Trump and the Performance of Power

Narcissism, Shame, and the Erosion of Democracy

Donald Trump wasn’t a self-made man—he was born into an empire of inherited wealth that expanded before he was old enough to count. A New York Times investigation found that by the age of three, he was already receiving income from his father’s business. He became a millionaire before turning ten, was given real estate holdings as a teenager, and by the time he graduated college, he was earning over a million dollars annually—eventually collecting over $5 million a year into his middle age (Barstow et al., 2018). But his inheritance wasn’t just financial. He grew up in an environment where vulnerability was punished and control was rewarded. That model shaped every relationship he would go on to form.

Publicly, Trump often presents as confident—even magnetic. Privately, a more telling pattern emerges. Former aides have described how he lavishes praise on subordinates one day, only to berate or freeze them out the next. Sudden withdrawals of attention serve as quiet punishments, a tactic designed to keep people anxious and eager to win him back. His contradictions aren’t accidental—they create confusion that keeps others off balance. In The Art of the Deal, he openly boasts of manipulating perceptions to get what he wants (Trump & Schwartz, 1987). Former partners and employees have described cycles of flattery followed by cruelty, a reward-punishment loop designed not to connect—but to control.

For some, the consequences looked like a tweetstorm. For others, a smear campaign or cold silence. But the tactic is consistent: confuse, control, discard. The people left behind often end up blaming themselves—wondering if they misread things, questioning whether it was ever real. Some try harder to prove their worth. Others stay quiet, just to avoid being next. Anyone who’s been emotionally exploited knows how deeply it distorts your sense of reality.

Elovitz (2020) has argued that Trump’s emotional rigidity stems from early attachment wounds—particularly from a father who shamed vulnerability and rewarded aggression. The result? A personality structure that sees life as a battlefield and love as a transaction. He didn’t learn intimacy; he mastered survival—and later scaled that survival strategy to the national stage.

On a national scale, Trump repurposed that same pattern into what social psychologists call “system threat”—a tactic that induces fear and uncertainty by convincing people that the world around them is falling apart. During an era marked by terrorism, mass shootings, and civil unrest, Trump amplified Americans’ anxieties and offered himself as the only solution. He painted a picture of collapsing borders, corrupt elites, and economic doom—and cast himself as the cure. And it worked.

As social psychologist Gina Roussos (2016) explains, system threat manipulates our basic need to believe in a just and stable society. When that belief is shaken, people become desperate to regain a sense of security—even if it means accepting injustice or surrendering to authoritarian promises. Trump’s rhetoric fed off this fear, turning urgency into obedience. Under these conditions, cruelty can be reframed as protection, and discrimination as common sense. What looks like strong support is often just psychological submission.

That survivalist lens spills into public life. Tourish (2023) describes Trump’s movement not just as populism, but as a “personality cult,” where loyalty replaces logic and dissent becomes betrayal. Research by Goldsmith and Moen (2024) found that Trump’s most devoted followers share traits like rigidity, dominance-seeking, and low empathy—a mirror of the man they follow. This loyalty isn’t based on shared principles. It’s fueled by fear, fantasy, and repetition. A personality cult isn’t about ideas. It’s about identity. And when a political figure fuses with his followers’ sense of self, truth becomes flexible, and accountability fades.

Psychological researchers and mental health professionals have increasingly argued that Trump displays traits consistent with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), a clinical diagnosis outlined in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). To be clear, this is not a clinical diagnosis, but an exploration of patterns that align with recognized psychological constructs. While the term "narcissist" is often thrown around casually in public discourse, its clinical meaning refers to a specific constellation of traits that impair empathy, distort self-perception, and damage interpersonal functioning. In Trump’s case, these traits form the backbone of his leadership style. According to the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2022), Narcissistic Personality Disorder (F60.81) is characterized by a chronic pattern of exaggerated self-importance, craving for admiration, and diminished empathy, beginning in early adulthood. Clinically, the diagnosis is made when an individual consistently meets at least five of the following criteria:

1. Grandiose sense of self-importance

2. Preoccupation with power, success, or brilliance

3. Belief in being special and understood only by high-status others

4. Need for excessive admiration

5. Sense of entitlement

6. Exploitative behavior

7. Lack of empathy

8. Envy of others or belief others envy him

9. Arrogant, haughty behaviors

He exaggerates his business success, wealth, and intelligence (1), speaks often about his supposed brilliance and unmatched leadership (2), insists he can only be understood by a few elites and surrounds himself with people he sees as extensions of his brand (3), appears to depend on adoration from his base and demands constant praise (4), shows repeated signs of expecting special treatment—from dodging draft responsibilities to refusing political accountability (5), discards allies and staff once they no longer serve his agenda (6), shows little compassion for groups he deems unworthy or disloyal (7), often accuses others of envy while expressing envy himself (8), and repeatedly uses arrogant, mocking language in public discourse (9). In Trump’s case, these traits define how he treats others, especially women.

