Xenophobia is not rational

A crisis affecting the general public appears to be a circumstance in which being a narcissistic psychopath incapable of truth-telling and empathy becomes somewhat of a disadvantage for a president. https://t.co/vnMjTNxEYD

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 12, 2020

Arm-chair psychiatrists are appropriating the language of that field to describe Trump as a narcissist, and use this to explain why he can't cope with the coronavirus crisis.  But more observable, and certainly more blatant, is Trump's xenophobia.  There are clear and simple reasons for the European travel ban, a ban Trump impulsively decided on as the response to a pandemic.  (Trump decided on it hours before the speech, and he didn't bother to discuss it, even mention it, to European leaders.  Why bother?  You don't tell your business competition what you're planning to do at the negotiating table.  Maybe he's a hopeless narcissist, but it explains more to understand he probably thinks in those terms.)  He banned travel from all countries in Europe where English is not the first language.  He excluded the British Isles because he has business interests there (golf courses in Scotland and Ireland), but also because they talk like us.

Xenophobia, we must remember, is an irrational fear of foreigners.  We shouldn't make Trump's behavior rational, even by explaining it as narcissism.  Trump's actions don't make more sense because we can explain them as part of his over-weening self concern, or his inability to value others qua other.  Xenophobia actually explains his actions as fundamentally irrational, which is honestly even more frightening.  Irrationality brings us closer to Nixon's "Madman theory," except the President is not playing at being mad; he actually is.

But what else explains Trump reaching for a travel ban as a solution, except that he can (the Supreme Court has upheld his travel bans consistently) and that his almost-reflex reaction is to blame foreigners.  He called the virus itself "foreign," as if point of origin makes it more insidious.  It is, of course, a xenophobic description:  it adds nothing to the conversation, but starkly reveals the fears of the person using the label.

Trump's xenophobia may be connected to his narcissism, but the former is more clearly identifiable than the latter, and it more clearly exposes his unfitness for office.  One of the President's most important roles is to represent the national interest among the nations.  International relations are so important the Declaration of Independence was not addressed to the colonies, nor to the Crown in England, but to the nations of Europe (France heard our call).  One of the fundamental burdens of the office is to work directly with those nations.  This Trump has proven, again, he simply cannot do.  And he cannot do it because he regards them as dangerous others who he shouldn't have to work with.  This is clearly more damaging to the United States and its people than any diagnoses of narcissism or even dementia.  It's undoubtedly the reason the CDC didn't take the test available from the WHO, but tried, disastrously, to formulate its own.

The results are plain to see, and the cause is plain to see; and not only plain to see, but easy to plainly explain.  Trump is afraid; and his fear is putting us all at risk.

.@JoeBiden on Trump's address: "Neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia... labeling [coronavirus] a foreign virus does not displace accountability for misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump admin. Coronavirus does not have a political affiliation."

— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) March 12, 2020

Joe gets it.