SINCERETALK

On Trump’s social media posts , he keeps depicting himself in fantasy roles: Superman , Jesus , the Pope , Sci-Fi leader of dystopian death machines & a larger than life military commander . His fantasies are sometimes “official,” communicated to the American public directly under White House insignia, and they frequently come in waves of multiple fantasies at one time. Over Labor Day he indulged and made it public 37 times . Fantasizing during times of stress instead of working to resolve crises wrought by his own incompetence suggests Trump detaches from reality as a defense mechanism . I’m no psychoanalyst but someone needs to drive a serious conversation about the dangers of what we’re seeing. A sudden shift into immersive fantasy worlds is regarded as classic form of dissociative absorption , where the brain rapidly checks out of the physical world and floods consciousness with an imagined reality to cope with overwhelming real-world stress. The power fantasies also look ...

A prominent anti-Trump conservative admitted to still being surprised at the Republican Party, saying in a recent podcast that the recent midterm convention showed a shocking willingness to "degrade and debase and humiliate themselves" for the president. The GOP this past week held an unprecedented party convention for the upcoming midterm elections, which are widely predicted to see it take bruising losses from Democrats. As the two-night event played out, the worst predictions from many critics appeared to come true, as the proceedings devolved into an unabashed celebration of President Donald Trump, even as it becomes clear that voters are steaming mad at him and ready to vent their frustrations at the ballot box. One particularly galling portion of Trump's speech as he closed out the event, in which he asked attendees to raise their hands and repeat a pledge for the midterms. "I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like the...

Mediaite reports Fox News liberal commentator Jessica Tarlov got a good dig in on MAGA enthusiasts who twice drooled over the photo of left-wing streamer Hasan Piker at the Republican midterm convention. Piker in his underclothes appeared not once but twice on the convention jumbotron, which pressed Tarlov to quip that the gathering amounted to “a bunch of betas standing around looking at a half-naked socialist.” The photo of the extremely underdressed Piker, pulled from the streamer’s Instagram, hit the arena’s massive jumbotron as part of a video montage targeting the political left on Wednesday, where it preceded Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton. It was then shown again during the convention’s second night on Thursday, preceding speakers like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Donald Trump Jr. Piker’s photo showed him posing for a mi...

New transcriptions from President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against BBC reveal how dangerously close the president is to having potentially hurtful information about his January 6 antics made public. The BBC has already admitted the piece incorrectly claimed Trump “made a direct call for violent action” during the January 6 riots. But the tax-funded company, which must be a good steward of British funding, is contesting the $10 billion that Trump is demanding. Additionally, new transcripts received by Law & Crime reports the judge over the case appears to be completely prepared to make Trump hand it over some potentially damning information. “The transcript of the proceedings revealed that [Chief U.S. District Judge James] Boasberg thought the BBC ‘made convincing arguments’ and has a ‘decent chance’ of getting what it seeks if those documents turn out to be ‘necessary,’” Law and Crime reports. To buttress its defense , BBC lawyer Maxwell Mishkin is leaning on the hard...

A journalist and author with multiple inside sources into President Donald Trump's White House says Trump is unquestioningly fading into the background — and he must be furious. “It’s all about attention because A: he can’t resist the idea of it, and B: because the idea of someone else getting the attention is anathema to him,” said Trump biographer Michael Wolff , speaking to co-host Joanna Coles about Trump’s desperate bid to launch a “Trump-a-Palooza” in Dallas, as Wolff described it. “But I think there’s a longer-term strategy [behind the festival],” Wolff added. “Trump does not want the Republican Party to ever imagine life without him.” “Remember we are going into this other phase,” Wolff explained. “In a president’s second term, after the midterms, the president begins the ‘long goodbye.’ His possible successors come to the forefront. Okay, that’s not going to happen here, and you can see this convention’s announcement of that. ‘I am not going away. I am going to play this ...

The MAGA base that helped build Republican power in the U.S. for the past decade appears to be showing signs of rupture, according to new surveys from UMassAmherst . The survey, conducted Aug. 21-26, has found a 9-percentage point drop among Republicans who identify with the MAGA movement since the last survey was conducted in March, reported the university, representing an extreme drop for such a short window of time. The most significant drop — 6 percentage points — was among those who reported only to be ‘somewhat’ identified as MAGA, but even those who ‘very much’ identified as MAGA fell 3 percentage points, according to surveys. "We find a decline in the number of Republicans identifying as MAGA, suggesting cracks in the movement’s foundation," said Tatishe Nteta, director of UMass Poll. MAGA is the name for President Donald Trump’s most loyal adherents who form the floor of approval keeping the president’s approval in the mid-thirties in national polls. So the polling...