The Scoreboard Presidency
Trump’s Obsession with Winning
Let’s be real. Trump doesn’t really hate Barack Obama or Joe Biden. He may feel threatened by them, or by any political opponent for that matter. He just hates losing.
For Trump, losing isn’t just a political setback, it is an existential threat to his fragile ego, which he internalizes as a weakness. He uses a textbook defense mechanism that most narcissists use. By calling people losers, he feels more like a winner. By cutting others down, he builds himself up as the ultimate champion. Narcissists need to be looked up to, or admired at all costs. They cannot tolerate the vulnerability of defeat.
Some people might excuse Trump’s behavior by calling him “competitive”. Granted, politics is naturally competitive. There will always be winners and losers in presidential elections, tight congressional races, high stakes Supreme Court rulings, and of course, war. But standard political competition isn’t enough for Trump. If politics were an actual sport, he would want to be the referee, the coach, the team owner, and the team captain, while controlling the score board.
Look at how he manages his public image. When he’s on stage, it looks like he’s giving a speech after winning an oscar. He hosted a UFC fight in front of the White House on his 80th birthday. And who was given a medal? Trump. He also awards medals to his allies, not just as honors, but as proof that his “team” is winning. His public pining for a Nobel Peace Prize isn’t about his efforts to achieve world peace. It’s about getting something that Barack Obama has, and to put it on display so he can brag about winning a high profile award.
Lately, Trump’s obsession with turning America into a giant scoreboard has trickled down to the next generation. He has recently turned his focus towards competition among high school students, producing a high school civics match-up at the Kennedy Center, and starting the first-ever “Patriot Games” athletic competition this August for high school students. He also wants to transform East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. into an 18-hole championship golf course, which will presumably be named after him, so he can host pro tournaments there, and be photographed with a trophy, with his name on it. Oh, and those cherry blossom trees? They are merely obstacles getting in the way of his perfect fairway.
It’s hard not to see the pattern, and the facts are undeniable. Trump loses A LOT more than he wins. He lost the popular vote in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. He lost control of the House in the 2018 midterms. He lost the presidency in 2020. He lost his fight to end birthright citizenship. He watched dozens of his hand-picked candidates tank. He is currently losing his war-of-choice in Iran, and has faced a mountain of legal defeats.
So how does a President who is obsessed with being undefeated, survive this reality of losing while protecting his illusion of dominance? By changing the rules of the game, or more specifically, changing or manipulating laws with the help of congressional lackeys who are willing to engage in his pay-to-play schemes. He has also found numerous loopholes within existing laws, or just blatantly ignored laws altogether.
Because Trump can never admit to defeat, it forces him to reframe every single loss as a conspiracy against him. If he loses an election, it was “rigged”. If a court rules against him, the judges are “corrupt” or “biased”. In Trump world, a fair loss is an impossibility. He’s either the undisputed winner, or he is the victim of a grand theft. He accuses Democrats of doing exactly what he is trying to do. For narcissists, accusations are confessions.
This isn’t just a quirky personality trait of a leader who has that competitive fire in his belly. It is a profound psychological defense mechanism, reflective of a narcissist. When a political leader cannot process the vulnerability of defeat, democratic norms, legal institutions, legislative bodies, and civic structures stop being pillars of democracy. They become threats to his ego. They become a competition to be won, or a team to be defeated. In the process, public service dies. The federal government stops being a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and instead, degenerates into a blood sport where the only thing that matters is winning, or in reality, never having to say “I lost”.
In any fair competition, the rules in a sports competition exist to protect the players, the spectators, and the integrity of the sport. But in Trump’s world, the rules (or laws) are just obstacles, the goal posts can be moved, and the referees are just targets to be attacked. But as long as Trump’s loyalists allow him to keep re-writing the rule book, or control the scoreboard, the truth won’t matter much.
Trump can keep fabricating wins to try to erase the ghosts of Barack Obama’s accolades and Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory, but a delusion is not a trophy. He will keep claiming victory, standing alone in a stadium he dismantled, while the rest of the country pays the price for his games.