It goes without saying: Trump is flat out, out-of-control. Like a toddler in the throws of a raging tantrum, he is incapable of self-regulation and needs external limits imposed on him, yes, like a mute button for his mic in debates. However, there is an additional way that Democrats can gain power—by taking charge of the narrative. Here’s how.
At the end of episode 3, I promised I’d talk about narrative and persuasion and what it will take to master this crucial campaign skill. I’m going to cover this today, but differently than I originally had planned. I’m going to use the coverage of the recent horror show of a presidential debate as a real-life, real-time example of what taking charge of the narrative looks like… and doesn’t look like.
The main point I want to make is how we need to become more savvy about the way Trump uses us to feed his strategy and promote his narrative, without even realizing it. And, I’ll show how we can engage differently with Trump and his hysterics, from a place of power rather than of service to him and his self-aggrandizing agenda.
As I’ve said numerous times in this podcast series, and which became painfully evident--yet again--in the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, is that there is NO stopping Trump and his madness. Trump was full on Trump--…out-of-control, out of his mind, and out to bulldoze, if not destroy, anyone and anything he perceives as a threat.
Debate etiquette or decorum wasn’t going to stop him. The moderator, Chris Wallace, wasn’t going to stop him. And as always, Democrats are sure as hell never going to stop him—no matter how much they bitch and complain and express outrage about him and his behavior, as we’ve witnessed ad nauseum over the last four years and then again after the debate.
However, there is a way Democrats can get off their helpless high horse and take control --by taking charge of the narrative about Trump and his behavior, rather than reinforcing the very narrative that Trump sets us up to tell, again and again.
Journalists and pundits, both mainstream and online, think they are calling Donald Trump out on his horrendous behavior by casting him as a despicable bully, or some variation thereof. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT TRUMP WANTS THEM TO DO.
While they may be describing his outrageous behaviors with contempt and complaint, they are also conveying THAT NO ONE HAS THE POWER TO STOP Donald Trump.
They are paradoxically framing Trump exactly as he wants to be portrayed—as THE RULER. THE DOMINATOR. THE ONE IN CHARGE AND IN COMMAND.
Let’s take a look at some of the leading headlines in major news outlets following the debate…
“Donald Trump Burns the First Debate Down”
“Trump Sets the Tone for the Worst Presidential Debate in Living Memory “
“Trump derails first presidential debate with Biden”
“With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden”
“Chris Wallace blames Trump for chaotic debate: He 'bears the primary responsibility'.”
NOOOOOO!!!!!
Without even realizing it, these media outlets are fortifying Trump’s effort to position himself as The All Powerful—look at the verbs…Trump burns, Trump tramples, Trump derails, Trump refuses, Trump sets the tone, even Trump is responsible for the chaos. Even blaming Trump gives him the power. Do you see this???
And Politico, Boston Globe, Independent UK, all mindlessly glorified his antics by describing his behavior--as alpha behavior. No folks. This is not alpha behavior. There is nothing truly powerful, leader-like, or superior about Trump and his behavior.
In fact, everything about his behavior, spells disempowered, childish, out-of-control, and inferior--and it’s high time to frame it as such and emphasize how truly pathetic Donald Trump actually is.
In reality, Trump is not an alpha-male, king of the jungle, but rather acts like an impetuous toddler refusing to follow rules. Just as a toddler is gonna do, what a toddler’s gonna do to get their way –what they want, how they want it, when they want it—so it goes with Donald Trump.
While this is perfectly developmentally normal for a two or three-year old, this is not normal for a grown man, let alone the president of the United States.
THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT labeling DONALD Trump a “BULLY” is not enough. It’s superficial. Lazy. And downright counterproductive.
What’s needed is a deeper analysis of his abnormal, abhorrent behavior from a clinical perspective, like a doctor observing the clinical manifestations of an illness, which is precisely what his behavior is. And, like a clinical assessment, it needs to be done in an accurate, matter-of-fact, non-triggered way.
The fact-of-the-matter is that Trump’s behavior is indicative of a deeply troubling, dis-integrated and malfunctioning PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX.
Yep. You heard that right. I’m talking brain neurobiology here. And there are all kinds of fascinating things to know about the ways in which Donald Trump in not playing cards with a full deck.
