Powerful fable that captures the pathological psychology perfectly. But as a geopolitical analyst who advises on authoritarian governance, I need to add the strategic layer: This isn’t just narcissistic obsession. It’s documented imperial doctrine.
The November 2025 National Security Strategy codifies what you’re describing as “madness” into official policy. The NSS’s “Trump Corollary” explicitly calls for “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere” through military force. Greenland isn’t random impulse, it’s named in NSS planning as strategic territory where sovereignty is negotiable.
Your stamp collector analogy reveals the psychology perfectly: possessive obsession destroying the cooperative relationships that made possession possible. But Venezuela proved this operational. Trump bombed Caracas, extracted Maduro, announced “we’re going to run the country,” and faced zero institutional pushback. Greenland’s next because the playbook worked.
Madness is the predictable endpoint of fascist collapse logic: everything already belongs to the superior power, has been stolen, and must be taken back by force. That’s not clinical insanity….it’s operational fascism with documented strategy.
The NSS ensures this scales beyond Trump’s personal pathology. The doctrine authorizes systematic erasure of allied sovereignty across the hemisphere.
From my work teaching geopolitics and consulting with NGOs: The fable captures psychology perfectly, but the NSS reveals operational architecture.
The NATO alliance is being dismantled not through madness alone, but through documented authoritarian doctrine treating allied sovereignty as obstacle to resource control. That’s what makes this more dangerous than individual pathology, it’s institutionalized imperial logic with presidential authority backing it.
Appreciate the moral clarity.
Just adding: There’s strategic method in the madness, and it’s written down as official U.S. policy; that’s even worse.
I believe the true "brains" of this madhouse are Miller, Vought and, maybe, Vance. Trump is just the unstable figurehead needed to keep the MAGAs in line.
The Triumvirate as I see it is Miller, Vought and Roberts (Kevin, not John). They are the ideologues and architects of hemispheric dominion. Don has neither the mental capacity nor the perseverance to accomplish such a grand project. He is a good salesman for his base, and he is useful to the Triumvirate in that capacity, but Trump is no strategist. As one of Trump's professors said "He was the dumbest student I ever had". He is the Triumvirate's poster boy, they are the brains.
I'd rather attribute "the brains" to all the bright boys and girls who reduced intelligence to the conceits pushed in standardized testing: neutered rationality, groups and categories, plus linear causality only.
Note the absence of humanity or humanities.
Today we have elites superbly, blithely only compounding all the stupidities David Halberstam already registered in "The Best and the Brightest" over 50 years ago. Doesn't matter that we knew that then. Or knew it again when Diane Ravitch published "The Language Police" 23 years ago (on the industries of standardized testing and corporate textbook packaging), or when Jane Mayer published "Dark Money" 10 years ago (on the decades U.S. oligarchs grew the wealth gap since the Powell memo of 1971).
yes, humanity the world over is lacking humanity these days. If I understand you correctly, the educational system must assume some responsibility for this loss. I agree with you. Some remnants still exist but those bits seem to have been swept aside by others who ascribe to the law of the jungle as Stephen Miller so astutely stated "Its all about the power". They have the power. They will use it.
I have also thought this for some time. And let's not forget the atrocious men lurking silently in the background, keeping very, very quiet, like Leonard Leo and the rest of the men unburdened by a shred of conscience who are bent on taking over the country forever (read Jane Mayer's outstanding book DARK MONEY for a close up detailed view of who is and has been silently doing what since the 1980s).
yes and no. unbelievably trump has charisma for the magas. he really believes what they tell him sort of academically. because what they want is to transfform the US into a kind of putinstan. they have done a lot of the remodeling already. and this is what trump, president bonespur, wants, he wants to be the american version of putin.
A wonderful comment, Johan; I always find you worth reading.
I have a hunch that the taking of Greenland is but a step in the process of taking Canada. I can visualize Trump in his office with a gigantic map, with the lower 48 states, Alaska and Greenland all colored red, with him pointing to Canada and saying "See? You are surrounded. Give in!" Followed by an invasion.
Trump and pals are assigned by the extraterrestrial MAGA species on Earth to conquer, control, and eventually remove all humans from the western hemisphere. This is the meaning of the new national defense policy.
