Something we hear about in investment risk management is a natural tilt in human judgment against losses, even when it’s irrational. Now I’m wondering if that explains the behaviors of Mr. Trump, if Mr. Trump is more terrified, in his age-addled, narcissism-twisted brain, of losing more and more of his base, which would be a great insult to his ego – they no longer love me! – than he is of trying and failing to attract more voters, as any rational candidate might do.
After all, Trump has made little effort to conceal his distaste for former American POWs and, indeed, all American military service members, past, present, and future; his continuing alignment with far-right groups such as white supremacists; his insistence that the January 6th insurrectionists were, somehow, “patriots”; his characterization of PTSD in post-attack victims in the military as nothing more than headaches; and several other such appalling attitudes. These all share a link in that those who might agree enjoy bombastic, easy-to-understand explanations/solutions that are, Mencken-like[1], wrong, but make their adherents feel good about attitudes that are now considered doubtful.
This is in opposition to other subjects as Project 2025 and abortion, which are less of an open question in the mind of believers, and more of a closed subject. He can distance himself, albeit ambiguously, from them with little damage to his core followers. Also, Project 2025 is relatively recent and not well-known.
By repeating these statements, he’s choosing to solidify a base that reinforces his ego-need for approval. It’s a validation, a tangible validation that is far different from the anonymous validators he often tries to employ to protect his ego, such as Top Democrats call me and tell me I’m right! Rather than celebrate merely imagined validations, he can point at the cheering crowd and, as I’ve noticed in clips from his rallies, he adores those moments.
Basically, to gratify his ego he’s taking actions that label him an un-American goof in the minds of many voters, and pollute the water for his allies.
1 From the horde of Mencken’s quotes, specifically,
For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
For the reader infuriated by the above, I suggest following the above link. Mencken was no angel, being, as I understand it, anti-Semitic, but he has a collection of observations that characterize Americans quite well, without soothing their egos.