The prefrontal cortex is the most highly evolved area of the brain whose functions allow for the processing of information in ways that other species do not have access to, and that give us the unique qualities that make us human. In fact, the prefrontal cortex is the corner stone of being a well-functioning human being.
It’s what gives humans the ability to “self-regulate” as it’s known in the human development literature, something Trump has little ability to do. It’s the area of the brain that begins to come online in an integrated way as we socialize toddlers and help them learn how to regulate their emotions so they can respond appropriately versus react emotionally, irrationally and erratically.
It’s where the so-called moral emotions like guilt and shame are processed, in these so-called “angel lobes” giving us the ability to be a “good person.” Where the capacity for empathy, judgement, the ability to discern “right from wrong,” and the ability to follow rules and control impulses resides.
The pre-frontal cortex has been termed the “CEO of the soul” because of these above mentioned “executive brain functions.” There is no CEO of Donald Trump’s soul—that function is out to lunch, allowing his anti-social behaviors to run rampant.
Fundamentally, Trump is not just a “bully;” and journalists and pundits have to stop describing him this way.
He is a pathetic, under-developed, damaged shell of a person, whose prefrontal cortex is flat out not working. It’s offline. It’s haywire. He has a bug in his operating system—or better said, bugs in his brain.
We cannot expect Trump to be well-functioning because he is incapable of functioning well. This is simply not part of Donald Trump’s make-up, and we might as well stop being outraged by that which NOT EVEN HE CAN control.
See the reframe here? It’s not that we cannot control Donald Trump, it’s that Donald Trump cannot control Donald Trump.
The frame shifts from him being in control of everyone and everything, to not even being able to control his own behavior and impulses. He is impotent in the face of his own fucked-up brain neurobiology.
If we could hook him up to a functional MRI during these debates, or anytime really, the brain scan would most certainly prove little to no activity in his frontal lobes.
He is operating from the limbic brain much of the time—the instinctive area of the brain that reacts from a fight or flight mode, where the fear center (the amygdala) takes over. As it turns out with Trump, he has a well-developed, well-used fight mode—his only mode. And the more cornered he feels or desperate he becomes, the crazier his behaviors will be.
Daniel Goldman, in his book Emotional Intelligence, describes this process, where a highly active amygdala short circuits the processing of information in the prefrontal cortex, as emotional hijacking. In these circumstances, primitive, survival reactions (and overreactions) override tempered, rational thought.
Donald Trump is being hijacked, all the time, left and right, and takes all of us along for a ride on that out-of-control train that is his brain.
He’s at the mercy of the primitive fear centers trying to protect a fragile ego from shattering in the face of being perceived as a weak, impotent, loser, unworthy of the adoration he desperately craves.
The good news: While trump is at the mercy of his effed-up brain, We do not have to be at the mercy of Trump and his pathology any longer.
If there are future debates, be prepared. He’s a desperate man, desperate for power, acting as if his life depends on it. He fragile ego certainly does.
Pleading with Trump to obey the rules, as Chris Wallace did, will once again be as useless as pleading with a rabid hyena on the African plains to mind its manners, because vicious attacks are not allowed.
We cannot control Donald Trump’s behavior beyond muting his mic (which by the way must be done—without self-regulation, external regulation in the form of limits and consequences must be imposed just as is needed with toddlers), BUT we can gain control of the outcome of his behaviors –-the way in which his outrageous are perceived-- by taking charge of the narrative.
By reframing his behaviors with a deeper, contextual understanding of his pathology, rooted in an undeveloped prefrontal cortex that is functioning at the rudimentary capacity of a toddler rather than that of a grown adult. And the more detached and matter-of-fact the analysis, the more effective and powerful the message will be.
It’s a narrative that makes sense of his behavior while showing him as the dysfunctional man he truly is, rather than characterized as an alpha-male, he-man-bully reigning over his kingdom while contemptuously shitting on everyone but his most loyal followers.
We have to stop telling the story Donald Trump sets us up to tell and tell the real story that accurately reflects what’s going on in that messed up head of his, and strips him of the power we’ve been giving him.
Well that’s it for today. If you have any comments, or questions please feel free to reach out. And as always, blue skies are ahead my friends! Take good care and talk to you on the next episode of Democrats on the Couch.