Since the MAGA are a telepathic species it's fair to think of them as a hive mind. There's really no one individual in charge, just group-think and assignments.
They are replacing humans in the US military with members of their own species. This is damned clever.
My latest analysis is that they can use the Venezuelan oil to burn down Amazonia. They do not like the percentage of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. This is why so many in the Trump administration self-medicate with alcohol, tobacco, vape, pot, ketamine, Adderall, cocaine, and other substances. They will get relief by reducing atmospheric oxygen.
My hunch is that the oil play is not to take or process the oil; it is to prevent it from going to Cuba. Their economy is in bad shape; they are pretty much dependent on the Venezuelan oil and favorable terms of trade; and Rubio is creaming in his jeans to crush/snuff the Cuban project.
Sheer insanity. Will we ever wake up from this nightmare? If The Bloated Yam gains Greenland, will he then be content? Of course not. He'll only want more and more.
That’s the thing about bullies. Give them an inch, and they want a mile. In the mango mobster’s case, it’s the entire western hemisphere and whatever other country strikes his fancy. Provided it has valuable natural resources, of course.
Denmark and Greenland. Think back 110 years when the US acquired the USVI from Denmark. Guess what? We signed a treaty to seal the deal. In diplomatic speak, signing a treaty is indeed the art of the deal. Do JD Vance and Marco Rubio know about signed treaties.?
Anyway, in 1916, the US and Denmark signed a treaty. Several pages in, there is this very important Declaration. The source for this is the link below.
DECLARATION
In proceeding this day to the signature of the Convention respecting the cession of the Danish West-Indian Islands to the United States of America, the undersigned Secretary of State of the United States of America, duly authorized by his Government, has the honor to declare that the Government of the United States of America will not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.
If a country signs any document with the US - whether it’s called a treaty, a memorandum, an agreement an accord, or whatever - expect it to be dishonoured. It depends on who’s sitting in the Oval Office if it has a chance of success. Ask your indigenous citizens. Ask the Ukrainians, Canadians and Mexicans. Ask the entire globe! Don’t trust the U.S.!!
So true! It is so sad and disheartening to be an unwilling partner to the unprincipled and dishonest behaviors of our government. It is almost like being in bed with Putin.
It should be remembered by the American public and its politicians that the only time article 5 was invoked was after the terrorist attack on United States September 9 2011.
And NATO soldiers went and died with American forces in Afghanistan.
Thank You for your truth telling. If years ago, the Republicans had gotten together and saud "No" to this monster, we would not be here now. I blame the enablers, not the mentally ill stamp collector.
The Republicans could not "say no" to the Dumper because they would lose a lot of MAGA support. And then they would lose! Current Republican doctrine is that they are the only party able to govern; therefore, they *had to win*. You can observe the "results" of their "governing" every day.
[Trump] can gain nothing for the United States by insisting on owning Greenland, but he can lose everything which has helped to make Americans safer and more prosperous."
Trump - and his Republican enablers - do not care about the United States and the international alliances which have made us safe and prosperous. Trump only cares about what makes him rich and powerful. Republicans care only about establishing a ChristoFascist state which fills the pockets of plutocrats by pandering to prejudices of populists. Before Trump was politically in Putin's pocket, KKK grand wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke was selling the Republican base on Putin as the great white hope of Christian Nationalism. And they are happy to let Trump redefine American interests in terms of Putin's agenda to destroy NATO.
RussiaRussiaRussia...there was a very interesting story in the Washington Post day before last, noting Putin's choice of Witkof as the negotiator for "peace in Ukraine" and reportedly Putin had offered Trump Venezuela in exchange for Putin's terms in the "peace" deal. It's not hard to see the connection between Venezuela and Greenland, and instant destruction of NATO. To me, the most frightening thing is that we now know the boy, not the brightest bulb to begin with, will do anything, ANYTHING, especially now that he's physically and mentally decomposing.
"To me, the most frightening thing is that we now know the boy [Trump], not the brightest bulb to begin with, will do anything, ANYTHING, especially now that he's physically and mentally decomposing."
