My friend @sarahkendzior was asking me about this, so I’ll share what I told her.

This sounds to me like Trump is telegraphing the possibility of entering the “discard phase” of his relationship with his supporters.

Which—schedenfreude aside—would be a dangerous thing.

1/x https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1307468144726900739

As I’ve written about before, malignant narcissists like Trump engage in three phases of relationship with their targets:

1. Idealization
2. Devaluation
3. Discard

Trump gained power by wooing his supporters. He reflected back to them an idealized image of themselves.

2/x

During idealization, the target receives an idealized reflection of themselves, and the narcissist invests the target with the power to make the narcissist happy.

In the beginning, the malignant narcissist feels high from the unlimited narcisstic supply they’re receiving.

3/x

But—by idealizing and investing targets with the power to make them happy—the narcissist sets up the target for failure.

Malignant narcissists are empty inside.

Eventually, the narcissist’s sense of euphoria ends, and they experience that end as a betrayal by the target.

4/x

Once the target is perceived as betraying the malignant narcissist by failing both to live up to the idealization and to provide unlimited positive narcissistic supply, the “devaluation stage” of the relationship begins.

Devaluation can last years.

5/x

Devaluation involves acts of abuse, derision, degradation, gaslighting, and aggression—but these negative behaviors are interspersed with intermittent acts of positive regard.

Intermittent reinforcement is one of the most powerful psychological tools that exists.

6/x

Intermittent reinforcement bonds the victim to the perpetrator because it causes the target to doubt themselves.

Victims engage in self-blame for negative acts and hold onto a belief the positive acts are reflective of the “real” personality of the narcisstic perpetrator.

7/x

As a result of self-blame—which the narcissist encourages through direct blame, gaslighting, and isolation—targets stay in the relationship rather than leave.

Trump’s choices regarding the pandemic can be understood as an exercise in devaluation of his supporters’ lives.

8/x

What triggers a shift from devaluation into the “discard phase” of the relationship is some combination of two things:

• Perceived betrayal or abandonment by the target (in the mind of the narcissist, not necessarily reality)

and/or

• Acquistion of a new target/supply

9/x

At this point in the race, it’s clear Trump is trying to maintain power via the courts, voter disenfranchisement, and other less than legitimate means rather than by winning the popular vote.

He is also aware of the reduced levels of support he’s receiving via the polling.

10/x

In his mind, Trump has already lowered himself by embracing voters.

Because of his grandiosity, he sees others as less than him, and he’s previously been open about his disdain for GOP voters in particular.

Recently it was reported he called his supporters “disgusting.”

11/x

So—again this is in his mind if he thinks like other malignant narcissists—being rejected by people he considers lesser human beings will be experienced as a deep narcisstic injury:

“How dare *they* reject ME?!”

Their reduction in support constitutes a perceived betrayal.

12/x

This perception of betrayal, abandonment, and narcisstic injury at the hands of people for whom he feels disdain and disgust could be enough to trigger the beginning of discard activity.

Especially since he no longer views popular support as necessary to maintain power.

13/x

Even facing 200,000+ American deaths, I am not sure he has entered discard yet because he won’t do so without locating another source of supply first.

The characteristic feature of the discard phase of a relationship with a malignant narcissist is rage: annihilatory rage.

14/x

I need to take a break from writing about this, but I’ll pick it up here later tonight or tomorrow and talk in greater detail about why the discard phase with its annihilatory rage is so dangerous.

Here’s a thread I wrote on this subject in February 2016: https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/704038197374771202

For those interested, here is a longer thread that discusses annihilatory rage in detail.

(Again, I’ll return to conclude this thread shortly, but I want to put this here for those who are antsy.)

From October 2016: https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/785130643688611840