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President Trump as an Authoritarian Subset of Diversity [1]
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Date: 2025-05-26
In many discussions of President Trump the focus is on politics, ideology, narcissism, and manipulation. But another possibility deserves attention—one that does not excuse his behavior, yet reframes its origins: What if President Trump’s authoritarianism is best understood not as ideology, but as a behavioral expression of unrecognized neurodiversity shaped by cultural pressure?
This perspective begins with a reframing of authoritarianism itself. Traditionally seen as a political stance or personality style, authoritarianism is often treated as the opposite of traits associated with neurodivergence—such as creativity, nonconformity, or sensitivity. But this binary view obscures a deeper truth. In certain social environments, neurodiverse individuals—particularly those with cognitive traits such as black-and-white thinking, intense pattern-seeking, literalism, or emotional dysregulation—may adopt authoritarian roles not to dominate, but to survive.
Authoritarianism, in this view, is not merely an ideology. It is a cognitive refuge—a behavioral mask that allows certain neurodivergent individuals to function in a culture that does not understand or accommodate them. It provides structure, clarity, and rules when internal regulation or social nuance is difficult to sustain. In societies that reward obedience, dominance, and external control, this mask becomes reinforced, validated, and eventually self-identified.
Donald Trump’s public behavior fits this model with uncanny precision.
He demonstrates rigid, binary thinking—labeling people as winners or losers, friends or enemies, loyal or disloyal. His speech is repetitive and often emotionally charged, leaning on simple phrases and slogans rather than complex policy arguments. This is not the sign of a strategic manipulator in the traditional sense; it resembles a preference for predictable patterns and low-complexity communication, traits commonly found in certain neurodiverse profiles.
His long record of factually false statements, commonly labeled as “lies,” takes on new meaning in this framework. Many of Trump’s falsehoods do not serve a clear strategic purpose. Instead, they seem to emerge from a desire to align reality with emotion—to make the world fit his internal schema rather than adjust his schema to the world. This is a key characteristic of individuals whose perception of truth is filtered through cognitive or emotional immediacy, not logical consistency.
What is often called narcissism may also be understood as a regulatory adaptation: a way of maintaining stability in the face of deep emotional unpredictability. Grandiosity, attention-seeking, and the demand for loyalty could reflect external scaffolding to compensate for poor internal anchoring. In this sense, narcissistic behaviors are not necessarily about dominance for its own sake, but about self-preservation through narrative control.
Trump’s authoritarianism, then, is not rooted in a coherent ideology. It is a behavioral structure—an emergent form of identity that grows out of specific neurocognitive needs in a culture that punishes divergence but rewards dominance. It allows a neurodiverse individual, unsupported and unrecognized as such, to function by wearing the armor of command.
This theory does not absolve Trump of responsibility. Rather, it changes how we interpret the form of his behavior. It also opens a window into understanding how many authoritarian figures throughout history may not have been ideologues or tyrants in their inner world—but misrecognized neurodivergent individuals whose behavioral expressions were shaped by culture into rigid, controlling roles.
In a different society—a society that allowed for emotional vulnerability, cognitive flexibility, and pluralistic belonging—the same person might have become something else entirely. A quiet systems thinker. A ritual-keeper. A performer of symbolic gestures without cruelty. A builder of order, not a wielder of punishment.
But in this society, the only identity available was authoritarianism. And so, Trump stepped into it—not necessarily as a calculated tyrant, but as a neurodiverse person surviving in the only way the culture would allow.
Although not part of this diary, the above analysis explains the support of many of his billionaire enablers, the support of enemy nation states against democracy, and the support of many American voters.
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