Trump: How can trauma help explain his die-hard support?
On 22nd July, 2020, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio presenter, Fran Kelly, asked US President Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, the following question: “As a psychologist, can you understand Donald Trump’s appeal to those many hundreds of millions of [supporters]?” Mary admits: “It’s a really good [question] and I think we need to answer it”.
Some answers to this “good question” might be found in trauma knowledge, but I have yet to find any attempt to view Trump supporters through an appropriate trauma lens. This may be partially due to trauma knowledge being grossly under-recognised in the US (e.g., Perry & Szalavitz, 2017) or because trauma is tough to chronicle or archive, let alone dismantle (Middleton, Sachs & Dorahy, 2017). Or perhaps this is due to further reasons not yet explored. I believe we have much to learn from the growing body of trauma research and how it may apply in this context.
I’ve been watching Trump supporters for years now, often asking myself: why do so many Americans stand by, defend, love and support Donald Trump? After all, he is known to be a serial liar (e.g., Holmes, 2018; Kessler, Rizzo & Kelly, 2018); misogynist (e.g., Landsbaum, 2016; Cohen, 2017; Kruse, 2015; Kajstura, 2018; Sufrin, 2017); xenophobe (e.g., Moreno, 2016); racist (e.g., O’Connor & Marans, 2016); profiteer (Beinart, 2020); an inciter of political violence (e.g., Stein & Liebelson, 2016; Trump, 2020; Giroux, 2017; Clark, 2020); who mocks the war dead. Neuroscientists (e.g., Azarian, 2018), psychiatrists, mental health experts (e.g., Lee, 2017) and even his own niece, Mary, a clinical psychologist (PhD) (Trump, 2020), talk about his poor mental state, and warn about what may be behind his odd behaviours. Still, polls consistently show that around 35% to 40% of Americans express support for Trump.
How have Trump supporters been understood?
As yet, no unified perspective on this question exists. For instance, Dunning (2016), refers to the Dunning-Kruger Effect in which “[t]he problem isn’t that voters are too uninformed. It is that they don’t know just how uninformed they are”. Meanwhile, Azarian (2018) who believes supporters “would follow Trump off a cliff” lists as many as 14 key psychological traits to explain Trump supporters.
Pettigrew (2017) offers us five social psychological perspectives on Trump supporters. The first is (1) social dominance orientation, in which there is a desire for a societal hierarchy of groups where perceived lower-status groups get dominated, and democratic values, such as equality, choice, freedom and justice are given no oxygen. Trump admirers are also prone to (2) prejudice, not just against anti-immigration, but aimed at any group viewed as being on the outer. The need for people from lower rungs of society to know that there are groups they perceive to be at even lower rungs, so as to preserve their own egos through a sense of being “better than”, constitutes another trait, namely (3) relative deprivation. Trump shrewdly formulates and appeals to the views of his supporters, thoroughly and regularly exploiting their anger and frustration while twisting facts to reinforce prejudices among targeted audiences. For instance, singly attacking “who” caused job losses or by carefully choreographing rallies sometimes called “identity festivals” (Reicher & Haslam, 2016), thus offering relatively deprived people (false) hope. (4) Intergroup contact, in which different groups aim to diminish prejudice, fear of the other, etc., or encouragement of empathy is a trait notable for its absence among Trump supporters. Pettigrew’s final perspective is (5) authoritarianism in which Trump has an expectation of unquestioned compliance or deference. Authoritarianism is an inflexible, ranked view of the world accompanied by a refusal to accept any new information, experiences or ideas — typically attributed to social, economic or political outgroups. Straying from their “straight and narrow” belief system is seen as dangerous and threatening. Population groups falling in love with leaders who practice authoritarianism, i.e., dictators, may follow certain similar patterns. Nonetheless, themes associated with real or perceived danger and threat sit directly within the realm of trauma (e.g., Herman, 1992; Bowlby, 1977).
As we have seen, there appears no single definitive reason for why Trump has so many supporters. There are likely a multiplicity of possible contributing factors. But given the urgency of understanding Trump’s support base in the run-up to the next election, we need to ensure that we consider all credible explanations. What I believe is missing from the discussion thus far is an examination of how psychological trauma may play a key role. There are likely several reasons why many traumatised individuals in the US would attach themselves to someone like Trump. Here I offer a few thoughts derived from trauma knowledge.
