When He Lost In 2020, Something Snapped In Him— The Dangerous Unraveling of Señor T

Can Biden's Team Beat Trump's Team... For Us?

"The Long Leash" by Nancy Ohanian

Trump’s definite loss in the 2020 presidential election— by 7 million votes, by 4.5 points and by 74 electoral votes— wasn't just a political defeat; it was a catastrophic blow to his fragile ego and a cataclysmic psychological moment that unmasked the true dangers of his toxic brand of self-centered leadership. His subsequent behavior reveals a man who has become more unhinged, self-obsessed and extreme. Biden's campaign is attempting to leverage this transformation to highlight the dangers of a second Trump term, emphasizing the increased instability and authoritarianism that could result. Understanding the psychological underpinnings of Trump's post-2020 actions provides critical insights into the dynamics of the 2024 election and the broader implications for American democracy.

Michael Scherer’s analysis for the Washington Post yesterday, Biden settles on a message against Trump: He’s even worse than before, reveals a desire to frame the election as a choice between upholding democratic values or descending into autocracy under a degenerate and increasingly deranged cult leader who has shown he will stop at nothing to maintain power, in other words, a battle that. transcending mere politics, is a fight for the soul of the nation. Will swing voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and New Hampshire buy it? Is itoa narrative with enough resilience to make Florida competitive? Ohio?

First of all, let’s not forget that Señor T’s entire persona is built on the illusion of at least a plausible claim to perpetual winning. He sees his brand as synonymous with success, opulence and dominance. The 2020 election shattered this facade, exposing him to that one thing he has always feared most: being seen as a loser, something the Nazi father instilled in him. This psychological blow triggered a narcissistic injury, a deep wound to his inflated sense of self-importance. Narcissists like Trump react to such injuries with rage, denial and a desperate need to reclaim their lost status.

Since his loss, Trump’s anti-societal behavior has escalated, alarmingly so. His rhetoric has become more vitriolic and his actions more erratic, while he’s work to radicalize his followers. The Biden campaign is trying to make the case that this isn't just a tantrum; it’s a existentially dangerous unraveling that threatens the fabric of American democracy.

Trump’s descent into extremism isn't just a personal meltdown; it's a calculated effort to galvanize his base by any means necessary. His embrace of the term “dictator” and his calls for “retribution” aren’t just buffoonery and bluster. They reflect a man who has abandoned even a pretense of shared democratic values in favor of raw, authoritarian power. Can anyone deny that his actions since his loss demonstrate a willingness to trample on democratic norms and incite violence to reassert a grip on power— even beyond just the J-6 coup attempt and insurrection? It’s simple-minded to view that as just an attack on a building or even an attempt to stop a process of legitimization; it was an assault on our country’s democracy itself, orchestrated by a fearful little man desperate to cling to power.

And it was never inconsequential that his serious legal challenges have kept on exacerbating his instability and a kind of fatalistic willingness to roll the dice. He’s always seen himself above the law and he’d probably imagine that he’d be willing to die before going to prison. I’m going to guess that these considerations feed into his lifelong narrative of victimhood, something he has successfully imbued his base with. He built the MAGA movement to thrive on this cult of grievance and victimhood. Trump portrays himself as a martyr fighting against a corrupt system, an image that resonates deeply with his 2-digit IQ supporters, a dynamic that fuels a cycle of radicalization, where any action against Trump is seen as an attack on the movement itself.

And that brings us right to Scherer’s assertion that Biden's campaign strategy of focusing on the very present threat posed by a second Trump term. By emphasizing that “something snapped” in Trump after his 2020 loss, Biden is aiming to highlight the peril of returning such an unstable and vindictive figure to power, a crucial message not just for Democrats but for all swing voters— including non-MAGA Republicans— who value democracy.

The notion that Señor T “changed— becoming more self-obsessed, more dangerous and more extreme— has since been seeded throughout Biden’s campaign,” wrote Scherer, “the result of months of polling, focus groups and ad testing, his advisers say. Independent Democratic groups that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help reelect Biden have come to similar conclusions in their own research.”

This would be a good time for a warning, one I wish smart media types like Scherer shouldn’t forget. With Democratic operatives in general, it’s always going to be the story of the blind men and the elephant, especially the blind part. They spend all day talking to each other, while Fox spends all day programming and propagandizing at the public, and that’s how we end up in this situation. More often than not, they’re just pulling their opinions out of their asses while genuflecting at the same time. It’s certainly a reasonable approach for the Biden campaign to shit all over Trump, because he deserves it, regardless of whether it’s effective or not, but whatever they’re telling the Michael Scherers of the world about their strategy, they’ve in fact been conducting a trial-and-error campaign, with things like “shrinkflation,” trying to shut down the border, reviving antitrust law, instituting affirmative action without ever calling it that, etc. If they want to say that they’ve focused on the anti-Trump message, then at least they are preaching to our choir. They can’t push Biden— or even his policies— as heroic, since the public simply isn’t buying that. They basically try to manufacture our own brand of airy BS, like repeating that the New York conviction was significant because Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers (instead of the queasiness of discussing whether paying hush money to a porn star that you slept with when your wife was pregnant actually is an illegal act). As Alan Grayson has been shouting from Orlando’s roof-tops, what Biden really ought to be doing is trying to re-register our voters, which clearly isn’t on their radar screen at all.

But Scherer insists that this Biden strategy and messaging aren’t just aimed at “2020 Biden voters who have since wandered away, but also at the significant group of swing voters who oppose both major-party candidates. Faced with dim approval ratings and more Americans with favorable views of Trump’s presidency than his own, Biden is making his case to those who don’t want to choose: The other guy is worse than you realize. ‘The number one priority is to make sure that voters understand that Trump was a bad president and he will be even worse if he has a second term,’ said Geoff Garin, a pollster for Biden who helped build the case against Mitt Romney in 2012. ‘The hinge is Trump’s response to losing the 2020 election— “snapping,” as President Biden says— and becoming unhinged.’ The frame has since become explicit in daily communications, paid advertising and the torrent of digital communication that the campaign puts out every week. It echoes a similar decision by President Barack Obama and his allies in early 2012 to aim their firepower at a single story they told for months on the stump and in advertising about Romney, the Republican presidential nominee: He is a predatory businessman who has hurt the middle class and will do so again.”

Watch the latest Biden ad (again):

“Advisers say the import of that ad,” wrote Scherer, “is not the felony label that got headlines, but the argument Biden’s team is using the label to make. ‘It is about why he is a felon,’ said another campaign strategist… ‘He doesn’t care about the harm that he causes as long as he serves himself.’… The Biden approach embraces the typical reelection campaign strategy for sitting presidents— to turn attention onto their opponent. The campaign plans to continue some positive advertising at the same time, especially in ads aimed at convincing Black, Latino and younger voters that Biden has achieved significant policy wins that benefit them. But unlike 2020, when Biden ran a largely positive advertising effort, this cycle is expected to be far more negative.”