When is a Trump Brain Fart a Lie?

Trump's tweets have brought forth the idea of a brain fart. Seriously. There are as yet no formal definitions of a brain fart. Here are 2 attempts: "When you are attempting to remember something very obvious, something that you know you should know"and can't; or "Something ill-considered and said or done impulsively."Trump's tweets appear to match both definitions. He brings forth an idea, a comment, a policy statement, an accusation impulsively and without considering the impact his office and his public status would have. Plus he delivers false facts about important issues that he knows he cannot recall or never knew. Coming from an ordinary citizen—or someone with far less public standing—such brain fart tweets would go unnoticed.But Trump has championed his loose and ever more frequent (and more factually delinquent) brain farts. He is even known to produce them in meetings with foreign leaders. Missing, of course, is the experience of shame. Trump is now famous for being utterly, almost criminally shameless.Many, including the 27 American psychiatrists who authored The Dangerous Case of Donald Trumpconsider Trump to be mentally ill. Malignant narcissist is the summary diagnosis: he is ego-centric, demands admiration and attacks critics; he is paranoid, he lacks a conscience, he can be cunning and charming to gain his way, and he is heedlessly aggressive especially toward women and some countries.On the other hand, Alan Frances, the psychiatrist who drafted the diagnosis of narcissistic personality for the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, argues that Trumps is not mentally ill, just a bad person and that the country is mad for electing and supporting him.But Trump’s brain fart tweets are out there for all to see. His base reads these as code for their deep distrust of our inclusive democracy and for their urgent desire to vanquish all who oppose the fantasy of a beneficent iron-ruled demagogue. Their number is small, but so was Hitler’s. He never gained more than 38% of the popular vote. Coincidentally tie with Trump.Hitler’s seizure of power, total power, was demonic. He murdered opponents, silenced the press, and built a personal army from his base. By 1934 Hitler had manipulated his way into winning the German chancellorship which he rapidly transformed into his role as Fuhrer. Trump appears, by comparison, to lack those basic tools—at least thus far. But Congress has not controlled him, limited his powers, or examined his fitness to govern.And the brain fart tweets keep coming..

"[Trump's] now famous impulsivity allows him to bypass both planning and informing processes."

.Perhaps the closest scientific explanation of Trump's tweet storms comes from the Theory of Cognitive Modes, composed of three principles: (1) the top part of the brain forms and enacts plans while the bottom part organizes and interprets incoming information; (2) the two parts work together, the top part relies on information to formulate a plan and alters it as information and events unfold; (3)  people vary how much they typically rely on either the top or bottom part while some do not rely much on either part.Trump is probably falls into the 3rd category. He barely waits to formulate a plan and his reliance on information is often side-stepped by his tendency to invent or distort available information. His now famous impulsivity allows him to bypass both planning and informing processes. He invents facts and in his rush to announce them frequently makes linguistic blunders ("cofeve").Unlike Hitler, Trump's speech, both content and style, has little public approval or support, except with his base who yearn for the changes his administration is proving to ignore and betray.Time is still on the side of all the freedoms and equalities and opportunities our country has always stood for and fought for. It's our built-in resistance.