"Two of the world’s leading pathological narcissists"

 

Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by an excessive preoccupation with oneself, a sense of entitlement, and a need for admiration.  It involves an inflated sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, and a tendency to exploit others to meet their own needs.  While everyone experiences some degree of self-involvement, narcissism becomes a problem when it significantly impairs social or occupational functions and causes distress.

Two of the world’s leading pathological narcissists—Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—met at the White House on Monday.  There was little substantive agreement on outstanding issues, but the meeting produced an outstanding highlight when Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter that nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize.  “You deserve it,” Netanyahu said.  “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Trump replied.

The self-intoxification of these men is startling: Trump is single-handedly compromising the key institutions of our democracy, including elite universities, the mainstream media, and legal and judicial entities.  Netanyahu is pursuing a genocidal war that is making Israel a pariah state, creating generational conflict in the Jewish American community, dividing the Jewish diaspora the world over, and causing a rise in antisemitism.

Trump and Netanyahu operate in different political environments, but each has a wildly exaggerated sense of self-worth that stems from the delusion of having enormous brainpower and the most advanced military technology at their disposal.  

The braggadocio associated with Trump’s bombing campaign against Iran and Netanyahu’s claims to be changing the map of the Middle East speaks directly to their arrogance and paranoia.  Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli Defense Forces are the “most moral army in the world” is self-evident nonsense.  Trump’s inability to admit that he lost the 2020 election speaks to the fragility of his ego.  The mainstream media have largely ignored the mental health of both men.

Netanyahu knows that he holds the upper hand in dealings with Trump.  Several years ago, he told an Israeli audience that “I know what America is.  America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”  As New Yorker editor, David Remnick, said “There is not an America President—Clinton, Bush Obama, Biden, or Trump—who has dealt with Netanyahu and not, sooner or later, come away with a lingering sense of resentment.” 

Remnick actually understated these situations; these presidents couldn’t stand the guy.  Yet, all of them gave Israeli Defense Forces everything it demanded; as a result, the United States is totally complicit in Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign.  As for Trump: he won’t provide Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend against President Putin’s campaign of terror, but he will give Israel everything it needs to conduct a genocidal campaign from the air against a Palestinian community without means for defense.  And he tolerates Israel’s violent expansion of its footprint on the West Bank.

This is the third meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, and they will certainly take a victory lap over their successful bombing campaign against Iran’s air defenses and its nuclear facilities.  Having convinced Trump of the necessity of targeting Iran’s nuclear sites with the Pentagon’s “bunker-buster” bombs weighing 30,000 pounds, Netanyahu will presumably try to convince Trump to join Israel in conducting a military campaign to achieve regime change in Iran.  

Even Trump, with his intellectual limitations, presumably understands the limits of military power to achieve regime change in view of recent U.S. experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan where military involvement led to two decades of feckless U.S. fighting in each place.

There is still debate over the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program, but there is one certainty—Trump has made sure that the Middle East will continue to be America’s briar patch.   However, Trump will presumably be seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in order to reduce the chance of continued U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.  Netanyahu will do his best to prevent any resumption of U.S.-Iranian talks on a new nuclear agreement to replace the one that Trump ended in 2018.

In any event, since their last meeting in April, the Israelis have been killing Palestinians in record numbers, and the acute malnutrition numbers in Gaza continue to grow.  The number of displaced Palestinians in Gaza also continues to grow, and there are continued Israeli blockades of humanitarian assistance.  Israel’s deadly siege continues in Gaza and the West Bank, and Trump is making no serious effort to stop it.  Like Putin, Netanyahu certainly appears to be playing Trump in these discussions.

A leading characteristic of narcissists is grandiosity, and this trait makes it difficult to predict the negotiating positions of either Trump or Netanyahu.  Trump’s grandiosity was exhibited in the order for the Pentagon’s $45 million parade that coincided with his 79th birthday.  As president, Trump has raised the possibility of invading Panama, annexing Canada and Mexico, and buying Greenland.  His casual references to the possibility of a third term also speak to his grandiosity.   

When Trump can’t control the message, he simply shuts down the messenger, such as Voice of America or sues it, such as ABC and CBS.  Both Trump and Netanyahu demonstrate an insatiable quest for power and control; both men claim they have been given the heroic task of rescuing their homelands.

In addition to his emotional and psychological limits, Trump lacks the intellect, the rigor, and the powers of concentration to devote more than 24 hours to any given international task.

He said that he could end the Ukraine-Russia war in 24 hours and, when he couldn’t, he suspended weapons assistance to Ukraine and walked away from the problem.  For 24 hours, he discussed turning Gaza into the “Riviera” of the Middle East and displacing 2 million Palestinians.  

When Trump was caricatured for such nonsense, he dropped the matter, and it was never heard again.  Trade deals have not materialized, and tariff issues have not been resolved.  Trump said this would take 90 days, but we’ve passed the target on that one, and only a trade/tariff deal with Vietnam is seriously in the works.  

When he attends international meetings, such as the recent NATO conference, Trump returns home early because he has little to offer in terms of strategic dialogue. Trump took on the Iran assignment because it was seemingly a one and done operation. 

Trump would like to avoid the results of last week’s phone call with Russian President Putin, who rejected Trump’s call for a ceasefire with Ukraine and, 24hours later, launched the greatest barrage of drones and missiles since the war started nearly three years ago.  Ukraine accepted Trump’s terms for a ceasefire but was hit with a halt on much needed Patriot air defense systems from the United States.  

Trump threatened additional sanctions against Russia for resisting the ceasefire but has thus far refused to apply them.  In fact, the Trump administration has eased some of the economic restrictions previously placed on Russia. As a result, Putin pays very little attention to Trump’s warnings, totally ignoring Trump’s call for ending the conflict. 

It remains to be seen what the impact of these events will be on Israel’s response to Trump’s call for a 60-day Gazan ceasefire, which Hamas has accepted, and Israel has thus far ignored.  Like Putin, Netanyahu has thus far ignored Trump’s various calls for a cease-fire. Meanwhile, the murderous logistics of Israel’s genocidal campaign continues in Gaza.  Only the courageous reporting of Palestinian journalists provides sources of credible information, but these journalists remain high on the Israeli target list.

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University.  A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.