The Root Cause Of White House Chaos/Lies Is FEAR

(This caricature of Donald Trump is by DonkeyHotey.)

We know that the Trump White House is in chaos, and has been since the day he was sworn in. It is a place where the truth doesn't matter, and lying is actually encouraged.

Now, with the release of the Mueller Report, we also know that Trump repeatedly tried to obstruct justice by interfering with the investigation. He likes to say he was "exonerated", but that's just another lie. Mueller found plenty of evidence of Trump's obstruction, and the only reason Trump wasn't charged in because of the silly Justice Department policy that a sitting president can't be indicted.

Why does Trump constantly lie, and encourage his aides to do the same? It's FEAR. Trump is afraid that if the truth is known, then he will be viewed as an illegitimate president -- who won only because of collusion with Russia. And his rampant narcissism cannot take that.

Here is just part of what Maureen Dowd wrote on this subject in The New York Times:

After 675 days, more than 2,800 subpoenas, nearly 500 search warrants, $30 million spent, endless jaw-jaw on cable and countless whiny Trump tweets, we have come down to one fundamental truth.

And it’s the same truth that has been terrorizing us all along: Donald Trump’s dirtbag machinations are driven by insane vanity.

The First Narcissist’s all-consuming blend of braggadocio and insecurity has turned Washington and its rickety institutions into a dystopian outpost of his id.

President Trump obstructed on nearly every page of Volume II of the Mueller report, even though Robert Mueller was too lost in legalese to throw the book at him. The report counts as the Worst Exoneration Ever, replete with incrimination.

And Trump’s motivation for trying to subvert justice and turn the White House into a writhing nest of liars? His ego.

He did not want people to think that the Russians were responsible for his election and that he was an illegitimate president.

And why was this the burr under his sociopathic saddle? Obviously, because he thinks he is an illegitimate president. He never expected to win.

The idea that he is in the Oval Office under false pretenses plays into his twisted sense of victimhood. The spoiled scion of Fifth Avenue somehow always finds a way to be aggrieved, a victim of the media, the deep state, “dirty cops,” note-taking aides and the elites — all out to get him.

It’s the same reason he is still talking at rallies about that “beautiful map” of his Electoral College victory, with its large swaths of red. And the same reason he focuses on ratings and crowd sizes and subscription numbers and all the other puerile citations of his ego arithmetic.

We can’t know for sure if there is a more sinister reason for Trump’s obstruction because Mueller didn’t put him under the interrogation lights. The special counsel did not provide any insight into whether Vladimir Putin has something on him.

All we know for now is that Trump’s advisers, talking under oath to federal prosecutors, attributed his actions to his fear of being seen as illegitimate.