Donald Trump lives in a swirl of anger, retribution and economic fantasies. IOW- Trump is crazy!

Opinion letter published in the Northhampton Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Stephen Armstrong, in Hadley.

In my January letter to the editor, I promised I would not write another Trump letter for four years if he or she would publish that one. But, since then, I have sent two others. The Gazette is forcing me to consider whether I am a habitual liar. Oh, well. Perhaps I am, but nowhere near our 100-day super-president. 

Today, I am thinking about the “real” effects of this man’s economic fantasies, his vaunted worldwide tariffs. We will feel them at the end of May, because by then the number of ships of Chinese goods in American ports will have declined by 30%-40%.

Trump laughs and says that American kids can make do with two dolls, not 30; and isn’t it too bad that American parents will have to spend $2 more per doll❓ (It won’t be $2, by the way: the tariffs- if Trump returns to his fantasy, will be 154% of the value of the doll❗ So much for Barbie.) 

What goads Trump’s fantasies❓ His mental life is simple: he wants to stomp, crush, defile, and run under his feet anyone whom he does not like. Unfortunately, Trump dislikes most of the American public — certainly those who voted against him — many women, most immigrants, and above all China, as impossible as this seems. Trump requires fealty, and China’s only gift of homage to him was Covid, both a personal case where he thought he was Superman to have survived, and a pandemic which claimed 1.1 million Americans, who did not survive.

Anger, aggression, never-ending grievance, and repetitive delusions about his “deal-making” capabilities — these are the powers behind his economic fantasies. In his childish way Trump thinks his fantasies are the “truth.” 

Trump does not care what a doll costs, or how many dolls an American child might want. He thinks of us as though we are over-indulged children, and thus we deserve his lies and contempt.

From Steven Armstrong in Hadley (at least, the name he uses to write letters to the editor)