As President Donald Trump continues to alarm international affairs experts with his gung-ho approach to warfare, an expert on the psychology of leaders has shed light on the mind behind the bluster and boasts, including whether we should be frightened of what comes next
Not too long ago, there were calls to award US President Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the Gaza ceasefire. Now it seems the divisive POTUS is hellbent on stirring up global chaos on a scale that’s almost impossible to keep up with.
With an alarming swiftness, President Trump has upturned world order in a way that has frightened more cautious onlookers, who were left shaken over the weekend following the US-Israel strikes against Iran, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And while people across the planet continue to hold their breath over the shifting situation in the Middle East, the 79-year-old President has now come out with a brash war of words against Cuba, declaring the country is “going to fall” thanks to the US incursion into Venezuela, which cut off oil supplies to Cuba. Appearing to show no sympathy for the millions of ordinary Cuban citizens left without power, boastful Trump remarked that this outcome was in fact the “icing on the cake”.
But what could really be going on inside the mind of Trump, and should we be concerned about the power this unpredictable, tempestuous individual holds?
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The Mirror heard from Blair Glaser, a therapist turned leadership coach, who knows all about varied leadership styles and the thinking that goes into such high-profile decisions. If her work has taught her anything, it’s “that it’s impossible to determine what is actually going on in anyone’s mind”. However, there are clues to be picked up on here.
Ms Glaser told us: “Many say the President is in the throes of mental decline, and given the many examples of him publicly struggling to make sense with his words, that seems plausible. Other experts maintain that Trump knows exactly what he is doing, or at least the people around him do, which is trying to create an authoritarian regime. Launching a war is one way to do that by claiming the country is in a state of emergency and shutting down elections.
“What is plain to anyone watching is chaos. There doesn’t seem to be any clear reason for going to war with Iran. Trump has said there was an imminent threat, but that has been debunked. He has said the goal was to liberate the Iranian people, but there is no apparent plan in place to do that other than killing the Ayatollah and co. Rubio has basically said that Israel dragged the US into the war, and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Secretary of War, has even called it a religious war.”
In a truly startling turn of events, a shocking report claims a US military commander told officers that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon” in the aftermath of ‘Operation Epic Fury’, making this assertion before indignant members of US troops.
This claim, reported by independent journalist Jonathan Larsen via Substack, was filed in a complaint to watchdog Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and is one of hundreds expressing concern over combat unit commanders providing Christian reasoning for the war.
Such bombastic claims, which will no doubt dismay many Christians, are nothing new to Trump and his loyal supporters, and POTUS himself appears to be pushing this conflicting narrative of Peace on Earth, even as bombs explode across the Middle East, with ordinary families caught in the crossfire.
Following the initial attack, which resulted in an explosive retaliation, Trump vowed that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” While many would disagree, to say the least, that violence is by no means the answer to world peace, Trump’s action movie-esque rhetoric, complete with cheesy Hollywood one-liners, certainly continues to appeal to his more ardent followers, even as his approval ratings slip.
Could this recent bloody onslaught, therefore, be some sort of last-gasp attempt to draw in fans? An all-singing, all-dancing season finale to a series viewers have begun to tire of? On this note, Ms Glaser reflected: “What we do know about how this president thinks is that he spent eleven years as a reality TV show star of The Apprentice. And this president has governed like a reality TV show star: always making inflammatory remarks and creating outrageous, chaotic situations; posing for photo ops to gain attention.
“His ratings as president are the lowest they’ve ever been, and I would surmise that the war is in part a response to that. Trump has always been more interested in what will get people talking about him, and at the same time, perhaps keep the focus off of his nefarious dealings and how much money he is illegally profiting from the presidency.”
While the increasingly rambling rants of Trump certainly make for entertaining headlines, it’s his actions, not words, that have those with knowledge of international affairs up at night, especially given the precarious global landscape we find ourselves in. So, should we be frightened, and does a mind like Trump’s really have the power to destroy the world as we know it?
Ms Glaser said: “A huge portion of the American public has been deeply worried since he took office, and many are afraid for their lives. To have a reality-TV-show-style of governing is – and has been – deadly. We should be deeply concerned about his mental state and its impact: how it is destroying order and ruining lives both within the US (his ICE regime has killed innocent people and torn even legal immigrants from their lives) and abroad.
“I talk to many people who are deeply ashamed of what this country is becoming. To choose to go to war without a cohesive plan and be so reckless with human lives is evidence that the leader of this country is not actually interested in bettering the lives of its citizens and protecting them from harm.”
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
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