Trump lies, but he’s not deluded

Re “We all live in Trump’s illusion,” Opinion, Aug. 7

As a mental health professional, I found Jonah Goldberg’s column both alarming and informing.

The analogy of the wrestling term “kayfabe” — the presentation of staged events as real ones — is exactly what President Trump does. However, I don’t agree that Trump believes the lies. That would render him clinically delusional.

Rather, I propose that he needs to experience the emotional high that comes from distorting the accuracy of these events. A weak ego drives the need to exaggerate for attention and control. Manipulating the masses with kayfabes is ego-gratifying, so Trump cannot stop.

The media and public should stop fueling this “fake political sideshow” with their coverage.

Rebecca Sperber

Los Angeles

Kayfabing may be an innocuous promotional device in the bizarre world of pro wrestling, but it does not describe Trump’s actions as president.

Decent Americans know what Trump is doing: lying. This lying is abetted by a Republican Party that is bringing us ever closer to rule by a dangerous “authoritarian monster.”

And that’s no kayfabe.

James Peterson

Beaumont

Goldberg writes that “many at MSNBC and CNN are invested in either the ‘resistance’ story or their victimhood.”

While that statement may be true of a couple of individuals at each network, Goldberg overlooks the obvious: Each network (along with other legitimate news organizations) are invested in finding the truth about the president’s possible involvement in a conspiracy to defraud the United States government.

Somewhere in Goldberg’s universe, there must exist someone dedicated to the primary motivation of the free press. We know it’s not Fox News, so we must put our trust in those who proclaim up front that their dedication is to the truth.

Both MSNBC and CNN fall into this category.

Mark Chipman

San Diego