The thing is, Trump is nothing on his own. It is the entire right wing apparatus, and especially the Republican party, who are hedging their bets that Trump will deliver for them. The oil barons such as Charles Koch, the tech bros such as Musk and Thiel. From Newt Gingrich to Mike Johnson. And all the apparatchiks from Leonard Leo to Stephen Miller. And the die-hard Movement Conservatives such as David Brooks and George F. Will and Leftish influencers such as Putin gal Jill Stein who refuse to acknowledge that uniting to elect Democratic candidates is an essential strategic joint exercise in taking power.
I think we're going to learn a lot more about where the red line is once the primary registrations close, which is soon. But maybe not, of course. Meantime Trump holds all the cards, as he likes to point out, specially the Get Out of Jail Free card from the Supreme Court. He IS scared of going to prison. And Jack Smith.
With tears in my eyes…..beautifully stated, if only the maga voter could grasp this reality. Every person on the planet will be affected by these conflicts and to think these convulsions will begin in the USA.
There are only two possible reasons for his lust for Greenland. One, he is indeed mad, as evidenced by his insatiable need for recognition. He greedily accepted FIFA's phony peace "prize", will selfishly take Maria Machado's gift of both the Nobel and the money that came with it, and seems incapable of reigning in his habit of stealing recognition from deceased American heroes by slapping his name on everything. He is the nuisance, ugly stamp currently popping up on buildings, mailboxes, telephone and light poles throughout D.C. The other possible reason is that he is simply a traitor, that the "Pee Tape" is real and Putin owns him. Of course, Greenland may simply be a smokescreen to cloud our collective memory of the Epstein Files. Whatever the reason, please, somebody, anybody, everyone, STOP HIM! (Then again, he's merely a symptom. The entire damn Republican Party is now fascist.
Yes. TRUMP AND THE REST OF THE CREW MUST BE STOPPED< NOW> I fail to understand why he cannot be stopped, despite the license given him by corrupt John Roberts, when Trump has blatently trashed his vow to uphold the United States Constitution.
I think there's a danger in assuming any normal, human emotions from Trump, who in my opinion is a narcissistic sociopath. Unlike the mad man in this fable, Trump started off by coveting the stamp collection. His desire was to steal it from the person, not consider it a token of friendship.
Note: one can never call Trump's neighbor a "friend" because, to a sociopath, one is simply an automaton to navigate; everyone is just an NPC that gives you stuff, or you take from, or you defend yourself from by either giving to or manipulating.
The 🍊🤡 was simply steered toward this new object of desire by another sociopath (the now proud billionaire co-owner of Ukraine's mineral wealth, Lauder) and the rest, as we see, has been a fait accompli. Because once he knows about someone he doesn't have, Trump must get it by any means, a slaveringly hungry dog, easily led by smarter masters.
I read a lot, write post cards, am part of a social justice group, and attend as many demonstrations as I can (not easy at 78) but your fable is the clearest way I’ve seen this put. Thank you so much, Tim.
For more on the topic of our alliances and how alliances create peace and stability, read yesterday's Paul Krugman Substack discussion with military historian, Phillips O'Brien.
Very insightful analogy. Narcissism is so destructive, and malignant narcissism afflicts who we have placed in enormous power here. This mental condition is perpetually hungrier for a sense of power and wealth, all futile, for it is never content, and its host, the person, never has grown beyond this craving.
Yes, Mad King Donald, the Emperor Who Has No Clothes, but does have the Nuclear Codes. When will someone remove this paranoid aggressor from office via the 25th Amendment, which does, I believe, include insanity as a reason to invoke it? Let's start putting the idea in front of our representatives and news cameras. Time might be running out.
Powerful fable that captures the pathological psychology perfectly. But as a geopolitical analyst who advises on authoritarian governance, I need to add the strategic layer: This isn’t just narcissistic obsession. It’s documented imperial doctrine.
The November 2025 National Security Strategy codifies what you’re describing as “madness” into official policy. The NSS’s “Trump Corollary” explicitly calls for “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere” through military force. Greenland isn’t random impulse, it’s named in NSS planning as strategic territory where sovereignty is negotiable.
