Leading psychologist says Trump's talent for manipulating half-belief is second to none.

 

Donald Trump

I knew of the 'Rashomon Effect' but I didn't realise that it was also the name of a film. The concept refers to the way in which individuals have competing realities and interpret events in different ways. Donald Trump is not only a compulsive liar, but he's also a dangerous demagogue, prone to using the 'Big Lie' and then imposing it on the American public.

Did Trump really believe that he won the 2020 U.S. election and then it was stolen from him? He's lost every legal challenge in the U.S. courts on this issue. Before the Presidential election in 2020, I remember Trump saying that he might not recognise the result. He's now saying that if he loses in November, there will be a bloodbath, and conversely, that if he wins the election, there will be no more elections. One psychologist said that the answer to the question of whether Trump really believes he won the 2020 Presidential election, is neither yes nor no, but yes and no.

In Psychology Today, Nancy Rosenblum, characterized Trump's approach as 'solipsistic reality'. She says Trump is only capable of embracing a version of reality based on what his own self seeks and needs, even though it may be far removed from accepted standards of evidence. Trump makes things up and comes to believe partially in his own lies. Once Trump created the Big Lie about the 2020 U.S. election, he had to maintain the falsehood, it was part of what Rosenblum calls the "narrative necessity." She says that Trump's talent for socially manipulating half-belief is second to none.

Some years ago, I watched an interview with Trump's former butler, Anthony Senecal, at Mar-a-Lago. He said Trump would tell guests that the tiles in his daughter Ivanka's room, were made by Walt Disney. He also made the same claim in a book. It was a great story, but totally untrue. "Who cares?" Trump laughed, according to his butler.

Trump is a liar, but he's consistent and it doesn't seem to damage him politically. Nor did being found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a New York jury. Despite his mendacity and crookedness, Trump has managed to become the chosen Republican nominee for President. Opinion polls have shown that Trump, a convicted felon, is more trusted on the economy, foreign policy, and immigration, than either Kamala Harris or Joe Biden. Nevertheless, his opinion poll lead has been narrowing since Harris became the official Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

Since Trump's abysmal performance in the debate with Kamala Harris, he's now ruled out any further debates with her before the U.S. Presidential election in November. I'm hardly surprised that he's afraid to debate with Harris because she wiped the floor with him. When Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, Harris pissed herself laughing and so did many Americans. The moderators told him that they'd fact checked the allegation with the authorities in Springfield, who couldn't confirm, what Trump had alleged. Trump then accused the moderators of being biased in favour of Kamala Harris, who he accused of being a 'Marxist' like her father.