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How Growing Up With a Narcissist Prepared Me For Trump’s America
What happens when your country is run by a man who acts and sounds like your abusive parent?
In 2016, the first time Donald Trump was elected as president, he campaigned on the promise of building a wall along the border to keep illegal immigrants out. A similar story was playing out at my home, where my father was obsessed with building his own wall inside our house.
My dad was a Trump supporter. He wasn’t as deeply entrenched in the MAGA world as other conservative white men — he didn’t wear a red baseball cap with Trump’s slogan or sing Trump’s praises — but to him, Trump represented men like my dad: hard-working white collar American businessmen. Like Trump, he blamed immigrants for America’s problems and thought women and marginalized people got unfair handouts when it came to government support.
I can remember my dad’s sexist comments about Hillary Clinton that election. How he didn’t believe a woman was qualified to be president. How she didn’t represent the interests of American businessmen. How she was ugly, the worst thing a woman can be in this world.
Trump and my dad have a lot in common. They have similar speaking patterns and tones. They use the same classic gaslighting strategies for…
