Okay, one quick thing about narcissists like Trump.

They love being grand marshal but hate everything else about the parade.

Trump loves being President. He hates being a president.

Those competing interests allow the narc to waffle from caring about one to the other.

1/

Trump wants to win on Election Day. He doesn’t want to win four more years of the job.

If he is failing at the first of those - getting the immediate ego gratification of being annointed by voters - is failing, he’ll shift to caring more about the other half of that equation.
2/

People are very concerned Trump won’t leave willingly.

Narcissists can’t stay on the scene of a humiliation. It’s too excruciating to remain in a place where they’ve been shamed as less worthy.

Instead, they need to run away and create a new fiction. A new bubble.

3/

While Trump’s potential legal liability post-office is something that *could* drive him to stay, his compulsions are in charge. They are always in charge.

After all, if narcissists’ behavior was rational and orderly, it wouldn’t be called a ‘disorder’.

4/

If Trump loses, there is a far, far greater chance he will just mail it in entirely on being president at all before leaving.

Far, far more likely he’ll spend the time using his pulpit to spin a story of being a heroic victim who somehow won by losing.

5/

He’ll construct some face-saving nonsense about how he doesn’t really care - and is actually even happy about leaving a loser job - because his future plans are somehow bigger and better than being president.

6/

The dude will barely show up at the White House.

He’ll go to Mar a Lago for weeks on end.

He’ll hold post-loss rallies to both brag about how big his next thing is going to be and whip up his last diehards about how he was wronged.

7/

And while Trump is off doing exactly what his narcissistic compulsions absolutely command he do, the worst members of his administration will run amok.

They’ll rush through an array of shitty things and steal everything that isn’t nailed down.

8/

Those things will be largely reversible though.

So, if you’re worried there will be a stand-off after the election, don’t be.

There not only won’t be one if Trump loses; that unofficial flight may come much earlier.

9/

If Trump is en route to a battering loss, he’ll start doing all of the above even before the election.

Do not be shocked if he is little more than a shell candidate by October.

Mailing it in while his aides and allies go through the five stages of grief.

10/

At some point this summer, Trump is going to go to his club in Bedminster.

And as he walks those friendly halls, he will be subconsciously led like a water hunter with a divining rod toward the easier water source:

Constructing a new fiction outside the WH.

11/

I will be far more shocked if Trump is still acting like a candidate truly trying to win by October than if he is so checked out, he’s doing more talking about what he’ll do if he loses than trying to win.

Trump absolutely hates the job. He likes only the esteem.

12/

Once the esteem wanes a little more, the balance between those two will shift and he’ll be mentally halfway to Mar a Lago while unconvincingly pretending otherwise.

Narcissists cannot stay in an unflattering spotlight.

They cannot.

13/

If he is heading toward a crushing loss, he will very publicly and very clearly begin the migration to face-saving.

He ain’t staying post a loss.

Good chance he will barely show up for a transition.

And good chance he begins the public checkout even earlier.

14/14

p.s. I’ll lay this one down now. Trump’s face-saving script will be:

- I am the best thing that ever happened to this country
- The losers and haters ruined it for the good people (the people who love me)
- The good people should be mad about what the bad people did

- It’s a shame the bad people kept the good people from getting all of the great things I would have done for them
- I am a huge winner though and I have ten times more winning to do which will be so easy because I’m such a winner