Aggression, Delusion, and Remorseful Trump Voters

Can a Man Who Can’t Govern Himself Govern the Nation?

After claiming the United States military “totally demolished” much of Iran’s Kharg Island, President Donald Trump told NBC News, “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.” What kind of man describes a violent act of war as “fun?”

The answer: a dangerous, unrepentant, incurable bully.

I’ve learned a couple of things about human nature. One is that people act in furtherance of their self-interests. Easy enough, but here’s the catch: you can’t always know what people consider to be in their self-interest. The more detached they are from reality, the more difficult it is.

The other thing I’ve learned – from my work in identifying, studying, and addressing bullying behavior – is those who bully others lack self-governance. Specifically, they are unable or unwilling to control their aggressive tendencies. Homo sapiens sapiens is, by nature, an aggressive species. “Homo Sapiens Sapiens is a creature with great capacity for violence against its own conspecifics,” wrote Professor Suzanne Kemmer of Rice University. “Humans have the social concepts and practice of altruism, compassion and empathy, on the one hand, but on the other, also cruelty and violence.”

Donald Trump, who inhabits an increasingly delusional reality, lacks self-governance. His aggressive tendencies are unchecked by altruism, compassion and empathy. He serves his perceived self-interest by abusing others. Trump is the scorpion in the famous fable where the scorpion stings the frog and both drown. Those who voted for him are the frog – and they are shocked, shocked that he inevitably stung them.

America is governed by a man who cannot govern his aggressive tendencies and believes it’s his destiny to wield as much military, economic, and political power as possible. Many of us knew what he was and worked to stop him but were outnumbered by those who either did not recognize his dangerous tendencies or chose to ignore them. Now, those who elevated him wonder what the hell they have done.

One of them is Curt Mills, the executive director of The American Conservative magazine, who said Trump’s “core appeal” was an “anti-globalist, anti-imperial” agenda. “Now it just seems overt,” he told Vanity Fair. “The administration serves rich people and does wars for foreign countries.” He added, “He could be impeached for any of these things.”

Echoing his concern were MAGA stalwarts former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and commentator Tucker Carlson. “’Make America Great Again’ was supposed to be America first,” Greene told Megyn Kelly, “not Israel first, not any foreign country first, not any foreign people first, but the American people first.” “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war,” Carlson told his podcast audience. “This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives to make it safer or richer.”

Yair Rosenberg, writing in The Atlantic of “Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal,” notes, “Trump never meant to keep his promises. His voters are starting to notice.” “(M)ore and more of the president’s backers,” he wrote, “realize that his impossible promises were never meant to be kept.”

Peter Cohan wrote of three remorseful Trump voters in Inc.com. “If these voters knew exactly how Trump’s victory would play out for them,” he asked rhetorically, “would they have voted against their own self-interests?” He suggested they may have been influenced by “loosely regulated technology, including social media and AI…” Technology may have played a role, but their bad decision came down to something much simpler: they weren’t paying attention.

Why would Trump be faithful to his supporters when he was not faithful to his wives? In a report filed during the E. Jean Carroll trial, Chelsea Ritschel of AOL documented his history of broken marriages and sexual affairs.

Or consider his business dealings. USA Today “found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades,” adding “filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work.” “His destructive behavior—” reported Newsweek, “spurred by recklessness, arrogance and an unslakable thirst for vengeance—has victimized cities, businesses, investors, partners, even members of his family.” To that list we can add his MAGA supporters, the United States of America and, perhaps, the post-World War Two global order.

When scorpion Trump brings his sting to affectionate relationships, he betrays his partners. When he brings it to business relationships, he cheats and steals. And, when he was allowed to bring it to the Oval Office, people died. His cessation of foreign aid programs is likely to cause millions of unnecessary, avoidable deaths. His illegal extra-judicial killings in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific approach 200. His impetuous war against Iran will bring more.

Trump’s culture of death hasn’t confined itself to overseas locations. In Minnesota, his personal domestic army of poorly trained goons killed American citizens. “Indeed,” wrote Michelle Goodwin in Ms., “the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti are so horrendous and brazen—not hidden, but flaunted in front of cameras—that they evoke historical parallels to lynching and vigilante public execution.” “As if torn from the pages of a family violence casebook,” she adds, “ICE’s recent conduct in Minnesota displays the hallmarks of domestic abuse.”

When Trump ran for president in 2016, two people explained their intention to vote for him by telling me, incredibly, “Trump is a con man, but he gets things done,” and “Trump is a dick, but I’m voting for him.” They failed to realize a fundamental truth:

When a man is incapable of governing himself, he’s sure as hell not capable of governing the country.

© 2026 by Mike Tully