'Rage channeled into inciting fear': Therapist breaks down Trump's Mar-a-Lago presser
Psychotherapist Nick Carmody on Friday delivered an analysis of former President Donald Trump's Thursday press conference at Mar-a-Lago in which the ex-president claimed America was on the brink of both an economic depression and World War III, while also going off on angry tangents about Vice President Kamala Harris' rally crowd sizes.
Writing on Twitter, Carmody said that Trump's press conference shows that he's "raging" about the state of the 2024 presidential race, which was upended when President Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
The psychiatrist then explained how this rage factored into Trump's opening apocalyptic messaging.
"Trump's rage was channeled into inciting fear: He repeatedly claimed Americans are not safe, that the economy would collapse into a depression if he's not president, and that there will be a world war," he writes. "Trump uses fear to scare people into self-preservationally voting for a 'strongman.'"
However, Carmody also suspects that Trump is sincerely more afraid than he's ever been -- and not because he really believes America is on the verge of an unprecedented historical disaster.
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"The fear he is mongering is likely projection because he knows that if he loses the election he goes to prison….so the wave of enthusiasm for Harris means….. 'this is the most dangerous period of time for [him],'" he writes. "He's scared. He channels fear into anger. He channels anger into retaliation aggression (revenge)."
He also noted that Trump seems particularly rattled by the big crowds he's seeing at Harris rallies, which never materialized at rallies for Biden.
"The questions about Harris' large crowds at her rallies clearly bothered Trump," he contended. "'Enthusiasm,' crowd size…. equates to 'people like me,' for Trump. It infuriates Trump to think that Harris is getting bigger crowds. It triggers Trump's inadequacy/insecurity-driven, dysfunctional competitiveness to think that people 'like' Harris more."