The normalisation of abuse and neglect:
Attachment theory and research teaches us how traumatised people are vulnerable to attaching themselves to perpetrators of abuse (Dutton & Painter, 1981; Summit, 1983; Herman, 1992; Middleton, De Marni Cromer & Freyd, 2005; Cohen, Mannarino & Deblinger, 2006; Courtois, 2010; Bowlby, 1977). That is, people exposed to past violence (irrespective of violence type) and who did not receive trauma-informed help or treatment (e.g., Kezelman & Stavropoulos, 2019a; 2019b), normalise abuse. In other words, they feel that abuse is simply a normal and acceptable part of any relationship. This attitude can occur even among the traumatised who are competent and non-disordered (Misrachi, 2012). Maybe this is why we are cautioned not to assume Trump supporters are mentally ill, vulnerable, racist, bad or evil (Azarian, 2018).Trump supporters repeatedly see Trump engaging in abuse toward a variety of groups including journalists, racial minorities, women, the disabled, immigrants, etc., on a very public scale. And the regularity of his public abusiveness and its normalisation gives his supporters a sense of the familiar. Just as found among trauma victims, his supporters may be sufficiently frightened as to be led into a false sense of security, and at the very least a feeling of having little to no choice (Herman, 1992).
Complex trauma occurs between individuals in unhealthy or abusive relationships where toxic attachments, formed initially as a result of historical cycles of violence in a person’s early life, do not require the original abuser to be physically present for the attachment to continue ad-infinitum (Middleton, De Marni Cromer & Freyd, 2005). The impact of trauma is so strong that for those raised in abusive households, for example, the abuse is accepted, along with any discomforts. It becomes a sad and tragically compromising trade-off as it often occurs to the point where an abused child ends up normalising and accommodating the needs of the perpetrator within their family-of-origin over and above their own (Summit,1983). If this tendency goes unchecked and not therapeutically attended to, it will likely spill over into adulthood, resulting in “victim-perpetrator dynamics” (Middleton, Sachs, Dorahy, 2017). Here, Trump may be symbolically playing the role of a substitute abuser figure for now adult survivors of earlier untreated traumatic distress. The need for such trauma insights is reflected in Mary Trump’s words on how she felt discovering Americans voted her uncle in as President: “it felt as though 62,979,636 voters had chosen to turn this country into a macro version of my malignantly dysfunctional family” (Trump, 2020, p.18).
A perpetrator’s exploitation of fear:
Complex trauma leads to fearfulness. Perpetrators misuse and exploit fear. Uncertainty, lack of predictability, etc., are all part of their toxic psychological game of fear-inducing behaviours. All perpetrators aim at entangling a vulnerable person, group of individuals, or even an entire nation via fear and a lack of predictability (Dutton & Painter, 1981; Summit, 1983; Herman, 1992; Middleton, De Marni Cromer & Freyd, 2005; Cohen, Mannarino & Deblinger, 2006; Courtois, 2010). Trump is well known for his use of such tactics. Here I suggest Trump, whether consciously or unconsciously, aims to disorient vulnerable, traumatised Americans through generating fear via his misuse of power and control. He scares them by recklessly appealing to their insecurities, using dangerous stereotyping and inflation of threats. This has the effect of further entangling them as fearful loyal supporters.
Many supporters of Trump are very likely living with untreated trauma features. This is partly because America’s public health system is ill equipped, under-resourced and cannot adequately deal with, for instance, childhood trauma (Perry & Szalavitz, 2017). It’s also because large numbers of traumatised Americans are known to exist (e.g., Fairbank, Putnam, Harris, 2014) and logically a sizable proportion of them would have voted for Trump. Still, to our bewilderment, many Americans appear to eagerly attach themselves to the abusive Trump.
