Robert Reich: We are witnessing what happens to a person who is consumed with the need to dominate but cannot.

[Miles Archer]

Robert Reich
May 7, 2026 11:41AM ET

Friends,

We are witnessing what happens to a person who is consumed with the need to dominate but cannot.

Iran is unlikely to give in. It can withstand the economic pressure of a blockade better than Trump can withstand the political pressure that comes with rising gas prices (now nearly $4.50 a gallon, on average), soon followed by rising food prices.

His looming failure in Iran is not just a serious geopolitical defeat for the United States; it’s a personal crisis for Trump.

Those rising prices coupled with an increasingly unpopular war have increased the likelihood that Democrats will take back control of the House and even possibly the Senate in the upcoming midterms.

Here again, not just a political defeat for the Republican Party but a personal crisis for Trump.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-is-being-ruined-by-a-personal-crisis-and-it-s-setting-off-explosions/

[Ocelot II]

1. He's very much in cornered rat mode, and it's scary.

This is someone who can't stand to lose, ever, or even be accused of losing. His life has been devoted to what he thinks is winning, which to him means being or having the biggest, best, most expensive, most important, of everything, and, importantly, getting those things means defeating someone else. Everything is a zero-sum game to him. For him to win, someone else has to lose. The defeat of someone else is essential to his perception of winning, no matter how minor the controversy. He wins when a contractor he stiffed loses in court because they can't manage the expense of suing him. He wins whenever something bad happens to an adversary; he enjoys the defeat and humiliation of others and is terrified of suffering defeat and humiliation himself. This time, by going to war against Iran he's set himself up for exactly that result; Iran is farting in his general direction and he's stuck downwind without any allies. When a malignant narcissist loses his shit he's likely to do damn near anything; we can only hope that he blows himself up with some kind of health episode before he tries to blow up anything else.

[Miles Archer]

4. He's up to his eyeballs in self-inflicted damage

"Prince" Mohammed bin Bonesaw and Netanyahu talked him into this, and EVERY time he's "upset" them he's gotten a spanking.

Trump is thoroughly addicted to suckling at the Saudi Money Teat, so when Bonesaw boy yells "JUMP," Trump's only option is to yell back "How HIGH, sir?"

He's trying to have Larry Ellison and his nepo baby moron son buy the news media so that we'll no longer read accurate headlines like "Donald Trump, All-Time King Of The Stumblefucks."

What's concerning...I didn't post this earlier, because it's pathetic, but Trump apparently "self-medicates" at night by calling in the architect behind his "ballroom" debacle and going on for an hour about how bigly yuge and gold it is.

Trump bluffed his way through his first term, he bluffed his way back in for another four, he bluffed his way out of the multiple legal cases against him.

And right now, Iran is calling his bluff, and the Saudis are warning him to watch his fucking step.

He's never encountered anything like this before, and yeah...it makes him even more dangerous.

[underpants]

2. Last paragraph sums it up.

The man is unwell. Seriously unwell. Lame-duck presidents fade away, but injured dictators can be dangerous.

[ShepKat]

3. a domestic abuse survivor's trigger

We know the coerce/gaslight/manipulation/control/threats/propaganda/bullying/terrorize/blame/retribution pattern too well.

[NNadir]

5. His entire corrupt administration, enabled by a corrupt Supreme Court fed by a corrupt Congress...

...is a worldwide geopolitical, environmental and moral crisis. A country with a massively inflated military system has gone insane.

Of course the powerful mind coupled to a prodigious moral outlook as represented by Robert Reich is well aware of this and I always appreciate hearing his insights.

He is a great American and I thank you for referencing him.

[Fil1957]

6. There are only two long term options: 1: Accept Iran's demands, declare victory and leave. This is by far the best

option for us and the world. However this is unlikely, since it can't be spun as a victory, and Trump can never accept defeat in these circumstances.

2: Escalate. That's what Trump will eventually do, since the current situation regarding the strait of Hormuz is untenable.

However, escalation is also likely to fail, and then what? Tactical nukes? Trump is capable of pushing the button because he is a psychopath and doesn't have long to live. Also, he wants to be an important historical figure, and popping off a nuke or two will surely do that.

This war just gets scarier and scarier.

[BaronChocula]

7. We're dealing with someone who's mentally incompetent

He is not based in reality. Of course, that may have been the initial appeal, but it's gone far beyond potentially dangerous. It needs to be called out continually.

[vanlassie]

8. History has shown these feckless Republicans What To Do

but they are limp dicks.