Funny How No One Brings Up His Adderall Addiction
Springsteen is on the road doing interviews to promote his new film, Road Diary, which will be released Friday. While in London last week, he spoke with Chris Harvey and the conversation went all over the place. When Springsteen talked about having taken his daughter to a Taylor Swift show before Swift had broken through, Harvey noted that “That sense of community among Springsteen and Swift fans, stands in stark contrast to the enormous divisions in America today” and let his readers know that “Springsteen has endorsed Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election, describing Donald Trump in a video as ‘the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.’ How anxious is he about the possibility of Trump winning?”
Springsteen said, “On one hand, I’m not that anxious, because I do believe Kamala Harris is going to win. Of course, I’ve been wrong before about this. I think in the States, there’s an enormous anxiety, however, at losing the things that are dearest to us, the danger of losing democracy, rule of law, peaceful transfer of power. And this is a guy who is committed to none of these things. He’s an insurrectionist. You know, he led a coup on the United States government, so there’s no way he should be let anywhere near the office of the presidency.”
Springsteen’s forever-manager Jon Landau added that “Trump’s message as the opposite of Barack Obama’s, ‘diametrically, literally, line by line,’” which gave Springsteen the space to say “Not to mention, he’s mentally ill. The whole thing of standing and swaying for 40 minutes at your town hall? I mean, swaying to music, that’s my job… [This is] “one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s history. Are you going to sleep well knowing that the nuclear codes have been given to Donald Trump? No. No one is.”
And that includes one of the artists I used to work with when I was running Reprise, Cher, who posted this Friday night:
Though most journalists prefer to not discuss Trump being mentally ill, Springsteen is certainly not the only one who noticed. Last week, Will Bunch made sure the all-important swing voters in the Philly suburbs know too. He did a column about— albeit without ever mentioning it— one of Trump’s top tactics: projection. He related that at a rally in Atlanta last week, Trump said that “Any African American or Hispanic, if you know how well I’m doing, that votes for Kamala, you’ve got to have your head examined.”
Bunch wrote that “It’s the same language he’s used to describe others who aren’t voting this time for POTUS 45, including anti-Trump Jews, Catholics, and seniors, whom he warned in September that ‘we’re gonna have to send you to a psychiatrist to have your head examined.’ The frequency of this claim— that the millions backing Democrat Harris might not just have different ideas about issues like climate change or Tariffs, but must suffer from a mental illness— is disturbing. But Team Trump’s impromptu diagnoses can be even more wildly inappropriate when an individual crosses the increasingly authoritarian candidate.” Virtually anyone who opposes Trump, is described by the hacks around him as “mental,” including, of course, Kamala, who Trump told a gaggle of wealthy donors, is “retarded.”
“Just on its face,” wrote Bunch, “Trump’s growing tendency to brand any opponents as mentally ill is deeply offensive in two ways. It highlights his increasingly unhinged and dictatorial rhetoric toward his perceived enemies, yet also suggests a callous and grossly insensitive attitude toward those who are actually struggling with mental health, in a nation where problems such as rising rates of teenage depression and a high suicide rate ought to be on the front burner. Experts on mental health say Trump’s language is stigmatizing and dangerous... Do not sink to Trump’s level and suggest that anyone voting for him on or before Nov. 5 needs to visit a psychiatrist’s couch. What is needed is for Americans to use the critical-thinking portion of their brains and decide whether we really want to be a nation ringed by a Trumpian gulag archipelago of new [insane asylums], bringing back the horrific abuses of 50 years ago. Whatever drama is playing out right now in Trump’s 78-year-old mind to the strains of Luciano Pavarotti or James Brown, we can’t allow this to become America’s problem.”
Like I said, projection is one of Trump's most consistent tactics, and he uses it to deflect criticism and assign his own flaws and shortcomings to others. Psychologists recognize projection as a defense mechanism that helps individuals avoid confronting their own undesirable traits. In Trump’s case, this habit of accusing others of mental instability, dishonesty and incompetence mirrors a perfect description of him. Whether it’s calling his political opponents “crazy” or dismissing anyone who challenges him as mentally deficient, Trump— seriously strung out on English Adderall (which is 4 times stronger than what you can get in the U.S. with a prescription!) for his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)— seems to engage in projection to protect his fragile ego and reinforce his narrative of superiority. The kind of frequent projection he uses is symptomatic of deeper issues related to narcissistic personality traits. No one doubts that Trump's behavior crosses into the realm of narcissistic personality disorder, given his relentless need for admiration, exaggerated sense of self-importance and utter lack of empathy. His public performances, such as the erratic behavior Springsteen described, only amplify the perception that Trump is not merely playing political games, but is struggling with genuine mental health issues.
Trump’s constant invocation of mental illness when criticizing others is not just a rhetorical tool— it’s an awkwardly revealing window into his own dark, ugly psyche. He projects what he fears most about himself onto his opponents, a pattern that should even worry MAGAts in terms of his fitness to lead the country. As Springsteen, and many others have pointed out, handing the nuclear codes to someone whose mental stability is on the knife's edge is a big risk America can’t afford to take.
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