On Thursday night, a biographer of President Donald Trump warned that the looming specter of “death” and political decline is making him increasingly “desperate.” This is according to Tony Schwartz – ghostwriter of Trump’s book the Art of the Deal – who said he worries that the president’s growing tendency to lash out could see him use nuclear weapons.
“Trump is in a remarkably self-destructive phase of his life,” said Schwartz while appearing on MS NOW. “He is far and away his own worst enemy. Can you imagine if a year ago or a year and a half ago, when his term was starting, he hadn't created the tariffs, if he hadn't started the Iran war? Why does this happen? We know that this is a severely narcissistic guy, that he is always trying to fill what I call that black hole inside him. But here's a couple of things that have changed.”
The first involves the fact that Trump recently turned 80. “That's a meaningful moment in his life,” said Schwartz, “and a look at his own eventual demise, at his death, which is frightening to him.” The second is a matter of the president’s declining power, which Schwartz says is resulting in “narcissistic collapse,” explaining, “He has counted on all of these external things to prove to himself that he matters, and now he is desperately seeking ways – in fact, most of his energy goes into finding ways – to prove that he still matters.”
But as Schwartz notes, Trump’s efforts are backfiring and pushing his rating to January 6 levels of disapproval, and while the president has long been skilled at redirecting the narrative, his attempts to deflect from his historic unpopularity have failed. “How does he explain 29 percent, 30 percent poll ratings?” asks Schwartz. How does he explain every poll suggesting that there is going to be a blue victory if not a tsunami? He can't, and so he runs off to red districts. He builds ballrooms. He puts his name on endless numbers of things, none of which move the ball forward for the country, and none of which help him or Republicans politically. It's the power of insecurity taken to a whole new level.”
That insecurity, Schwartz warns, could prompt Trump to lash out in the most destructive way possible. As the author explains, “What frightens me the most right now – I said this in 2016, that I was worried that if he had his hand on the nuclear button, there was going to come a time when he might just go over the top. That worries me again now, because going out with a blaze of glory is something I could imagine him doing.”
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