Readers React: Trump’s not delusional, he just enjoys getting people to believe his lies

To the editor: As a mental health professional, I found Jonah Goldberg’s column “We live in Donald Trump’s illusion” 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 literally believes the lies and conspiracy theories. 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. Supporting the kayfabes of others also provides the “high” that factual reality does not give him.

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

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To the editor: Kayfabing may be an innocuous promotional device in the bizarre world of pro wrestling, but it’s not a word that comes even close to describing Trump’s actions as president of the United States.

Decent Americans know exactly 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

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To the editor: 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 facts and 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 since the founding of our republic. 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

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