It is instructive to note that there used to be an official psychiatric disorder called sadistic personality disorder.

Sadistic personality disorder was a proposed personality disorder defined by a pervasive pattern of sadistic and cruel behavior. People with this disorder were thought to have desired to control others. It was believed they accomplish this through the use of physical or emotional violence. This diagnosis appeared in an appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R).^[1] The later versions of the DSM (DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR, and DSM-5) do not include it. It was removed as psychiatrists believed it would be used to legally excuse sadistic behavior.

More on Wikipedia here.

Ask yourself whether Donald Trump fits into this portion of the definition:

Many sadists will verbally and emotionally abuse others rather than physically, purposefully manipulating others through the use of fear or shaming and humiliating others. Some people with this disorder will not abuse others, but will instead display a preoccupation with violence.

The notion that there are many people who would never engage in sadistic acts who nevertheless enjoy watching Donad Trump’s sadism came to me after reading an article in RawStory where evangelicals were asked how they readed to what I consider to be Trump’s sadism.

“It doesn’t bother me,” she said of the crudeness.

Meanwhile, 71-year-old Marsha Crouthamel, a relative, was there for the ride.

“It doesn’t bother me either because his policies are strong,” she agreed, explaining that Trump’s insults and profanity get laughs. “Sometimes you just gotta excite people a little bit.”

“We’re Christians, and we can look past that,” Carpenter explained. “We see the good that he did our country when he was in.” ‘We’re Christians, and we can look past that’: Iowa ‘relishes’ Trump ‘vulgarities’, RawStory

After I read the above reactions to what you could generiously call his crudeness, but really I consider his delight as attacking his enemies as sadisim, I thought these people were engaging in sadism by proxy. I’d define this not only as enjoying someone you admire being sadistic, but identifying with their sadism. I wondered if anyone had coined the term so I looked it up. The only reference I could find with this exact term is a song recorded 10 years ago by someone name Ryan Sally. I couldn’t bear to listen to more than a minute and can’t find the lyrics.

I was reminded of the concept of schadenfreude, the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another (Wikpedia entry). This really doesn’t fit what I mean abiout sadism by proxy.

In psychiatry we have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy which is very different since this is someone, generally a mother, making a child sick with the goals of getting attention for themselves. This is a very different “by proxy” than what I means by sadism by proxy.

The legal defintion of “by proxy” is also different but somewhat closer to what I mean. If you authorize someone to be your proxy they can act in your place. In a way the people who enjoy Trump’s sadism have indirectly authorized him to be their sadistic proxy so they don’t personally have to “get their Christian hands dirty”.

Related:

Sadists who act out their sadism can do so directly or indirectly though committing acts of violence or ordering others to do so. We know what Hitler and Stalin did. We don’t know whether the the reports that Kim Jung Un odered his uncle to be eaten alive by ravenous dogs is true or whether, if it is, whether he was there to osberve it or watched it on video. If the story is true even thinking of this as a way to execute your enemies is sadistic.

We had someone who as president considered putting alligators in the Rio Grande or a border moat supposedly to deter people from attempting to cross it.

Nobody knows if he really was envisioning people being devoured by these creatures. Nobody knows if he was really hoping to this to be the fate of those who dared defy him.

By chance I looked up Trump sadist on Google images to find an illustration to add to this blog and this was the first thing to come up:

This is what I came up with. Versions one and two below: