When the Mask Slips

Trump, Hegseth, and Graham reveal their true vicious colors.

Reviewing the literature on narcissism, I see the following definition of “mask slippage”:

The concept of "mask slippage" in narcissism refers to the moment when a narcissist’s carefully constructed, charming, and charismatic public persona (the mask) cracks, revealing their true, underlying nature—characterized by rage, insecurity, and lack of empathy. This phenomenon often occurs when they can no longer maintain their facade due to stress, loss of control, or when they have already "secured" a target and feel they no longer need to impress them.

President Trump used to crack irreverent jokes about his silly, virtue-signaling political opponents at home. Now he’s making cruel and vulgar jokes about killing at least 87 young sailors on the IRIS Dena Frigate, which had just participated in the MILAN exercise -- India’s flagship biennial multilateral naval drill “to foster maritime cooperation among participating nations” — and was 2,000 miles from the Persian Gulf when it was sunk by a US Navy submarine.

The U.S. Navy sent a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to participate in the exercise. The guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney had been slated to attend but was diverted to Singapore on Feb. 15 before the exercise began, for reasons the Navy has not publicly disclosed.

I know from the witness statement cited for my grandfather’s Silver Star medal in World War II that he killed young German soldiers, but I never heard him state it or boast about it -- never mind laugh about it. When I asked him what he thought about German soldiers, he said he thought it a terribly regrettable thing that they had been sent into battle by their deranged leader.

I now wonder if Trump, Hegseth, and Lindsay Graham are demonically possessed. It’s unfathomable to me that anyone who professes to be a Christian would approve of this kind of talk. Watching these vile men speak makes me want to take a long shower with an industrial solvent.