What goes on inside Donald Trump’s head is different from most normal people. Trump has an altogether way of perceiving the world and of thinking about the world and the people in it. There are words we use to describe people like Trump – but rarely does anyone carry this way of thinking to such an extreme. It’s not merely genetic, it’s cultural development as well assisted by genetic predisposition.
Trump’s basic personality is Narcissistic. His needs are not only primary, in his world, they are the only thing that matters. The needs of others are of no importance whatsoever, apart from what he needs to bolster his own ego. He is perceptive enough to know that if he acts egregiously or blatantly illegally, he will be arrested, tried and suffer the sanctions that society imposes. However, it’s also a game for him. He can lie, create false narratives that exonerate his guilt; he can magnify his denials; he can accuse his accuser of being guilty of the very misbehaviors of which he himself is guilty; he can repeat his fabrications so frequently that others will assume there must be some truth to his claims. He can bend the law in surreptitious ways so that his involvement is not detected or, if it is, he can manipulate the prosecutorial system so as to delay his accountability until the prosecution is exhausted. Even if he is found culpable or guilty, he has found that he has the resources to buy his way out so as to avoid incarceration.
In truth, Trump is a solipsist. He only believes his own reality, witness his denial of his loss in the 2020 Presidential election. Despite the announcements of others that he lost the election, Trump still contends that he won, despite the counts and numerous recounts in several states that report that he lost by a sizeable margin. When members of his family and allied election officials, commentators, reputable news reporters, public officials and other respectable, honorable people tell him he lost, he denies it and asserts that the election was stolen from him, presumably by some nefarious process that has gone undetected.
Meanwhile, Trump attacks anyone and everyone who disagrees with him and/or fails to respect him. He constantly vilified these people by giving them names like crazy, moron, sleepy, rotten, dishonest, crooked, rabid, animal, slow, little, low-energy, meatball, mad dog, wacky, nervous, low IQ, cryin’, deranged, psycho, radical left. This is what adolescents do before they mature. At the same time, Trump blesses himself with the title “very stable genius”. Of course, he’s hardly stable (as attested to by those who have worked with him) and he certainly is not a genius, as attested to by his sort attention span and his confusion of details.
Trump learned from his father that a good defense is to present a strong offense when criticized or attacked – and to take credit for popular actions conceived and executed by subordinates. Trump never apologizes or admits mistakes – and never admits he was wrong (when evidence clearly demonstrates he was). He denies saying things that were mistakes, even when those assertions were recorded or filmed. His brain is assigned never to admit weakness or error but to lash out when he feels he is being dismissed or contradicted. This is the typical characterization of the psychopath, who has no sense of ethics or responsibility for actions committed. As with John McCain, if someone is taken out of the picture in some way, Trump has no interest or regrets for those who are of no use to him and his reputation. Trump’s brain is a very simple matter. His interest is only in himself. When confronted, his only objective is to find the easiest way out of his current dilemma. He buys the loyalty of his sycophants and believes that is what others do as well.
Yes. His brain is a simple organ of his body. It tells him what it wants. It conceives of how to obtain his desires. When it is blocked from doing so, it responds with rage and looks for ways to circumvent the obstacles. While it may need to backtrack, it is only strengthened in its desire to achieve its objective(s), regardless of the ways to move forward.
The lobes of Trump’s brain that are abnormally deficient are the brain stem, the parietal lobe, the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe, especially in the left hemisphere. It’s clear that Trump has a short attention span as evidenced in his demand that his intelligence briefings be brief when he was in the White House. That indicates that his brain stem is not well developed or impaired in some way. Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing. Trump’s limited vocabulary in indicative of deficiencies here in the parietal lobe. However, the most evident deficiency is apparent in the temporal and frontal lobes. The temporal lobe consists of structures that are vital for declarative or long-term memory. Note that Trump’s facts are just outright lies. Declarative or explicit memory is conscious memory divided into semantic memory, having to do with facts, and episodic memory, having to do with events. Trump evidences this deficiency by his confused or forgotten details of history. The frontal lobe is located behind the forehead, at the front of the brain. These lobes are part of the cerebral cortex and are the largest brain structure. The frontal lobes main functions are typically associated with ‘higher’ cognitive functions, including decision-making, problem-solving, thought, and attention. Trump’s limited thought patterns, his concern with immediate events and he lack of ethical judgments is indicative of impairment or deficiency in frontal lobe condition.
Donald Trump is not a rational and reasoning human being, aware of his limitations. He has no internal convictions, no creative ideas or original thoughts. He responds to external conditions like a mechanical automaton, failing to anticipate the implications and consequences of his actions. He is convinced he can get away with anything – and has the resources to do it. It is only recently that he realizes that at least some of the 91 charges facing him may result in conviction – and he faces the possibility of incarceration. His brain is already working to find a way to avoid that result - and will work overtime to achieve that end, a difficult task with so many avenues now foreclosed. Trump’s problem now is that he really does believe he is a genius and is better equipped than his attorneys to find a solution. That’s just another delusion. Delusions are most associated with gray matter reductions in the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the insula and the middle frontal gyrus. Lesions in the right hemisphere areas/or bifrontal areas have also been linked to delusions. An imbalance of certain neuro transmitters in the brain has also been linked to the formation of delusional symptoms.
The final question then, as with all criminals, is whether Trump can or should be held accountable for the malfunctions of his brain, leading his to determine he is above the law and not accountable to it. If he is not accountable because of the genetic dysfunctions of his brain, that assumes that he cannot override the propensities of his brain and control it with other parts of his brain that have been influenced by the norms of society. But, the reality is that humans can learn new lessons, enabling people to override those predilections and control their behavior. So, Trump needs to be held accountable for his behavior. He could have acted differently but he chose not to. He needs to be restrained from doing further harm and sanctioned for his misdeeds of the past.