The answer is “yes”, but we should look more closely.

Understanding Trump’s specific pathology helps us understand the meaning behind his apparently chaotic, often childlike behavior.  Identifying his personality classification will give us with tools to navigate around the insanity Trump throws in all directions.

Is Trump a sociopath?

Please don’t scoff or roll your eyes, I know it’s obvious, but let’s look at the sociopathic morphology anyway.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) provides these attributes that apply to Trump:

Sociopath-Narcissist:

• Grandiose sense of self-importance and exaggerated achievements and talents.
• Lacks empathy for the feelings and needs of others.
• Requires excessive admiration.
• Pathological egocentricity.
• Superficial charm and good intelligence.
• Untruthfulness and insincerity.
• Lack of remorse or shame.
• Specific loss of insight.
• Poor judgement and failure to learn by experience.

I won’t go on, it just gets worse.  Trump is the poster child for sociopaths, but that doesn’t explain all his behavior.

Trump – the case for a psychopath

According to Ronald Schouten, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, psychopaths don’t fret over silly things like their conscience, or empathy for the suffering of other people.  That’s because a psychopath doesn’t possess a conscience, and doesn’t feel empathy or sympathy for anyone.  They learn to mimic those emotions, but it’s only imitation.  The psychopath acts with great prejudice in favor of their own interests, and in favor of other’s misfortunes if it benefits him/her.

Sound like Trump so far?  He easily fits the psychopath profile.

Remember Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico?  According to Trump, their lives don’t count.  He just wrote them off as more brown people who didn’t vote for him, and who the Alt-Right doesn’t like.

OK, Trump’s a sociopath/psychopath, but what does this mean for us?

To quote a recent Republican Trump critic, look past the words and focus on actions.

The key to unlocking Trump?  Focus not on his actual words, which are mostly fiction, but instead focus on the reaction or result Trump wants.  Ask the question “How will people react to that Tweet?”.  In most cases Trump wants to cast doubts, muddy the waters, or leverage the power of the White House to influence outcomes and opinions.  Occasionally he tips his hand, revealing an upcoming strategy, which has sometimes worked against him.

Trump has hinted several times on his plans to transition to a new Secretary of State.  This met with large resistance, rather than scrambling, so he scuttled the plans temporarily.  Have no doubt however that Trump WILL get Rex Tillerson’s resignation for the now famous “moron” comment.  His twitter addiction simply caused a few unfortunate setbacks in his effort to get back at Rex for calling him a bad name.

Trump’s words sometimes reveal his incredible insecurity.  The “bigger-button” tweets sound childlike, two 3^rd grade rival bullies caught in a playground “I’m rubber you’re glue” exchange by the teeter-totters. As the biggest, greatest bully, just incredible, young Donald will always make sure to get the last word.

White House staffers admitted off the record that failure to get the last word with just about anyone simply infuriates President Trump.  Trump behaves like a 3^rd grade bully?  Maybe more like 1^st grade.

To Trump’s credit, by using bat-shit crazy tactics and winding up the media storm, he has successfully covered his tracks for the REAL AGENDA of his presidency.  The strategy in early 2018 finally reveals itself:  subvert every single control, regulation, and tax code between our government today, and the Trump-led Plutocracy he plans to complete in his second term.  The Putsch not only has begun, it’s picking up steam.

All the while, we were watching North Korea, Iran, Tillerson, etc., while Trump was quietly setting up the transition to Plutocratic Government.

Oops, whadda we miss?

A psychopath doesn’t possess a conscience, and doesn’t feel empathy or sympathy for anyone.  For example, in Late 2017 and under the cover of the holiday, Trump-appointed government officials cleared the oil industry to lease and drill offshore, in the US East Coast continental shelf, and just off the tourist hot-spot beaches in New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida.  At the same time, officials softened regulatory safety requirements for deep-sea and high-pressure oil drilling rigs, converting many safety requirements into non-binding “recommendations”.

Sound like a Trump plan for a coup d’état, by the wealthy for the wealthy?  This could easily and negatively affect many large East Coast tourist economies (estimated near a million jobs across the East Coast) in favor of increased revenue for the oil industry.  Environmental concerns literally got waved off, since oil executives don’t like them.

What can we do?  Understanding the game doesn’t seem to help us much

The key to Trump?  Understand who you’re dealing with.  Trump the Psychopath will say WHATEVER he thinks the public will believe.  He will do ANYTHING to achieves his desired results.  To Trump, bad outcomes to others resulting from his policies and decisions simply don’t exist.

We must use our heads more than our ears.  Ignore Trump’s sociopathic rants.  Instead, carefully WATCH Trump’s psychopathic actions.  Psychopathy drives the Trump presidency, and he demands 100% loyalty from everyone under his command.  Trump’s appointees and staff, across the Cabinet, will literally stop at nothing if they can get away with it.

As voters we might also consider more yelling at our Congressmen, even if we didn’t vote for them.  Send letters to your Senators.  Start participating.  Congress may have lots more sociopaths, but they know what an angry voter sounds like.

Pay attention to the ACTIONS of the psychopath we voted into office.  Not the words.  That’s how to deal with our sociopath-psychopath President Trump.