Face the Music – Trump is Being Played like a Violin

By Jill Chapin

May 27, 2017

I once worked for a woman whose personality mirrored that of our president.  Without intending to diagnose either one, it would be fair to say that my boss displayed narcissistic traits and made sure all conversations revolved around her and her wonderfulness.

It eventually became apparent that the way to get her to do what you wanted, or to defuse her temper, was to shower her with flattery.  It was embarrassingly easy to manipulate this otherwise formidable, middle-aged person.

Once I was asked to take Polaroid pictures of everyone on our staff.  I knew before I began that she would find fault with her photo and want it retaken.  After two attempts, she was still dissatisfied with her appearance and wanted a third one, but I made sure she would love the second one.  I simply told her, “Fine, I’ll take another photo, if you don’t like looking 28.”

Another time she was upset with something I had done and was reading me the riot act when I interrupted her to ask if she had lost weight.  She immediately stopped talking, gave me a smile and drifted away.

Our president can be manipulated in the same way.  Just as I did with my boss, world leaders have also gotten the proverbial memo that the way to get what they want from the new American president is through lavishing copious amounts of flattery onto his insatiable ego.

British Prime Minister May gushed over Trump’s election victory as “stunning”, never mind that he lost the popular vote by three million.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe praised Trump’s golf prowess while simultaneously lamenting his own lack of proficiency, thus deliberately elevating our president’s sense of superiority in the sport over his Japanese counterpart.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu compared Trump more favorably to Obama as a stronger leader, this even after learning that our president spilled Israeli intelligence to the Russians.

Palestinian President Abbas openly admired Trump’s great negotiating ability, despite the fact that nothing had really been negotiated in the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Russian President Putin fawned over Trump being bright and talented, and Trump readily admitted that if Putin says something nice about him, then he will say something nice about Putin.  Our president does not realize that this is a one-way bromance; Putin’s words are little more than lines given by a guy to his date to make her more pliable to his wishes.

When the red carpet was rolled out for his recent trip to Saudi Arabia and he was treated with all the pomp and circumstance of royalty that he felt he deserved, President Trump assured the king that our defense contractors will give them a good deal on the arms that we will be selling to them. To the Saudis, it must have felt like taking candy from a baby.

Conversely, when he went on to Brussels and he was but one of many democratic leaders, he bristled at his perceived lack of respect by chastising our allies regarding their financial obligations to NATO, calling Germany bad, and shoving aside a world leader in order to stand in the front row for a photo op.

What must seemingly go over his well-coiffed head is how transparent he is when he feels adored, admired, respected and powerful.  We all can admit to appreciating praise, but not at the expense of overlooking those motives behind the compliments.  He doesn’t seem to notice they are not sincere words, and it is astonishing that this self-obsessed personality trait is so palpable in the man holding the most powerful position in the world.

We can only hope that those around him will put a silencer on those metaphoric violins before he does something that strokes his ego at the expense of our national security.

Jill Chapin

Jill Chapin has been a guest writer and columnist in several Los Angeles area papers for over fifteen years. She has written a bilingual parenting book titled, "If You Have Kids, Then Be a Parent!" and a children's book entitled, "My Magic Bubble."

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