Your stamp collector analogy reveals the psychology perfectly: possessive obsession destroying the cooperative relationships that made possession possible. But Venezuela proved this operational. Trump bombed Caracas, extracted Maduro, announced “we’re going to run the country,” and faced zero institutional pushback. Greenland’s next because the playbook worked.
Madness is the predictable endpoint of fascist collapse logic: everything already belongs to the superior power, has been stolen, and must be taken back by force. That’s not clinical insanity….it’s operational fascism with documented strategy.
The NSS ensures this scales beyond Trump’s personal pathology. The doctrine authorizes systematic erasure of allied sovereignty across the hemisphere.
From my work teaching geopolitics and consulting with NGOs: The fable captures psychology perfectly, but the NSS reveals operational architecture.
The NATO alliance is being dismantled not through madness alone, but through documented authoritarian doctrine treating allied sovereignty as obstacle to resource control. That’s what makes this more dangerous than individual pathology, it’s institutionalized imperial logic with presidential authority backing it.
Appreciate the moral clarity.
Just adding: There’s strategic method in the madness, and it’s written down as official U.S. policy; that’s even worse.
—Johan
Sounds like the inmates are running the asylum while keeping their boss on life support.
I believe the true "brains" of this madhouse are Miller, Vought and, maybe, Vance. Trump is just the unstable figurehead needed to keep the MAGAs in line.
The Triumvirate as I see it is Miller, Vought and Roberts (Kevin, not John). They are the ideologues and architects of hemispheric dominion. Don has neither the mental capacity nor the perseverance to accomplish such a grand project. He is a good salesman for his base, and he is useful to the Triumvirate in that capacity, but Trump is no strategist. As one of Trump's professors said "He was the dumbest student I ever had". He is the Triumvirate's poster boy, they are the brains.
And Peter Thiel, David Sacks and Elon Musk. JD Vance is Thiel's apprentice and was pushed onto Trump with millions in donations to Trump’s campaign
Does the fox in the hen house understand that the chickens are coming home to roost?
... and when do we, and how do we, bell the imperial cat?
". . . the brains."
Demur slightly, Warden.
I'd rather attribute "the brains" to all the bright boys and girls who reduced intelligence to the conceits pushed in standardized testing: neutered rationality, groups and categories, plus linear causality only.
Note the absence of humanity or humanities.
Today we have elites superbly, blithely only compounding all the stupidities David Halberstam already registered in "The Best and the Brightest" over 50 years ago. Doesn't matter that we knew that then. Or knew it again when Diane Ravitch published "The Language Police" 23 years ago (on the industries of standardized testing and corporate textbook packaging), or when Jane Mayer published "Dark Money" 10 years ago (on the decades U.S. oligarchs grew the wealth gap since the Powell memo of 1971).
Many "brains," Warden. All long dehumanized.
yes, humanity the world over is lacking humanity these days. If I understand you correctly, the educational system must assume some responsibility for this loss. I agree with you. Some remnants still exist but those bits seem to have been swept aside by others who ascribe to the law of the jungle as Stephen Miller so astutely stated "Its all about the power". They have the power. They will use it.
I have also thought this for some time. And let's not forget the atrocious men lurking silently in the background, keeping very, very quiet, like Leonard Leo and the rest of the men unburdened by a shred of conscience who are bent on taking over the country forever (read Jane Mayer's outstanding book DARK MONEY for a close up detailed view of who is and has been silently doing what since the 1980s).
yes and no. unbelievably trump has charisma for the magas. he really believes what they tell him sort of academically. because what they want is to transfform the US into a kind of putinstan. they have done a lot of the remodeling already. and this is what trump, president bonespur, wants, he wants to be the american version of putin.
I think your term "Putinstan" is pretty darn peceptive.
Suspect Thiel is steering Vance.
A wonderful comment, Johan; I always find you worth reading.
I have a hunch that the taking of Greenland is but a step in the process of taking Canada. I can visualize Trump in his office with a gigantic map, with the lower 48 states, Alaska and Greenland all colored red, with him pointing to Canada and saying "See? You are surrounded. Give in!" Followed by an invasion.
And what might that map be titled, Stephen?
The United States of America, or the United States of something else?
Good question. Were I to hazard a guess it would be something like The Trumpian Empire
Terrifying. Infuriating.
