
President Donald Trump’s “malignant narcissism” causes him to get angry about news reports on his physical and mental health because they make him appear weak, psychologist Dr. John Gartner recently said in an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast.
A January 1 Wall Street Journal article on Trump’s health noted the regular discoloration on Trump’s hands (suggesting repeated bruising due to thin blood or weak veins), his apparent habit of falling asleep during meetings, and cited Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters as attesting to Trump’s eating of three McDonalds sandwiches and fries “in one sitting.”
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In the article, Trump said that he is in perfect health, refuses to wear compression socks to aid his lower-body blood circulation, takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily to keep “nice, thin blood pouring through my heart,” and merely “blinks” during meetings (rather than sleeping), PBS reported.
Dr. Gartner told the podcast, “No story enrages Donald Trump more than the stories about his physical and cognitive health. And there’s a reason for that. One, he knows that he’s covering something up, but two, as a malignant narcissist, the one thing you need to project is strength. It’s okay to be hated and feared, but you have to appear strong. And so this is really it.”
“Donald Trump’s Achilles heel is his brain and now, I guess, a whole bunch of other organs,” he added. “His ankles, his heart, his hands. His psychomotor performance is getting worse…. He knows it’s showing his Achilles heel, and yet he can’t stop the behavior because it’s involuntary.”
Gartner also told the podcast that the right side of Trump’s face seems slightly drooped and that Trump has difficulty using the right side of his body, suggesting that the 79-year-old president might’ve had a stroke.
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