From CNN:

Donald Trump said Tuesday at a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, that undocumented migrants are “destroying the blood of our country” — the latest anti-immigrant comments from the former president in the sprint to the Iowa caucuses — and pushed back on recent criticism that his rhetoric has echoed Adolf Hitler, telling a crowd in Iowa that he’s never read “Mein Kampf.”

“It’s crazy what’s going on. They’re ruining our country. And it’s true, they’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that,” Trump said.

“And I’ve never read ‘Mein Kampf.’ They said, ‘Oh Hitler said that.’ In a much different way.’”

After listening to the beginning of the
“Morning Joe” discussion about Trump using and justifying his Hitlerian “poisoning the blood” – restated yesterday as “ruining the blood” – decriptions of immigrants I thought to write about how unsurprising it was that he’d do this based on his psychopatholgy. Then David Frum said the following (which I tried to type as best I could, so these may not be his exact words):

“The more you tell him not to do it the more he will do it. — it’s the essence of his personality — he has this oppositional defiant disorder…”

What was somewhat unusual in what Trump said in Iowa was that he came as close to walking back something he said as I’ve ever observed in him. Of course he didn’t actually say “I’m sorry” but he did try to say that he really didn’t mean to mouth words used by Adolf Hitler.

Wink, wink, to his neo-Nazi followers, of course you know I really did mean this…

Baked into the definition of malignant narcisism is the following (my bold):

Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism. Grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.

Wikipedia

“Always ready to raise hostility levels” fits right in with the following from the descrption of oppositional defiant disorder:
ODD is a pattern of negative, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior, and it is one of the most prevalent disorders from preschool age to adulthood. This can include frequent temper tantrums, excessive arguing with adults, refusing to follow rules, purposefully upsetting others, getting easily irked, having an angry attitude, and vindictive acts.

Wikipedia

As I write this Joe Scarborough said what I find as disturbing as he and his panel do: that these behaviors make all of his followers like him even more.

While this is Trump being Trump, the scorpion stinging because it’s in his nature, it is also strategic. He doesn’t quite have a lizard brain – scorpions, liked spiders, are arachnids, not lizards – he is capable of strategic thinking.

Trump knows that he has to throw red meat to his base and that the more extreme and outlandish his rhetoric is the more media coverage he will get.

For him personally his being compared to Hitler is a good thing, it inflates his already bloated ego.

Related: While diehard Trump bigots and those wanting him to be their fascist dictator cheer his Hitlerian comments, those who should know better, give him a pass on what he says. Consider “Florida’s Latino GOPers give Trump pass on dictator speech: ‘I know he’s not Hitler’.“

Read previous Stressline blogs here.