Trump’s treatment of women reflects the most troubling aspects of his entitlement and emotional detachment. More than two dozen women have accused him of sexual misconduct, including harassment, groping, and rape. As Nast (2016) documents, the accounts follow a pattern: charm gives way to coercion, often in contexts where the women felt powerless. During their divorce proceedings, Ivana Trump testified that Donald violently raped her in 1989, reportedly pulling out clumps of her hair in anger after a scalp-reduction surgery—a cosmetic procedure meant to reduce baldness and protect his image (Williams, 2017). Years later, under legal pressure from Trump’s lawyers, Ivana publicly stated she did not mean rape in the “criminal sense.” But the original sworn deposition speaks to a deeper pattern: when Trump feels humiliated, he retaliates—especially against women.

This behavior aligns with core features of narcissism: exploitative entitlement, shallow affect, and compulsive dominance. Even his appearance becomes part of the performance. To Trump, power is something to display and enforce. And when it’s threatened, cruelty often follows.

Trump doesn’t persuade—he performs. And the performance is built to make everyone else feel small. He isolates, invalidates, and overwhelms until people doubt their instincts. He doesn’t care what’s real—only what works. Just like people who make connection a test you’re meant to fail.

In personal relationships, we call this emotional abuse. In politics, it’s democratic erosion. A narcissistic leader doesn’t just damage those close to him—he destabilizes the institutions that rely on accountability and cooperation. He rejects inconvenient facts, politicizes truth, and punishes resistance. In a democracy, this doesn’t just breed dysfunction. It invites collapse.

We’ve seen it: relentless attacks on the press, the judiciary, and electoral integrity. His refusal to concede the 2020 election—and his incitement of the January 6th insurrection—weren’t outliers. They were the logical result of a man who cannot tolerate limits. When personal grievance merges with political power, democracy bends. Institutions only hold if norms hold—and Trump showed us that no norm was sacred if it stood in his way.

Could someone like Trump ever change? Unlikely. It would require the one thing narcissists fear most: facing their shame. It means letting go of control, letting in empathy, and standing naked in the truth they’ve spent a lifetime avoiding.

We excuse narcissists because they perform strength. But the world suffers when performance replaces principle. In politics, in relationships, and in history, the cost of mistaking cruelty for charisma is always too high.

Which makes you wonder: how many people like that do we let rewrite the story—because we’re too loyal, too hopeful, or too ashamed to admit they were never who we believed they were?

Sofia Djotni Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology

References

Barstow, D., Craig, S., & Buettner, R. (2018, October 2). Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html

Elovitz, P. H. (2020). A psychobiographical and psycho-political investigation of Biden and Trump in troubled times (pp. 48(2) 83–112). The Journal of Psychohistory.

Goldsmith, B. E., & Lars. (2024). The personality of a personality cult? Personality characteristics of Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters. Political Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12991

Nast, C. (2016, October 17). Documenting Trump’s Abuse of Women. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/documenting-trumps-abuse-of-women

Roussos, G. (2016). Donald Trump’s Psychological Manipulation of the American People
| Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Yale.edu. https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2016/12/donald-trump%E2%80%99s-psychological-manipulation-of-the-american-people

Tourish, D. (2023). It is time to use the F word about Trump: Fascism, populism and the rebirth of history. Leadership, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150231210732

van Schie, C. C., Jarman, H. L., Reis, S., & Grenyer, B. F. S. (2021). Narcissistic traits in young people and how experiencing shame relates to current attachment challenges. BMC Psychiatry, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03249-4

Williams, T. Y. (2017, February 4). Donald Trump’s Hair Mystery Solved: He had Scalp Reduction Surgery. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-hair-mystery-solved-he-had-scalp-reduction_b_58966965e4b061551b3dff8a