Trump and pals are assigned by the extraterrestrial MAGA species on Earth to conquer, control, and eventually remove all humans from the western hemisphere. This is the meaning of the new national defense policy.
Since the MAGA are a telepathic species it's fair to think of them as a hive mind. There's really no one individual in charge, just group-think and assignments.
They are replacing humans in the US military with members of their own species. This is damned clever.
My latest analysis is that they can use the Venezuelan oil to burn down Amazonia. They do not like the percentage of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. This is why so many in the Trump administration self-medicate with alcohol, tobacco, vape, pot, ketamine, Adderall, cocaine, and other substances. They will get relief by reducing atmospheric oxygen.
My hunch is that the oil play is not to take or process the oil; it is to prevent it from going to Cuba. Their economy is in bad shape; they are pretty much dependent on the Venezuelan oil and favorable terms of trade; and Rubio is creaming in his jeans to crush/snuff the Cuban project.
Sheer insanity. Will we ever wake up from this nightmare? If The Bloated Yam gains Greenland, will he then be content? Of course not. He'll only want more and more.
Love the Bloated Yam!
That’s the thing about bullies. Give them an inch, and they want a mile. In the mango mobster’s case, it’s the entire western hemisphere and whatever other country strikes his fancy. Provided it has valuable natural resources, of course.
Denmark and Greenland. Think back 110 years when the US acquired the USVI from Denmark. Guess what? We signed a treaty to seal the deal. In diplomatic speak, signing a treaty is indeed the art of the deal. Do JD Vance and Marco Rubio know about signed treaties.?
Anyway, in 1916, the US and Denmark signed a treaty. Several pages in, there is this very important Declaration. The source for this is the link below.
DECLARATION
In proceeding this day to the signature of the Convention respecting the cession of the Danish West-Indian Islands to the United States of America, the undersigned Secretary of State of the United States of America, duly authorized by his Government, has the honor to declare that the Government of the United States of America will not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland.
<by> Robert Lansing
New York, August 4, 1916
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1917/d881
If a country signs any document with the US - whether it’s called a treaty, a memorandum, an agreement an accord, or whatever - expect it to be dishonoured. It depends on who’s sitting in the Oval Office if it has a chance of success. Ask your indigenous citizens. Ask the Ukrainians, Canadians and Mexicans. Ask the entire globe! Don’t trust the U.S.!!
So true! It is so sad and disheartening to be an unwilling partner to the unprincipled and dishonest behaviors of our government. It is almost like being in bed with Putin.
Trump's "art of the deal" is nothing more than threats, blustering, cheating, and lying to get what he wants.
In reality, Art of the Steal. In government and in business.
As per usual
It should be remembered by the American public and its politicians that the only time article 5 was invoked was after the terrorist attack on United States September 9 2011.
And NATO soldiers went and died with American forces in Afghanistan.
" 'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind." (Shakespeare, 'King Lear')
Thank You for your truth telling. If years ago, the Republicans had gotten together and saud "No" to this monster, we would not be here now. I blame the enablers, not the mentally ill stamp collector.
The Republicans could not "say no" to the Dumper because they would lose a lot of MAGA support. And then they would lose! Current Republican doctrine is that they are the only party able to govern; therefore, they *had to win*. You can observe the "results" of their "governing" every day.
[Trump] can gain nothing for the United States by insisting on owning Greenland, but he can lose everything which has helped to make Americans safer and more prosperous."
Trump - and his Republican enablers - do not care about the United States and the international alliances which have made us safe and prosperous. Trump only cares about what makes him rich and powerful. Republicans care only about establishing a ChristoFascist state which fills the pockets of plutocrats by pandering to prejudices of populists. Before Trump was politically in Putin's pocket, KKK grand wizard and GOP gadfly David Duke was selling the Republican base on Putin as the great white hope of Christian Nationalism. And they are happy to let Trump redefine American interests in terms of Putin's agenda to destroy NATO.
RussiaRussiaRussia...there was a very interesting story in the Washington Post day before last, noting Putin's choice of Witkof as the negotiator for "peace in Ukraine" and reportedly Putin had offered Trump Venezuela in exchange for Putin's terms in the "peace" deal. It's not hard to see the connection between Venezuela and Greenland, and instant destruction of NATO. To me, the most frightening thing is that we now know the boy, not the brightest bulb to begin with, will do anything, ANYTHING, especially now that he's physically and mentally decomposing.
