Why Trump, and why Trump now?

Why Trump, and why Trump now?

Donald Trump is a demonstrable psychopath. He meets all twenty criteria of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, an initial diagnostic tool for psychopathy.

See the July 16, 2015, post titled, “Is Your Favorite Candidate a Psychopath,” in which we already identified Trump as a psychopath. Then came the May 12, 2016, post titled, “Will Our Next President Be a Psychopath,” and “A Psychopath Slipped Into the White House,” in which we again told you that Trump is a psychopath. 

More than 10 years ago, it was clear that Trump had severe psychological problems, and since then, they have grown worse. Much worse. He may be one of the least capable people to assume the Presidency.

So why Trump, and why now?

I suspect it began with white resentment of a black president, Barack Obama, and the “replacement” theory that has been the emotional fuel, but those are only part of the important shifts that occurred during the recession of 2008..

That period saw a perfect storm of fear and loss. Several simultaneous changes rattled the American self-image:

1) Demographic reality: 

White Americans went from an overwhelming majority to a plurality heading toward minority status. Immigration, interracial marriage, and non-Christian identity became normal.

That triggered a visceral “status loss” among some whites — not necessarily material loss, but loss of primacy. This status anxiety is the emotional heart of “replacement theory.” It is the basis for the illogical but powerful hatred of immigrants today.

That hatred is illogical from an economic standpoint. (Immigrants are a major benefit to America. They pay taxes, don’t receive social benefits, don’t steal jobs, fill undesirable jobs, are less likely to commit crimes than citizens, and are important consumers for businesses.)

That hatred also is illogical from a moral standpoint. Americans have viewed ourselves as a “shining city on a hill,” an example for the world. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Yet hatred is planted and nurtured by fear, and Trump consistently has played on that fear

2) Economic disillusionment: 

Forty years of wage stagnation, automation, and globalization hollowed out the working and middle classes. People were told “hard work pays off,” but it stopped paying off.

Resentment needed a target; the wealthy cleverly redirected it toward immigrants, minorities, and “liberal elites.”

3) Information collapse: 

Social media algorithms radicalized discourse. Traditional media lost authority, creating epistemic tribalism: “facts vs. alternative facts.”

(On January 22, 2017, Kellyanne Conway used the expression “alternative facts” while defending Sean Spicer’s false statement that Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest ever; others pointed to photographic and transit evidence to the contrary.)

Outrage became both identity and entertainment. The result: A broad sense that “we are losing our country” — a fertile emotional base for authoritarian politics. Again, fear turned to hatred.

4) The election of a black man, Barack Obama, was a catalyst:

Obama’s election was a psychological earthquake for a segment of white America. A Black president symbolized a reversal of the old hierarchy. For many, that wasn’t progress; it was humiliation — the fear that their America was slipping away.

The right-wing media ecosystem immediately capitalized on that feeling: “He’s not one of us,” “He’s un-American,” “He’s a secret Muslim.” That rhetoric reactivated the oldest American myth — that whiteness and nationhood are synonymous — and made it politically mainstream again. Trump is the perfect authoritarian response

5) Donald Trump didn’t invent this resentment and fear; he channeled it. He offered:

The rich: deregulation, tax cuts, and judicial control.

The poor and anxious: revenge, validation, and a sense of belonging.

He fused those groups into a coalition of resentful masses and self-serving elites under a single emotional banner: Make America Great Again. Translation: Make it white, familiar, and obedient again.

6)Institutional erosion followed:

The judiciary and Congress polarized into obedience camps. 

Truth itself became optional — a sign of late-stage institutional decay.

The old norms (“losers concede,” “laws apply equally”) began to crumble.

That’s the moment when democracies shift toward authoritarian logic:

“If the system won’t protect us, we need a strongman who will.”

Today’s U.S. shows all the classical precursors

Elite cynicism: billionaires and corporations backing populist rhetoric to secure deregulation and tax shelters.

Mass grievance: working-class whites convinced they’re victims of elites and minorities.

Institutional decay: parties acting as tribes, courts politicized, media fractured. Truth derided.

Mythic narrative: “We are being replaced — but our leader will save us.”

That’s textbook pre-authoritarian alignment. The U.S. hasn’t yet become a dictatorship;  it still has strong institutional inertia. But the pattern is unmistakably the same as the early stages seen in other democracies that fell.

Summary

Dictatorships seldom emerge without an elite faction, consisting of the wealthy, military, bureaucratic, or business leaders, seeking either to protect or expand their privileges, alongside a mass faction that desires vengeance, dignity, or the redistribution of wealth.

The dictator brings the two opposing sides together by offering each what they desire. The wealthy gain order, financial benefits, privileges, lucrative contracts, and the suppression of unions, protests, and taxation.

Meanwhile, the poor get a sense of release, a target for their blame, a sense of symbolic justice (“the wealthy will pay”), and a false hope that the nation will reclaim its mythical historical greatness.

This dual alliance is historically visible in Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany, Perón’s Argentina, and Putin’s Russia.

The poor are not always motivated solely by material improvement. They may be driven more by:

Status resentment (“we’ve been humiliated”), cultural anxiety (loss of traditional values, foreign influence), ethnonationalism (restoring dominance of a preferred group), or fear of chaos (preferring strongman order to democratic uncertainty).

This emotional substrate lets the dictator convert economic anger into identity loyalty. It’s why propaganda focuses more on who to hate than how to eat.

The elites’ calculations are usually short-term and self-destructive. The rich see a dictatorship as a profit opportunity. But they often misjudge it. 

They assume they’ll control or “ride” the dictator. They believe democracy’s instability poses a greater threat to their holdings. They underestimate how fast the dictator will turn on them.

In most historical cases, the elites who empowered the autocrat lose control quickly — often their assets, sometimes their lives. (E.g., German industrialists in the 1930s, Russian oligarchs post-2000.)

Dictatorships need institutional decay to take root. Neither mass rage nor elite greed is enough on its own. Dictatorships also need:

Weak political parties (so no one can organize opposition) as demonstrated by the leaderless Democrats and the cowardly Republicans

Distrusted media (so truth collapses into tribal belief), as demonstrated by feckless Fox News and the success of so many conspiracy theorists 

Judicial erosion (so laws become discretionary), as demonstrated by the “politicians in black robes” of the Supreme Court

Obedient security forces willing to obey illegal orders, implemented by Trump’s firing of career generals and other officers.

That decay allows a demagogue to present himself as the only source of unity or salvation. The promise is always the same: revenge + redemption.

Nationalist form: “We’ll restore our greatness.” (Make America Great Again)

Religious form: “We’ll restore moral purity.” (Book burning, censorship, anti “woke”)

Populist form: “We’ll take back what was stolen from you.” (anti-union, anti-rich, anti-immigrant)

It always is about undoing humiliation and promising simple certainty in a complex world.

Is America a dictatorship? We’re not quite there yet, but getting close. We may be saved by Trump’s age and his obvious lack of intelligence and overall mental capacity. But we are teetering.

If a man as weak as Trump can bring us to the brink, that is evidence we need a reassessment of our political, financial, economic, and moral structure. Otherwise, the next moral midgit will bring us crashing down.

I suggest we begin (not end, but begin) with federal spending and legislation to narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest of America.

Data from a Milken Institute report shows that in recent years, the top 10% of households hold about 72% of the wealth in America.

This is a recipe for dictatorship.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell

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MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell;

https://www.academia.edu/

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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Source: https://mythfighter.com/2025/10/13/why-trump-and-why-trump-now/