Our bewilderment may lessen if we recall how untreated complex trauma plays out. Trump very likely represents to them a familiar-sounding attachment figure with which they could relate to and ultimately “safely” attach themselves to (Bowlby, 1977). Short of appropriate trauma interventions, not much can stop the strong emotional attachment bond between a person who was abused and their — in this case substitute — abuser. Although this attachment initially may have begun within an intimate setting (e.g., via a toxic family environment), it does not necessarily stop there. Sadly, as the current US chaos and turmoil continues unabated, it means Americans are highly distracted and in survival mode. Despite the variety of trauma treatment modalities available for the traumatised (e.g., Kezelman & Stavropoulos, 2019a; 2019b), there isn’t enough time to stop traumatised Americans from casting an “attachment-motivated” vote for Trump again in November 2020. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that “victim-perpetrator dynamics” (Middleton, Sachs, Dorahy, 2017) can endlessly be reinforced with great speed virtually via social media or television (Dailey, et al., 2020).
But remember, all this does not guarantee a win for Donald Trump. Multiple factors need to be taken into account which this article has not delved into, and psychological trauma is itself a highly complex public health issue (Magruder, McLaughlin, & Elmore Borbon, 2017). However, if we choose to peer through a trauma lens, the outcome of the US elections in November this year may reflect more than just who Americans voted for. That is, it may reflect the extent to which certain sectors within the American public are able or willing to acknowledge and attend to their trauma including how far their efforts at trauma recovery — to reduce trauma’s impact — are enabled or thwarted.
This article was originally published in Mind Cafe, Sep, 2020, Issue 64.
Suzette Misrachi, Master of AdvSW (Research). Consultant, international presenter, therapist and professional supervisor specialising in trauma and grief. Research: “Lives Unseen: Unacknowledged Trauma of Non-Disordered, Competent Adult Children of Parents with a Severe Mental Illness”.
References
•Azarian, B. (2018). This complete psychological analysis reveals 14 key traits that explain Trump supporters, Raw Story. November 12.
• Beinart, P. (2020). Trump Has a Different Definition of Corruption: The
president helps himself to public resources, but that doesn’t count — as
long as he upholds ‘Republican values.’ The Atlantic, August 28.
• Bolton, J. (2020). The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir. Simon & Schuster.
• Bowlby, J. (1977). The making and breaking of affectional bonds.1:
Aetiology and psychopathology in the light of attachment theory. College
of Psychiatrists, 19 November 1976 version of the Fiftieth Maudsley Lecture,delivered before the Royal psychopathology in the light of attachment theory. Expanded British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, p.201–210.
• Caplan, R., B, & Caplan, G. (2001). Helping the helpers not to harm: Iatrogenic damage and community mental health. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
• Clark, S. (2020). How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics. Center for American Progress: Foreign Policy and Security. July 1.
• Cohen, C. (2017). Donald Trump sexism tracker: Every offensive comment in one place. The Telegraph. 14th July.
• Cohen, J.A., Mannarino, A.P., Deblinger, E. (2006). Treating Trauma and
Traumatic Grief in Children and Adolescents. The Guilford Press.
• Courtois, C. A. (2010). Healing the incest wound. Adult survivors in therapy (Second ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
• Dailey, S.L., Howard, K., Roming, S.M.P., Ceballos, N. Grimes, T. (2020). A biopsychosocial approach to understanding social media addiction. Wiley Periodical, Inc. Human Behav & Emerg Tech, 2, 158–167.
• Dekel, R., & Goldblatt, H. (2008). Is there intergenerational transmission of trauma? The case of combat veterans’ children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78(3), 281–289.
• Dunning D. (2016). The Psychological Quirk That Explains Why You Love
Donald Trump. The popularity of the GOP front-runner can be explained by
the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Politico Magazine, May 25.
• Dutton, D. G., Painter, S. (1993). Emotional Attachments in Abusive
Relationships: A Test of Traumatic Bonding Theory. Violence and Victims,
Department of Psychology University of British Columbiam 8(2), 105–120, Springer Publishing Company.
• Fairbank, J.A., Putnam, F.W., Harris, W.W. 2014). The Prevalence and Impact of Child Traumatic Stress. In M. J. Friedman, T. M. Keane, P. A. Resick (Eds.), Handbook of PTSD: Science and practice Chapter 13,.229–251. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
• Friedman, M.J., Keane, T.M. Resick, P.A. (Ed.) (2007). Handbook of PTSD, First Edition: Science and Practice. The Guilford Press.
•Giroux, H. (2017). ‘Fascism’s return and Trump’s war on youth’. The
Conversation, 14 December.
• Giroux, H. (2018). ‘Trump’s act of state terrorism against children’. The
Conversation, 14 December.
• Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.
