Mr Modesty

Re the Irish president who’d said the war was illegal] Look! He should be grateful that I exist.

The Mad Sociopath in the White House

Quote: Trump, who lives in the moment, hates anything that restricts him. This includes planning of any kind.

The Friend and Ally of Other Western Powers

An excellent review . . . Everyone but Trump understands what he’s done. For the past 14 months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without any strategy can actually be president of the USA. But allied leaders have stopped trying to find the hidden logic behind Trump’s actions and they understand that any contribution they make will count for nothing. . . .

The Unravelling presidency

Trump loses it with an Irish reporter.

Trump’s Personality

An AI comment . . . Low self-esteem doesn’t directly cause narcissism or egotism in a straightforward way but research shows it can contribute to their development as a defense mechanism, particularly in “vulnerable” or “covert” narcissism where fragile self-worth drives compensatory grandiosity and ego protection.

The Core Mechanism: Chronic low self-esteem creates deep insecurity and fear of failure or rejection. To cope, individuals might build an inflated self-image (narcissism) or rigid self-importance (egotism) as a shield, seeking constant external validation like admiration to temporarily boost their shaky sense of worth. This “fragile high self-esteem” appears confident but crumbles under criticism, triggering defensiveness or aggression to defend the façade – a concept called “threatened egotism.”

Key Pathways

• Childhood roots: Trauma, neglect, or inconsistent praise fosters low self-worth, leading to narcissistic traits as overcompensation.
• Vulnerable narcissism: Unlike “grandiose” types with stable high self-esteem, this subtype hides low esteem behind hypersensitivity and blame-shifting.
• Cycle reinforcement: Grandiose behaviors provide short-term relief but deepen isolation and inadequacy when validation fails.

Differences from Healthy Self-Esteem

True narcissism often stems from this interplay rather than pure low self-esteem alone, which more directly links to anxiety or withdrawal without the ego defenses.

The Closing Number

How do you solve a problem like The Donald? Well, failing that, this ditty will have to do.

Over to you, ‘America’.