2023-08-17 06:00:00
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
Q. When we last spoke, after the 2020 presidential election, you said we were entering “the most dangerous phase of Donald Trump’s presidency.” A few weeks later, Trump supporters invaded the Capitol. With new criminal charges filed Monday against Trump in Georgia, how would you describe the current times?
A. I believe that the dangers are even greater now than they have ever been and that what we are experiencing now has the potential to profoundly influence the future.
We know that Donald Trump does not have the internal capacity to regulate himself. It must be restrained by forces external to itself. The problem is that he is surrounded by enablers and opportunists who have learned to use these flaws to advance undemocratic and unpopular ideas. I must say it’s scary to see that a psychological pathology has been used in this way.
Q. Donald Trump was president at the time of the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol. Today, he has become a simple citizen again. Do you think this lessens the dangers posed by his gestures and verbal attacks?
A. The dangerousness of an individual is not limited to the individual as such, but depends on the situation, the circumstances. I’ve always said that Donald Trump wouldn’t have been so dangerous if he had remained a businessman and a TV personality. But being president has made him the most dangerous person in the world. I had predicted that this dangerousness would not go away after his electoral defeat and his exit from the White House, and today we see that his supporters are still following him, threatening officials, etc. It’s far from over.
PHOTO DUSTIN CHAMBERS, REUTERS
A Donald Trump supporter outside the Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday
What Donald Trump and his supporters fear above all else is the truth. The lawsuits against him are essentially ways to bring out this truth. It is for this reason that I think we are in the most dangerous period of what could be called the Trump phenomenon.
Q. Despite the accusations piling up against Donald Trump, very few of his supporters and very few elected Republicans take the opportunity to dissociate themselves from him. On the contrary, they support it more, at least publicly, and Donald Trump is still the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Does this surprise you?
A. It doesn’t surprise me since they have invested so much in his lies, his false beliefs and his parallel reality that they can’t stop now. Otherwise, the loss is too great.
We had an example of this during COVID-19, when Republicans were so psychologically invested in Trump’s ideas that they did not believe in the disease. These people could be in the hospital, in intensive care, breathing with an artificial respirator so much their lungs were destroyed by the virus, and they were angry with their doctor. Until their last breath, they claimed that they were being deceived, that they had in fact an allergic reaction, or pneumonia… Until their last breath! This is the importance of Trump’s lies for them!
Many people wonder how Trump can still have the support of a third of American adults despite all that has happened. But it is precisely because his lies are so big, and his alleged crimes are so important, that he has such a fervent base.
Q. The next year is likely to be filled with revelations about Trump’s actions after his failed 2020 election. So far, the Democrats and Joe Biden haven’t wanted to comment too much on those issues. Is this the right strategy, in your opinion?
A. I think you have to believe in the judicial process, you have to believe that the truth will come to the surface during the trials. That said, since the beginning of the Trump phenomenon, I believe that there should have been a psychiatric process, a job done by American psychiatrists to alert the public. But the American Psychiatric Association quickly barred mental health experts from commenting on what they saw in Trump and his movement.
It is not excluded, in my opinion, that we will see more episodes of violence as the truth comes to light, and that will anger Trump supporters. But we must not let ourselves be carried away by violence, threats and insults. Ultimately, this process will lead to a less violent world than it would have been had Trump been able to continue his lies.
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