But will he think about how many schoolchildren, grocery store shoppers, parade attendees, concertgoers, moviegoers and so forth have had this experience and change anything about himself? No.
Whereas Kamala and Tim don't have to nearly be shot to be empathetic to people who were nearly shot.
Trauma psychiatrist here. I’ve been able to find compassion for every trauma survivor I’ve ever served: everyone from law enforcement to street level dealers in 90’s LA/Venice turf wars.
I’m grateful I don’t have the immense challenge of trying to find empathy for trauma survivor Trump as a patient.
Can I nope out on the 'caring' act and just say that I do not care the least? Frankly; get worse, tinyhands, we don't need you for precisely ANYTHING. Not. One. Thing.
Like, “may have PTSD” is something I’d want coming from his therapist right now, not from a campaign staffer just winging based on him developing obsessive tendencies??
I could be convinced some of his family doesn’t hate him. I’d at least listen to the argument. But he sure as hell isn’t going to listen to any of them.
Only got lay knowledge of this stuff, but ruminating, looping the event, replaying the steps incessantly/obsessively can be a component of PTSD. That the guy is obsessed with seeing himself in media, I'd imagine that compounds the problem. It doesn't engender sympathy in me either, but maybe irony
Also, despite that the gunman would have likely shot any high profile figure, he was a Republican gun nut with an assault rifle. That has to fuck with him.
He got clipped by shrapnel from the teleprompter. he wouldn't have much of an ear left if the bullet hit his ear. So now he knows how children feel after an active shooter comes to their school and wrecks havoc. Reality came home to roost.
Jumping every time a car backfires, can't walk down the street without looking over his shoulder, the old Irish adage "We must only be lucky once" playing in a loop in the worm riddled brain of his.
A fair press conference question that will never be asked: "Mr. Trump, have you been tested or treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after the assassination attempt?"
And I'm not saying that to be snarky. It's a legit concern.
I mean the simplest explanation imo is narcissism/ego and being a sore loser. Narcissists can't handle losing. If they think they're going to lose they'll flat out refuse to play/find an excuse to stop playing in the middle of the game. He's checked out, stopped trying to win...
Bc then when he loses he can just say "well I wasn't even trying so it doesn't count".
Fits well with his comments about Biden dropping out being "unfair" - he thought he was in a game he could win, now he's not, so he's looking for excuses to quit the game before he can lose.
The one other thing it reminds me of is when a student is halfway through a semester and flunking a class, and they just stop turning in homework or trying at all, bc they feel like it's completely hopeless and pointless to put any effort in.
(Wouldnt be surprised if hes PTSD on top of it all tho)
I don’t believe it. I think they’re spinning this now to be able to have a story when he quits or to gain sympathy for his total meltdown.
He could win easily against Biden. But he doesn’t have the energy for Harris’s energy. And on top of that he has Temu Ted Cruz for VP. Scared of prison? Yes.
“hey remember when some teen dipshit almost blew your head off and half the country was laughing about it? anyways here it is on the side of the worst truck”
That’s because fascism is just like toxic masculinity, where he can’t admit that it messed him up, and neither can his supporters. It has to be a victorious moment of jubilation and there cannot be any acknowledgement of the possibility of fear or weakness.
Which is why he’s never, ever, ever going to recover from it. Can’t get over existential terror if you never acknowledge it. (She said with a certain amount of pleasure and delight.)
It's not fun anymore, it's scary and he's surrounded by insane people he definitely can't trust. One of his own psycho supporters tried to murder him for attention, and he thinks about it every time he sees a young republican or neonazi. The rest of the world hates his guts and wants him jailed.
The thing is though he has literally sabotaged every venture he's ever been tied too from business to relationships. It's how malignant narcissism works. This is just Trump being Trump but more people are starting to notice it.
A minor thing, this is normal for anyone, it needs to go on for at least a month to be PTSD. So, give him a little more time, doesn't sound like a healthy way of dealing with it.
Trauma from violence will profoundly mess with a person's ability to think straight and it snowballs from there. Pretty common American experience for Trump.
maybe he's figured out, too late, that those nutjob Evangelicals and ppl behind Project 2025, have zero sense of humour and super high expectations of him
to a guy who's failed-up for literally his entire life, that probably feels like too much pressure
Remember how much he used to love counter-programming? If there was a big event he wasn't part of, he'd hold a simultaneous rally to split coverage. Past him would have salivated at holding a rally with all the trimmings to pull attention from the DNC.
