I wanted to speak - for the first time in detail - about NARCISSISTIC CONTRARIANISM. This is a trait Trump has shown with greater frequency in recent days. It's led some analysts to surmise that Trump is acting as if he wants to lose the midterms. Here's what it REALLY is: A narcissist contrarian is someone who takes the opposite side of obvious or even popular issues, opposing prevailing views. They do this reflexively, because they are feeling enfeebled or attacked. When the story of the excessive time at sea by military personnel aboard the USS Lincoln was driving public ridicule, Trump characterized their time at sea as "not long enough." Why would he possibly say that? When a bad inflation report broke, Trump was quoted as saying "I love inflation." Really? He's said the same thing recently about "data centers," a sensitive topic across the political spectrum. And any time he is accused of too much focus on the WH ballroom, a broadly unpopular issue, his response is to speak glowingly and lavishly about it even more. The key thing to realize here is that a narcissistic contrarian doesn't oppose prevailing views because they've thought something through. On the "contrary." They do it because disagreement serves their battered ego, signals grandiosity through them knowing better, and attracts attention, which is a narcissist's nutrition. Psychologists speak to 8 core traits leading a narcissist to become excessively contrarian which are: 1. A grandiose self-image that has taken a battering. 2. An innate resistance to compromise. 3. Binary thinking - if one is right, the other is wrong. 4. Deep insecurity masked by professing superiority. 5. The need for self-preservation - to appear smarter - now, to reverse the trend where they appear old or ill. 6. Deep feelings of innate distrust - assuming bad intent even where none exists; paranoia. 7. The need to re-exert autonomy - show they can and will do what they want, to dominate a news cycle. 8. The need to prevail in a big current power struggle. Let me help you go through that list: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, and CHECK. So - to summarize - when Trump takes a position or makes a statement that goes against conventional wisdom, it's not only because he's ignorant, stubborn, or an idiot - it's because he's losing, desperate, and narcissistically damaged - and suggesting or adopting a contrary viewpoint is his way of trying to cope, reverse bad trends, and nurse his narcissistic injury.