotlight Trump's malignant narcissism.

Never in the past 50 years have we seen anything from an American president like Trump’s determination to undermine voters’ faith in democracy itself, which is fine with him if it’s the only way to hold on to power and get what he wants. It’s a degree of ruthlessness and a magnitude of narcissism that add up to a kind of political sociopathy. I’ve written this before and stand by it: He’ll burn the whole thing down if that’s best for him. He’ll gladly rule over ashes, just as long as he’s the one ruling.

Let's take a look at what two experts wrote about how a narcissist deals with failure.

In January 2024, Joe Navarro, a former FBI profiler and spycatcher, wrote an article for Psychology Today titled "When the Narcissist Fails." Navarro did not mention Trump by name, but he did describe the dangers posed by a malignant head of state.

Navarro summed up his key points regarding a narcissist's reaction to failure as follows:

Public embarrassment of a narcissist causes further anger, rage, and incivility.

Even in light of factual evidence to the contrary, a narcissist will continue to lie.

As a narcissist faces failure, arrest, indictment, or dismissal, they will endlessly air their grievances.

Those key points were all reflected in Trump's July 16 primetime speech. Here's a link to a transcript of Trump's speech.

Fahim Chughtai, a narcissistic abuse recovery specialist, writing in September 2025 for the website Narcissism Exposed, identified the dangerous signs to watch for when a narcissist fails. His article was meant to offer protection strategies for those close to a person who enters what psychologists call "narcissistic collapse" – "a dangerous psychological state where their grandiose self-image crumbles, leading to unpredictable and often vindictive behaviors."

Chughtai wrote:

Narcissistic collapse ... describes the acute breakdown that occurs when narcissist fails in a specific, significant way that threatens their self-image. During this collapse, the narcissist’s usual coping mechanisms—manipulation, charm, gaslighting, blame-shifting—either stop working or become amplified to dangerous levels. They become what psychologists call “metastable,” meaning they’re in an extremely unstable emotional state where small triggers can lead to explosive reactions.

If you look at the specific danger signs cited by Navarro and Chughtai, you'll find them reflected throughout Trump's speech.

Navarro: They will falsely claim that everything is fine and that there is nothing wrong. ... Expect lies to increase and to be repeated exponentially. They will, even in light of factual evidence to the contrary, lie more profusely and adamantly.

Trump began his speech by declaring that the U.S. is "doing great." He then made false claims about inheriting the worst inflation in 48 years and that the Biden administration let in more than 11,000 murderers. He made a bizarre comment about "transgender for everybody." He lied about his own achievements, claiming that inflation is declining, drug prices are coming down, and "We are ... winning big in Iran."

Chughtai: Perhaps the most dangerous sign when narcissist fails is their vindictive targeting of anyone who presents evidence of their failure or wrongdoing. The more accurate and damaging the evidence, the more vicious their attacks become.

They’ll attempt to discredit witnesses, destroy evidence, and launch character assassination campaigns against anyone who threatens their narrative. ... They may spread malicious rumors, attempt to turn others against you, or even resort to legal harassment.

Trump claimed that "members of the Deep State" in intelligence agencies "worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling." He asked the Director of National Intelligence, DOJ, FBI and CIA to launch an investigation that would result in firing or filing criminal charges against those "involved in the cover up."

Later, he lashed out at "NBC and ABC fake news" for not airing his speech live. He accused the two networks of engaging in "fraud" and trying to "protect the radical left," adding that "fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses."

Navarro: As they lash out with vindictiveness, the malignant narcissist will continue to talk about themselves in glowing terms; irrespective of their actual situation, as they are incapable of introspection, much less contriteness. They will trumpet their greatness, their achievements (real or imagined), their faux infallibility, and even portray themselves as worthy of being revered rather than reviled.

Trump claimed that China was working to influence the results of the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election and trying to undermine Americans' confidence in the president. He said: "They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot when actually your president has done a great job."

Chughtai: As their usual control tactics fail, when narcissist fails, they often develop paranoid explanations for their situation. They’ll claim there are conspiracies against them, that powerful people are orchestrating their downfall, or that there’s a coordinated effort to destroy them.

This paranoid thinking helps them maintain their victim narrative while avoiding accountability. Everything becomes evidence of persecution rather than consequences of their own actions.

These conspiracy theories can become elaborate and all-consuming, causing them to view everyone around them as potential threats or enemies.

Trump rehashed long-debunked claims about fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election. He claimed that China illicitly acquired 220 million voter files and and attempted to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden. He implied that Venezuela could manipulate U.S. voting machines. And he said the Department of Homeland Security had found that about 278,000 non-citizens are registered to vote in U.S. elections.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told MSNow: "I thought it was an unfortunate day for America to have really an unhinged president in the White House spewing a whole bunch of conspiracy theories that are just simply not connected to reality."

Former Trump attorney Ty Cobb, interviewed on MSNOW, said Trump's speech revealed his malignant narcissism.

“I think what’s important is to understand that the president losing the 2020 election was the most grievous insult and injury that he ever suffered,” Cobb said. “And psychologically, it burns. His malignant narcissism cannot abide that insult and he has devoted himself to trying to rewrite history.”

I urge people to open up the links to the articles by Navarro and Chughtai because it's remarkable how many of the danger signs they warn about in failing narcissists reflect Trump's actions during his second term.

Chughtai describes how when a narcissist fails, "they often launch calculated revenge campaigns ... systematic efforts to destroy their perceived enemies."

"Retaliation might include spreading false rumors, attempting to get someone fired, filing frivolous lawsuits, destroying property ... or in extreme cases, this can escalate to ... threats, or physical violence," he wrote.

He also describes how the failing narcissist can engage in "dramatic, inappropriate or dangerous attention-seeking behavior," including posting constantly on social media to turn it into "a battleground."

Navarro warns that "if the narcissist is going to be brought down, they will also seek to bring everyone else around them down to vindictively make them suffer. ... If they command a country, they can put the security organs or the military to work on their behalf."

He adds that "as the end nears, the suffering of others is paramount to the malignant narcissist. It is their way of elevating themselves—sick as that sounds—by malevolently paying back society with even more suffering. As they lash out, they will show no concern or empathy because they have none."

Navarro concluded that the worst case scenario comes when "a malignantly narcissistic leader ... severely flawed of character, claims that only they can fix things. ... and that only they have a grand vision for the future and so out of necessity they must stay on to save us."

He wrote:

When you hear that, it should give you pause. That is when we have to worry the most. If you don’t believe me, let me tell you about one malignant narcissist of note. You may have heard of him—he was an Austrian corporal who painted postcards for a living. Full of himself and with no shortage of grandiose ideas, he decided on his own to run for office with one goal among various, which was to “Deutschland wieder großartig machen” — to make Germany great again.