Trump’s narcissism wins every time, but thoughts slip thru daily; ‘Some Republicans don’t like me.’ ‘I might die, painfully, embarrassingly, with a full diaper.’ ‘Kamabla can win. I’m gonna lose to a woman - a Black one. I’m a loser. Dad was right. I can’t even sell these docs. Trump Social sucks.’
He’ll never be able to enjoy a balloon drop again and that man loved when balloons dropped from the ceiling, it’s at least 17% of why he ran the first time
I don't credit Trump with a strong sense of internality, but having a bullet whiz past his head and realize that millions of people woulda laughed if you got domed might've gotten to him.
We learned during the trial in New York City that he surrounds himself with a "good news fluffer," who constantly feeds him positive news and tweets. He is really insulated from the real world where a lot of folks strongly dislike him.
He got shook pretty bad when he got booed at the baseball game.
We know he's a narcissist, and narcissists feed energy off of praise, affection, and submission.
Someone disliking you enough to actually try to kill you is going to be a trauma all by itself, before you get to contemplating just how close they came to succeeding. Which would shake ANYONE.
I also wonder how much the fact that nobody cared he almost got killed plays into it. He got about 5 minutes of concern and then everyone moved onto/back to the Biden drama. No outpouring of affection or appreciation. Just "meh" from most of the country.
A lot of rising autocrats have assassination attempts in their stories. It's something they play up fir public support and a justification to be ruthless and cruel to their enemies.
Trump got "Oh wow the secret service really screwed the pooch, that sucks for you dude."
Sounds like reinforcement of some of his childhood experiences. "You're not important dude, so you just need to tell/remind people how important you are". I'd wager that kind of childhood is not uncommon to autocrats.
Yeah he's a mass of internal panic barely held together by tranquilizers. I think he also sustained injury to the ear in a way that caused hearing loss. SOMETHING happened, shrapnel or hard slap down from USSS. He can't hear like he could before, won't admit it and his people won't confront him.
Honestly, Trump obsessing fearfully over his near-death experience and tanking his own campaign as a result is 100% the ideal outcome from that episode.
As a service to the country, I need someone to make an AI version of the clip where he actually takes a clean headshot and drops like a buck. They then need to switch it out for the one he keeps watching, like, while he's on the toilet or something.
Dipshit finally had to confront the fact that there's people in this world that actually hate him and his own mortality at the same time and his brain just bluescreened.
Comments
Whereas Kamala and Tim don't have to nearly be shot to be empathetic to people who were nearly shot.
I’m grateful I don’t have the immense challenge of trying to find empathy for trauma survivor Trump as a patient.
May?
May??
The campaign should’ve had him with a post-trauma therapist as an ASAP priority
He fucking deserves it.
Burger King Lear
Was it worth it Donny?
Then to survive to realise it was someone from his own base, and it did nothing to help him because most people would prefer he was dead.
And I'm not saying that to be snarky. It's a legit concern.
Fits well with his comments about Biden dropping out being "unfair" - he thought he was in a game he could win, now he's not, so he's looking for excuses to quit the game before he can lose.
(Wouldnt be surprised if hes PTSD on top of it all tho)
He could win easily against Biden. But he doesn’t have the energy for Harris’s energy. And on top of that he has Temu Ted Cruz for VP. Scared of prison? Yes.
Not that I’m actually going to waste time doing this IRL.
“wow, it was so cool when you could have died!” is not what anyone wants to be hearing or seeing
to a guy who's failed-up for literally his entire life, that probably feels like too much pressure
If this was an attempt to get out the sympathy vote, it sucked 😏
He got shook pretty bad when he got booed at the baseball game.
Someone disliking you enough to actually try to kill you is going to be a trauma all by itself, before you get to contemplating just how close they came to succeeding. Which would shake ANYONE.
A lot of rising autocrats have assassination attempts in their stories. It's something they play up fir public support and a justification to be ruthless and cruel to their enemies.
Trump got "Oh wow the secret service really screwed the pooch, that sucks for you dude."
Doesn't excuse it, just explains it.
Guys, I think I would remember something like that.
There is *one* ethical use for generative AI.
“Should they check again? Because I dunno.”
“They have it locked down tight as a drum, sir.”
“If I hadn’t turned my head I’d be dead now, you know that?”
“Your adoring fans are waiting, sir.”
Sniffles. “Yeah I dunno.”
I love this for him.