Donald Trumps Emotions Are Getting the Best of Him

This article expresses the views of the author and not Her Campus.

Since the start of his campaign, Donald Trump has made it well known when he is deeply saddened by a myriad of issues, especially those of which he portrays himself victimized by.  Over the weekend, his outlandish accusations have skyrocketed with baseless accusations that the Obama administration had wiretapped his phones during the election season.  Some think this is a distraction from investigations into his administration’s ties with Russia.

The subject of this 3 a.m. Twitter rampage quickly diverged when he brought up The Apprentice before he continued his day golfing.

Sad, sad, sad.  This theme was present when he tweeted about the Oscar’s finale mishap.  Again, he twisted issues of misfortune to place the attention on himself.

After the awards show, ultra-conversative news outlet Brietbart reported Trump saying: “I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end. It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars. It didn’t feel like a very glamorous evening. I’ve been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”

Trump had to throw in that of course he has been to the Oscars (*insert eye roll emoji*) but like many media organizations, TV shows, reporters, actresses, politicians, countries… they’re all failing terribly and his heart just aches at their demise.  “Special” to Donald Trump must mean no political statements being made against him.  Poor Trump for falling victim to artists, many of whom were women, immigrants and part of other minority groups, movie casts full of immigrants and diversity, for taking a stand and using their powerful voices to take a stand against injustice – all at his expense. 

As we are probably all used to by now, though, this rhetoric is old news.  Trump has a long history of “melancholy” remarks and especially Tweets.  Here are just a few from the past: 

(About American job loss)

Maybe it’s just me, but something tells me that he isn’t really saddened by this things.  Rather, he is trying to discredit them through dramatization, hoping to sway the people into agreeance.  Trump’s behaivor has been a topic of interest to many psychologists, and even the Russian government has been compiling a dossier on Trump’s “mental state” in preparation for Putin’s meeting with him, which is typically unusual.  Psychologists have labeled Trump a narcissist for exaggerating his achievements, bring entitled and lacking empathy, and as playing the part of a “messiah figure,” here to solve the world’s problems.  One psychologist cited “reaction formation,”  the expression of feelings towards an event, a situation or something about ourselves that is the opposite of what we truly feel.”

In his February news conference, Trump said, “You go to some of these inner city places and it’s so sad when you look at the crime. You have people – and I’ve seen this, and I’ve sort of witnessed it –in fact, in two cases I have actually witnessed it.”  I mean, he’s “sort of” witnessed it so he must be an expert and qualified to make generalizations like that.

More recently, Trump finally commented on the hate crime shooting that took place in Kansas, killing one Indian engineer and injuring his colleague.

“Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.”  This came after days of urging the President to remark on the recent incidents and many still felt that this was too little and too late.  Still, the tweets continue:

If anything is for certain, President Trump, it’s that we do not need your pity.

• oscars
• psychology
• twitter