Donald Trump has a mental health condition known as narcissistic personality disorder.

Here are some of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder as delineated by the Mayo Clinic and the American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders:. (Keeping in mind that these symptoms are general and long-standing and not created to describe President Trump.)

React with rage or contempt and try to belittle other people to make themselves appear superior.

Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.

Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.

Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.

Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.

Lack empathy: is unwilling or unable to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people.

Take advantage of others to get what they want.

Have difficulty managing their emotions and behavior.

Insist on having the best of everything.

Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, humiliation and fear of being exposed as a failure.

Sound familiar? Let’s take a look at a few of these characteristics as they apply to Donald Trump.

React with rage or contempt and try to belittle other people to make themselves appear superior.

Donald Trump is so painfully insecure that he is obsessed with insulting others he perceives as more intelligent than he is or who just refuse to accept his imaginary vision of reality. Here are a few examples.

Barack Obama—“The most ignorant president in our history.” “He’s the founder of ISIS.”

Jeff Bezos—“Jeff Bozo.”

LeBron James—“Interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”

Marco Rubio—“Perfect little puppet.”

Zohran Mamdani—“Communist lunatic.” “Total nut job.”

Some of the insults Trump hurls are so repetitive that it is clear they reflect his own sense of inadequacy. For example, Trump is afraid of being viewed as a loser, so he repeatedly refers to other people as losers. Here are a few examples:

Ted Cruz—“Loser.”

Karl Rove—“Total loser.”

Marco Rubio—“Big loser.”

Chuck Schumer—“Totally overrated loser.”

Fellow billionaire Tom Steyer— “A major loser.”

Another thing Trump fears is that he will be perceived as lacking in intelligence. His ego is particularly threatened by women who are smarter than he is. So…

Liz Cheney—“A very dumb individual.”

Hillary Clinton— “Very dumb.”

Kamala Harris—“Dumb. Extremely low IQ person.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—“Dumb as a rock.”

Nancy Pelosi—“An inherently dumb person.”

Cokie Roberts—“Even dumber.”

But he also fears men who are more intelligent than he is. For example:

Lindsey Graham— “Dumb mouthpiece.”

Mitch McConnell—‘A dumb son of a bitch.”

One more indication of Trump’s insecurity is his fear of being thought of as weak. So he calls other people weak…

Colin Powell—“Weak.” “Highly overrated.”

Steve Kerr—“Weak and pathetic.”

Joe Manchin— “Weak and pathetic.”

Thomas Friedman—“Weak and pathetic.”

Paul D. Ryan—“Weak ineffective and stupid.”

Finally, some of his attacks are so revealing of himself that they are wince-making…

Hillary Clinton—“Pandering to the worst instincts in our society.”

Ted Cruz—“ Holds the Bible high and then misrepresents the facts.”

Peggy Noonan—“Plays right into the hands of the stupid people.”

Barck Obama—“Was always playing golf.”

Rand Paul—“Reminds me of a spoiled brat without a functioning brain.”

Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.

This has been a problem for Trump throughout his life. As president he demands that Cabinet members and members of Congress constantly praise him in public. A Cabinet meeting televised live on April 30, 2025, is a perfect example. Cabinet members seemed to compete with each other to praise Trump.

Attorney General Pam Bondi: “Mr. President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever, ever….Since you have been in office President Trump, your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills….which saved, are you ready for this, media? 258 million lives.” Yes, in order to feed Donald Trump’s ego, the attorney general of the United States stated that each time one person takes one fentanyl pill, 11 people die.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Mr. President, I think you deserve a lot of credit for…putting together a team not just of talented individuals, but that work well together, it's something never going to be reported on in the media or fully seen.” Earlier Rubio said of Trump, “He is a con artist. He runs on this idea he is fighting for the little guy, but he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy—his entire career.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “The men and women of America want to join the United States military led by President Donald Trump….Because of your leadership, sir, I believe we're making the military great again. I thank you.” Earlier, Hegseth had called Trump “An armchair tough guy,…He sought his own five military deferments.”

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz: “It's an honor to serve you in this administration, and I think the world is far better, far safer for it.” Waltz was fired the next day.

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe: “You and I both know Mr. President that you have had a profound positive impact on America's national security posture and Americans are safer because of your leadership.”

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “It’s been a momentous 100 days with you at the helm….America First does not mean America alone. Under President Trump, it means leadership.”

Vice-President J.D. Vance: “You sit in the Oval Office and you see these portraits of presidents past [referring to, among others, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan]….Most of them have been placeholders…instead of men of action….Mr. President, it's been an honor to be part of it for the past 100 days.” Vance had previously told NPR, “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” Vance wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times entitled “Mr. Trump Is Unfit For Our Nation’s Highest Office.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: “With your leadership, Mr. President, I couldn't be more honored to serve….And the team that you have assembled is really an honor to serve with, so thank you, Mr. President.” Previously, Noem had criticized Trump for blocking Muslims from coming to the United States and said, “He is not my kind of Republican.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard: “I just want to thank you. You have been a game changer…Thank you for what you're doing and every day we get to get up and do jobs that matter and we appreciate that….Mr. President, congratulations on this truly historic first 100 days of your administration. Really only made possible by your focused leadership.” Before becoming a Trump sycophant, Gabbard said, “Unlike Donald Trump, I will not turn our country into the prostitute of Saudi Arabia.”