• Holmes, J. (2018). Trump’s War on the Truth Has Officially Gone Full Orwell: Things are true and not true, all at once. Don’t believe your eyes and ears’. Esquire News. July, 25.
• Kajstura, A. (2018). States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context 2018. Prison Policy Initiative (June).
• Kessler, G., Rizzo, S., Kelly, M. (2018). President Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days. The Washington Post, August 1.
• Kezelman C.A. & Stavropoulos P.A. (2019a) Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma. Blue Knot Foundation.
• Kezelman C.A. & Stavropoulos P.A. (2019b) Complementary Guidelines
to Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma. Blue Knot Foundation.
• Kruse, M. (2015). The 199 Most Donald Trump Things Donald Trump Has Ever Said Politico Magazine, August 14.
• Landsbaum, C. (2016). Donald Trump Caught on Tape Bragging About
Groping Women and Saying He Can ‘Do Anything’ to Them. The Cut Cover
Story. New York Magazine Oct 7.
• Lee, B. X. (Ed). (2017). The dangerous case of Donald Trump: 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts assess a president. Publ. Thomas Dunne Books.
• Lev–Wiesel, R. (2007). Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma across
Three Generations: A Preliminary Study. Qualitative Social Work 6 (1),75–94.
• Letourneaua, E. J., Brown, D.S., Fangc, X., Hassane, A., Mercy, J.A. (2018). The economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States. Child Abuse & Neglect, 79, 413–422.
• Magruder, K., McLaughlin, K., Elmore Borbon, D. (2017). Trauma is a public health issue. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(1).
• Metzl, J.M., MacLeish, K.T. (2015). Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms. American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) February.
• Middleton, W., De Marni Cromer, L., & Freyd, J. J. (2005). Remembering the past, anticipating the future. Australasian Psychiatry, 13 (3), 223–233.
• Middleton, W., Sachs, A., Dorahy, M.J. (2017). The abused and the abuser: Victim–perpetrator dynamics. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 18(3), 249- 258.
• Misrachi, S. (2012). Lives Unseen: Unacknowledged Trauma of Non-
Disordered, Competent Adult Children of Parents with a Severe Mental
Illness (ACOPSMI). Department of Social Work Melbourne School of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.
• Moreno, C. (2016). 9 Outrageous Things Donald Trump Has Said About
Latinos Huffpost, 10th November.
• O’Connor, L., Marans, D. (2016). Here Are 13 Examples Of Donald Trump Being Racist. Huffpost, 3rd January.
• Paul, K. (2020). House hearing finds US no closer to plan as coronavirus is ‘raging out of control’ — live. The Guardian, Australia edition 1st, August.
• Perry, B.D., Szalavitz, M. (2017). The Boy who was Raised as a Dog, And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook. Basic Books, New York.
• Pettigrew, T.F. (2017). Social Psychological Perspectives on Trump Supporters Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Vol. 5(1), 107–116.
• Schumn, J., A, Doane, L., S, & Hobfoll, S., E. (2012). Conservation of
resources theory: The central role of resource loss and gain in understanding retraumatization. In M. P. Duckworth & V. M. Follette (Eds.), Retraumatization: Assessment, treatment, and prevention (pp. 111–128). New York: Routledge.
• Reicher, S., Haslam, S. A. (2016). The politics of hope: Donald Trump as an entrepreneur of identity. Scientific American, Behavior & Society, November 19.
• Rose, A., Avetisyan, M., Rosoff, H., Burns, W.J., Slovic, P., Chan, O., (2017). The Role of Behavioral Responses in the Total Economic Consequences of Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Air Travel Targets. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 37, (7) July, 1403–1418.
• Stein, S., Liebelson, D. (2016). Donald Trump Encourages Violence At His Rallies. His Fans Are Listening. Huffpost 20th December.
• Sufrin, C. (2017). Jailcare Finding the Safety Net for Women behind Bars. University of California Press.
• Summit, R.C. (1983). The child abuse accommodation syndrome. Child Abuse & Neglect, 7,177–193.
• Sword, R.K.M.; Zimbardo, P. (2017). The Elephant in the Room. It’s time we talked openly about Donald Trump’s mental health. Psychology Today. Posted Feb 28.
• Trump, M. L. (2020). Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Simon & Schuster.
