Do you think Donald Trump is reflective and self-critical in private?

[Gepl]

Donald Trump likes to tell us how brilliant he is and how amazing everything he does is. His strikes on Iran were a stupendous mega-success. His tariffs are single-handedly the greatest economic move in the history of the universe. He’s removing more illegal immigrants than every American President in history ever, ever.

But is this just front, or does he believe all this stuff? In private, is he reflective and wracked by self-doubt? Is it all a front to project a strongman image?

My best guess is that he knows he's a fraud who is totally incompetent, but he doesn't know that he knows it. It's a buried little splinter of insight that just makes a big red rash of doubled-down grandiosity all around it, even in private.

He doesn’t know how to self reflect, he’s nuts

He strikes me as someone’s who has never had a moment of self doubt (for better or worse)

Not a chance, classic narcissist. Never met one that has any self reflection or ever doubted their own thoughts and actions.

He knows how the world works. In terms of wealth.
That’s his only compass. He doesn’t think beyond.

He's very likely to be a grandiose narcissist. He won't have any cognitive mechanism for doubt or self reflection. Emotionally, he's stuck at around age three.

😂😂😂😂😂

No.

😂

Hahahaha! No

Having just replied to a thread about meanness on mumsnet, I am at risk of being a hypocrite (not to OP @Gepl though but DT)

He is 1 ply. He is self serving, gas lighting, "pu$$y-grabbing" egotistical and displays narcisistic tendencies (kindest way to put it). A dangerous combination.

I cant imagine for a moment he contemplates any possible flaws in himself, just in others...

None whatsoever.

He’s spent his whole life being told how great he is and never having to face the consequences of his own actions. He’s notoriously thin skinned.

No

Absolutely not. That’s what makes him so dangerous.

Nope. He is totally deluded in his self belief. That’s the danger.

I think that he knows that he's been played right now. Really, really badly played.

The world is run by mafia rules. Trump thought he was The Boss. Turns out he was only a Caporegime. Wouldn't even listen to his Consigliones.

There are bigger bosses than him. They flattered him. Gave him extravagant gifts.

As in the great quote from Goodfellas says, "Your murderers come with smiles, they come as your friends..."

That was the shortest, most faltering speech he'd ever given the other day about the bombing of Iran. He's cornered.

LOL no! 😂 He is the very epitome of vanity and narcissism.

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

No.

No, he is his own biggest fan.

"Do you think Donald Trump is reflective and self-critical in private?"

In exactly the same way as, in private, I am Queen of the fucking world and drop-dead gorgeous with it.

I think this is possible. I think he has a very hidden sense of hatred of himself because his father was an awful father to him.

But I also think he's too stupid to self reflect. Only stupid people think they know everything. The cleverest people think (and know) there is so much they don't know and want to learn. Donald Trump doesn't want to learn anything!

Also, he can tell himself he is the bestest there is because, bizarrely, people elected him twice. And he now surrounds himself with total arse lickers.

Maybe that's the one thing he learnt from term 1. Absolute craven loyalists only.

No.

That would be a no. He clearly has no doubts about his exceptional abilities and surrounds himself only with fawning admirers

The posts he puts on truth social are something a hormonal 15 year old boy would write.

Absolutely this. Trump, quite simply, has “Daddy issues”, as does Elon Musk.

I don't even think this is true. In reality the world isn't zero-sum: trade and cooperation makes everyone richer, even (in the long run) the richer party who appears to be giving something up in the short term. Trump and his ilk can't possibly conceive of this. He thinks that for him to be winning, someone else must be losing.

Someone who really understands how wealth and power works would never have treated their allies as the MAGA crowd have over the last six months. It would be more accurate to say he knows how a 19th-century mercantilist would think the world works in terms of wealth. (They were wrong too.)