'Caricature of a mad king': Analysis pegs 'narcissist' Trump as 'completely out of touch'

12 April

President Donald Trump at a White House press conference on February 4, 2025 (Noamgalai/Shutterstock.com)

During his first term, President Donald Trump angrily clashed with some of the traditional non-MAGA conservatives he appointed — including the secretary of state (Rex Tillerson), White House chief of Staff (retired Gen. John F. Kelly), national security adviser (John Bolton), and U.S. attorney general (Jeff Sessions). But with his second administration, Trump has avoided such conflicts by surrounding himself with ultra-MAGA Republicans and unquestioning loyalists.

Tillerson, Kelly, Bolton and Sessions gave Trump what they considered constructive criticism; this time, critics say, Trump's appointees are telling him what he wants to hear.

Being surrounded by sycophants and loyalists, according to The Guardian's David Smith, is one of the things that is making Trump painfully out of touch at a time when the U.S. economy is being rocked by considerable volatility and fears of a recession are escalating.

"After lighting a fuse under global financial markets," Smith observes in an article published on April 12, "Donald Trump stepped back — all the way to a Florida golf course. A week later, having just caved to pressure to ease his trade tariffs, the U.S. president defended the retreat while hosting racing car champions at the White House. Trump had spent the time in between golfing, dining with donors and making insouciant declarations such as 'this is a great time to get rich' — even as the U.S. economy melted down."

Smith adds, "It was a jolting juxtaposition that prompted comparisons with the Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned, or insane monarchs who lost touch with reality.'

According to Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella, the fact that Trump went golfing when the stock market was plummeting speaks volumes.

Bardella told The Guardian, "He's certainly living up to the caricature of being a mad king. When you're addressing a ballroom in a tuxedo, telling people to take the painful medicine, or on your umpteenth golf vacation while economic chaos is rippling throughout this country and others, at best you're completely out of touch. At worst, you're a sociopathic narcissist who doesn't give a crap about anyone suffering. Ultimately there will be a political price to pay for that."

Trump, Smith notes, is still "demanding absolute loyalty from courtiers" and being "likened to a monarch."

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd told The Guardian, "Richard III comes up to the edge of the stage and wraps the audience into the bad thing he's about to do. He tells them and he uses humor so that he's supposed to be the villain, but the humor kind of counters it so you don't think of him as badly…. Trump does the same thing."

Read David Smith's full article for The Guardian at this link.

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