When most of us hear the word “addiction,” we tend to think of drugs or alcohol, but narcissism, a behavioral disorder, can also be an addiction. Our leader is a classic case in point.
I remember a couple of years ago when commentators speculated as to whether Trump would seek re-election, and now I hear the same pundits questioning whether Trump will attend Biden’s inauguration. These so-called experts do not understand the powerful addictive nature of narcissism.
Attention is what a narcissist craves more than anything else. Although a narcissist prefers adulation to criticism, just being at the center of things is what counts. Being president for a narcissist is like an addict finding the purest kind of heroin imaginable.
If a narcissist can tweet something at 3 in the morning and have the world talk about it when the sun rises, it doesn’t get any better than that. There was no way Trump wasn’t going to run for re-election this year, and I seriously doubt that Trump will show up for Biden’s inauguration.
Nothing hurts a narcissist more than giving up the spotlight, not being the center of attention, and Trump knows all too well that if he attends Biden’s swearing in, he will be marginalized.
We can expect him to tweet away for years to come, to appear on Fox News where he will always receive a hero’s welcome, to hold rallies for his faithful and to run for president in 2024, not because he cares about any of us, but because he needs to be relevant, talked about, the center of things.
Burt Ross