Elon Musk: “A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days….It's more than has been accomplished in any administration before ever. Period.”

Administrator of the Environmental Agency Lee Zeldin: “Every single day that President Trump is in this office, there will be a major environmental accomplishment….This is the 100th day of the most consequential historic first 100 days in the history of this country.”

Trump: “I thought this was an incredible cabinet meeting. I think there's probably has never been a cabinet meeting like this.”

No kidding.

Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.

Trump once tweeted, “Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.” He added that being elected president “on my first try” should “qualify as not smart, but genius ... and a very stable genius at that!” After it was reported that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had called  Trump “a very bright and talented man,” Trump told a crowd in Iowa, “If Putin likes me and he thinks I’m a good, smart person, which you know, I hope he believes it--I am. Actually he’s right, I am brilliant. You know that right.”

Trump has obsessively bragged about passing a cognitive test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Actually, this test is not an intelligence test; it is just a standard 10-minute screening tool for dementia that includes drawing a clock, identifying common animals and repeating a string of words.

Raised by a rich and corrupt (and racist) father. Donald had an income of $200,000 a year (in today’s dollars)…at age three. He was a millionaire by age 8. According to an analysis by The New York Times, “By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s. In all, financial records reveal, Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire.

Trump has declared bankruptcy six times, once in 1991, three times in 1992, once in 2004 and once in 2009.

Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.

Campaigning in Iowa in 2016, Trump bragged, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

In the notorious Access Hollywood tape, he said, “I'm automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.

Trump claims to have invented the phrase “America First.” He told Michael Scherer of The Atlantic. “Considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides [what it means].” In reality, the phrase was used by U.S. presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren Harding. More ominously, the Ku Klux Klan used the phrase as an anti-immigrant message. It was most widely popularized by the America First Committee, which was opposed to the United States fighting against the Nazis in World War II.

In order to please Donald Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Fox News’s Fox & Friends that Trump had come up with the phrase “Peace through Strength.” Setting aside that the concept goes back almost 2000 years, to the era of Roman Emperor Hadrian, the phrase also has a long history in the United States. It was the title of a 1953 biography about Bernard Baruch, who was an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson during World War I and President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. It was used in Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964, and it became a favorite motto of Ronald Reagan. But in true sycophantic manner, Leavitt said on television it was her boss who invented the motto.

Lacks empathy: is unwilling or unable to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

The most disturbing aspect of Trump’s mental illness is his shocking lack of empathy. There are so many examples that it is hard to know where to begin. Admitting that his trade war policies might hurt toy stores, Trump said, “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” This from a man who was a millionaire when he was eight years old.

Here’s Trump on how poor people deserve to be poor. ''My entire life, I've watched politicians bragging about how poor they are, how they came from nothing, how poor their parents and grandparents were. And I said to myself, if they can stay so poor for so many generations, maybe this isn't the kind of person we want to be electing to higher office. How smart can they be? They're morons.”

Disabled people? Serge Kovaleski is a journalist with arthrogryposis, a joint disability. After lying about something Kovaleski had said, Trump got a campaign crowd in South Carolina to laugh by mocking Kovaleski’s arm movements. Responding to criticism of his insensitivity to a disabled person, Trump lied again by saying he had never met Kovaleski.

Victims of natural disasters? When Trump visited the site of deadly flooding in Texas in July 2025, Marissa Arman, a CBS News Texas reporter, asked him, “Several families we have heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those alerts, didn’t go out in time, and they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?” Upset that this countered his narrative that everything was going well, Trump replied, “Only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”

Donald Trump is too erratic, too self-obsessed, too addicted to lying and too dangerous to ignore. When Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 2016, he said, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”

I’ve heard that claim before. When I wrote my book Tyrants: The World’s 20 Worst Living Dictators, I included this paragraph: “Most dictators try to gain the support of at least some of their citizens, either because they want to believe that they are really loved or because it is simply easier to rule a country if a substantial minority of the population actually does support you. Consequently, dictators use various ploys to gain the support, or at least the acquiescence, of their people. The most common ploy is the appeal to patriotism, whereby the dictator tries to equate love of country with devotion to its leader. For example, almost every dictator presents his citizens with a form of this argument: 1) ‘Our nation is being threatened by an outside force.’  2) ‘Only I can protect our nation from this force and if you oppose me, you are opposing our nation and supporting the enemy.’” 

I later added that dictators, to be thorough, warn against “domestic enemies,” who are helping “foreign enemies.” When Democrats refused to stand and applaud him when he gave his State of the Unition address in 2018, Trump called the Democrats “un-American.” He accused the press of being “the enemy of the American people.”

So what are we supposed to do about the fact that the United States is being ruled by a man with a serious mental illness disorder? I suggest mass, non-violent protests. In February 2025, I wrote a satirical piece suggesting that Trump Calls for Violent Street Demonstrations Against Himself in order to declare a national emergency and seize complete power. But soon this satire came to feel uncomfortably close to reality. So, non-violence, please.

-David Wallechinsky