Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by an excessive preoccupation with oneself, a sense of entitlement, and a need for admiration. It involves an inflated sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, and a tendency to exploit others to meet their own needs. While everyone experiences some degree of self-involvement, narcissism becomes a problem when it significantly impairs social or occupational functions and causes distress.

Two of the world’s leading pathological narcissists—Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—met at the White House on Monday. There was little substantive agreement on outstanding issues, but the meeting produced an outstanding highlight when Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter that nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize. “You deserve it,” Netanyahu said. “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Trump replied.

The self-intoxification of these men is startling: Trump is single-handedly compromising the key institutions of our democracy, including elite universities, the mainstream media, and legal and judicial entities. Netanyahu is pursuing a genocidal war that is making Israel a pariah state, creating generational conflict in the Jewish American community, dividing the Jewish diaspora the world over, and causing a rise in antisemitism.

Trump and Netanyahu operate in different political environments, but each has a wildly exaggerated sense of self-worth that stems from the delusion of having enormous brainpower and the most advanced military technology at their disposal. The braggadocio associated with Trump’s bombing campaign against Iran and Netanyahu’s claims to be changing the map of the Middle East speaks directly to their arrogance and paranoia. Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli Defense Forces are the “most moral army in the world” is self-evident nonsense. Trump’s inability to admit that he lost the 2020 election speaks to the fragility........

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