@blatham,
I don't know about a pathological narcissist, so much as a life-long narcissist, almost totally divorced from human reality. One wonders where it all went wrong. Frederick Trump was as sharp as a carpet tack, making him a formidable businessman; but he was also a philanthropist, donating land for building and donating buildings to many charitable organizations involved in medical treatment and research, as well as such building contributions or new building projects to hospitals. So how did Donald miss out on that aspect of human relations? That's why I say he was divorced from human reality.
In the 1992 presidential campaign, James Carville used the expression "The economy, stupid" to focus the campaign workers and Bill Clinton on the major message of the campaign. It was an insider thing in the campaign, but the press knew about it. George Bush's approval rating had slipped from an all-time high at the time of the Gulf war to the point that well over half of polled Americans disapproved of his performance, and the economy was the reason.
Bush was his own worst enemy. Thinking to portray him as someone in touch with the people and their economic concerns, Bush was taken to a supermarket to make some inconsequential purchases for a "photo op." He watched the clerk scan his items, and was just amazed. He went on and on about how wonderful that was--I'm sure his handlers were saying to themselves, "Shut up, just shut up!" Reporters, familiar with Carville's focus on the economy and the slogan for campaign workers, began to say, and eventually to put into print the slogan: "It's the economy, stupid." They were talking about Bush, of course. The man was driven to school by a chauffeur as a child. He probably hadn't bought anything for himself since he had left the Navy.
President Plump seems even more out of touch with reality and the lives of ordinary people. The incident in which he mocked the disabled reporter was the kind of thing which no parent with more than two brain cells to rub together would tolerate. Most of us, 99% or more, learn such lessons in the school of hard knocks, in school, and even more on the playground or the streets, after school. It appears that Plump never learned any of those lessons. Truly, I have never seen a public figure less in touch with others, possessing less empathy and consideration.