"To me, the most frightening thing is that we now know the boy [Trump], not the brightest bulb to begin with, will do anything, ANYTHING, especially now that he's physically and mentally decomposing."
The thing is, Trump is nothing on his own. It is the entire right wing apparatus, and especially the Republican party, who are hedging their bets that Trump will deliver for them. The oil barons such as Charles Koch, the tech bros such as Musk and Thiel. From Newt Gingrich to Mike Johnson. And all the apparatchiks from Leonard Leo to Stephen Miller. And the die-hard Movement Conservatives such as David Brooks and George F. Will and Leftish influencers such as Putin gal Jill Stein who refuse to acknowledge that uniting to elect Democratic candidates is an essential strategic joint exercise in taking power.
I think we're going to learn a lot more about where the red line is once the primary registrations close, which is soon. But maybe not, of course. Meantime Trump holds all the cards, as he likes to point out, specially the Get Out of Jail Free card from the Supreme Court. He IS scared of going to prison. And Jack Smith.
With tears in my eyes…..beautifully stated, if only the maga voter could grasp this reality. Every person on the planet will be affected by these conflicts and to think these convulsions will begin in the USA.
There are only two possible reasons for his lust for Greenland. One, he is indeed mad, as evidenced by his insatiable need for recognition. He greedily accepted FIFA's phony peace "prize", will selfishly take Maria Machado's gift of both the Nobel and the money that came with it, and seems incapable of reigning in his habit of stealing recognition from deceased American heroes by slapping his name on everything. He is the nuisance, ugly stamp currently popping up on buildings, mailboxes, telephone and light poles throughout D.C. The other possible reason is that he is simply a traitor, that the "Pee Tape" is real and Putin owns him. Of course, Greenland may simply be a smokescreen to cloud our collective memory of the Epstein Files. Whatever the reason, please, somebody, anybody, everyone, STOP HIM! (Then again, he's merely a symptom. The entire damn Republican Party is now fascist.
Yes. TRUMP AND THE REST OF THE CREW MUST BE STOPPED< NOW> I fail to understand why he cannot be stopped, despite the license given him by corrupt John Roberts, when Trump has blatently trashed his vow to uphold the United States Constitution.
I think there's a danger in assuming any normal, human emotions from Trump, who in my opinion is a narcissistic sociopath. Unlike the mad man in this fable, Trump started off by coveting the stamp collection. His desire was to steal it from the person, not consider it a token of friendship.
Note: one can never call Trump's neighbor a "friend" because, to a sociopath, one is simply an automaton to navigate; everyone is just an NPC that gives you stuff, or you take from, or you defend yourself from by either giving to or manipulating.
The 🍊🤡 was simply steered toward this new object of desire by another sociopath (the now proud billionaire co-owner of Ukraine's mineral wealth, Lauder) and the rest, as we see, has been a fait accompli. Because once he knows about someone he doesn't have, Trump must get it by any means, a slaveringly hungry dog, easily led by smarter masters.
Tim, thank you for this wonderful and thoughtful post.
I read a lot, write post cards, am part of a social justice group, and attend as many demonstrations as I can (not easy at 78) but your fable is the clearest way I’ve seen this put. Thank you so much, Tim.
For more on the topic of our alliances and how alliances create peace and stability, read yesterday's Paul Krugman Substack discussion with military historian, Phillips O'Brien.
That was excellent.
Very insightful analogy. Narcissism is so destructive, and malignant narcissism afflicts who we have placed in enormous power here. This mental condition is perpetually hungrier for a sense of power and wealth, all futile, for it is never content, and its host, the person, never has grown beyond this craving.
Yes, Mad King Donald, the Emperor Who Has No Clothes, but does have the Nuclear Codes. When will someone remove this paranoid aggressor from office via the 25th Amendment, which does, I believe, include insanity as a reason to invoke it? Let's start putting the idea in front of our representatives and news cameras. Time might be running out.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant writing.
Looking at it this way seems even more frightening.