David Brooks Offers A Gift To Donald Trump

David Brooks is struggling with the mess that Donald Trump is making with his government.  He starts out this op-ed with the gift of prudence because it certainly has been in short supply during his first few weeks in office.  He then rejects prudence for the reasons given below.

But the more I thought about it the more I realized prudence might not be the most important trait Trump needs. He seems intent on destroying the postwar world order — building walls, offending allies and driving away the stranger and the refugee. Do I really want to make him more prudent and effective in pursuit of malicious goals?

Brooks then moves into the psychological issues that Trump may be dealing with.  If Brooks were a well informed psychiatrist he would probably know that narcissism defines Donald Trump.  It makes him what he is and that cannot be changed.  Brooks ends his op-ed with a hopeful plea that there is a very small chance that Trump will recover from his illness.

I  am not willing to depend upon a highly unlikely transformation in Donald Trump.  Our only hope is that he does not defeat the checks and balances in our system of government that were designed to protect our nation from a president with a deep psychological disorder.  The courts have been showing that they are up to challenge of dealing with Trump's disorder.  David Brooks friends in the Republican Congress have decided to cooperate with him in the hope that they can take advantage of the presidency to shape the government in ways that benefit them.  Brooks would be more helpful if he could convince them that Trump is too dangerous to be left in charge of the government.