With the 2020 Presidential Election only months away and Donald Trump being shellacked by former Vice President Joe Biden in the polls, a mental health expert is warning that Trump could pull a Hitler and create a “Reichstag incident” in a desperate attempt to stay in power.
Trump knows he is losing badly to Biden as much as he refuses to admit it in public.
And every decision he makes these days has been specifically geared toward trying to get re-elected.
But with the coronavirus pandemic getting worse and the economy being a mess and Trump’s racism being out in the open, the chances of him winning a second term are dropping by the day.
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And that is putting a total damper on his desire to be a dictator, according to retired Harvard psychiatry professor Dr. Lance Dodes.
“Donald Trump is incapable of tolerating losing without withdrawing into delusional paranoid explanations of what happened,” Dodes said during an interview with Salon. “His fundamental need to be always right and an absolute ruler, a God above all criticism, is what has led to his inability to tolerate democracy, and his repeated efforts to destroy it with his attacks on Congress, the judiciary system and a free press.”
Just like Hitler and other tyrants, Trump does not like to be challenged and lashes out to the extreme in response.
“Trump is able to appear more in touch with reality when he is being worshiped,” Dodes continued. “Indeed, when his primitive needs are not being challenged, he can look like a normal person — it’s what has made him a successful con man. When he is challenged, however, his cruelty, sadism, paranoia, lack of conscience, incitement to violence and active pursuit of policies that kill people become obvious. These traits are properly described as ‘evil.’ In professional terms, they mean he is a psychopath.”
When asked how Trump could respond if it becomes clear that he isn’t going to win the election, Dodes warned that we could see a Reichstag-type incident that Trump will use as an excuse to cancel the election or keep Biden from taking over.
“As Hitler did to consolidate his power, it is likely that Trump will create some type of Reichstag incident, such as starting a war with China or Iran, attempting to fool the American people into thinking there is a crisis that requires total obedience to him,” Dodes concluded. “There is a serious probability that he will try to cancel the 2020 election, given that he has already claimed the election will be invalid and is fighting to disallow or prevent votes by people who oppose him. Trump is telegraphing his plans for all to see. What we need to see is that Donald Trump is fundamentally psychologically defective, that he is a psychopath who will destroy decency and democracy if his efforts to do this are not recognized in time.”
The Reichstag fire was an act of arson in 1933 that paved the way for the establishment of Nazi Germany and Hitler’s consolidation of power.
Trump understands the Nazi playbook, so it makes sense that he may try something similar to consolidate his own power. Americans must rise to the occasion to prevent this looming threat to our democracy and Constitution from happening.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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