Trump's "very famous pollster" John McLaughlin isn't THAT John McLaughlin

Trump's "very famous pollster" John McLaughlin isn't THAT John McLaughlin

by Hal Brown

Scroll down the page for news stories that break during the day which I think reader would be interested in.

This is the HuffPost story that led me to see if Wikipedia had added breaking news to to profile of the only "famous" person named John McLaughlin I'd heard of:

Trump’s Eerie Claim About Washington And Lincoln Sets Twitter Ablaze:

Former President Donald Trump made a claim on Wednesday that was wild by even his lofty standards. He said he would’ve not only defeated an undead George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in an election, but would’ve wiped them out in a historic landslide. 

Speaking at the Hispanic Leadership Conference in Miami, Trump said: 

“I remember a very famous pollster, very well known, John McLaughlin, came to my office just prior to the plague coming and he said, ‘Sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came alive from the dead and they formed a president-vice president team, you would beat them by 40 percent.’ That’s how good our numbers were.” 

Notably, Trump did not mention the condition of the zombie presidents in this wild scenario, which would mean a 70-30 landslide victory by Trump...

I remember John McLaughin as a TV host but I didn't know he was a pollster. I wanted to determine whether he was, and if there was any verification that he ever met with Trump to telling him about polls that showed him beating George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in a hypothetical race.

It took a minute to find out that there's another person with that name who is a pollster.

This is from a website called Historica Wiki:

John McLaughlin was an American pollster who worked for Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign. An Irish-American whose grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1876 and became an NYPD captain, he was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey while his father served in the "Fighting 69th" New York Infantry Regiment; his uncle was the regiment's colonel. In 2018, he spoke out against a Newsweek op-ed which criticized the prevalence of Irish-American conservativ pundits in contrast to "sober"  Protestant pundits during the 20th century, and he argued that the Irish-American vote swung several swing states towards the Republican Party  due to the Democratic Party's identity politics.

We may never know whether Trump believed that his very own John McLaughlin was one and the same John McLaughin who was actually famous. 

It is certainly possible that the meeting Trump described actually occurred and that pollster McLaughlin actually conducted the poll he told him about.

I wouldn't be surprised if this actually happened and since the McLaughlin in question is still alive I hope someone asks him about this. 

What does surprise me is that assuming this incident occurred  Trump waited until now to tell this story. It is possible he forgot about it, though if he thought McLaughlin was really "very famous" it seems like he would have related this claimed poll result a long time ago.

Remember (like who could forget?) this story:

... and then there are all the cartoons and photoshops of Trump on Mt. Rushmore (Google images):

Click images to enlarge

There are three basic kinds of narcissism. One is usually called healthy narcissism which is tied in with having a high level of self-esteem and which often motivates people to excel putting aside elements of self-doubt when faced with difficult tasks. 

Then there is the pathological narcissism present in people who have all or most of the characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder which by now most reader are familiar with since numerous clinicians have explained how Trump fits into this diagnosis:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) describes NPD as possessing at least five of the following nine criteria.^[2]

• A grandiose sense of self-importance
• Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• Believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
• Requiring excessive admiration
• A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)
• Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)
• Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others)
• Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them
• Showing arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Then there's a third kind which hasn't made it into the diagnostic manual. This is delusional narcissism.

Mary Trump explains as a clinical psychologist how her uncle fits into this category here:

Mary Trump tell-all paints president as a ‘narcissist’ who is ‘lost to his own delusional spin’

Delusional narcissism is the stuff of fictional characters whose braggadocio or imagined grandiose view of themselves is magnified for comedic effect. Think of the Evil Queen who utters the famous line “Magic mirror, on the wall – who is the fairest one of all?” Of course, think of the preening narcissist Donald Trump:

.....

While on the subject of narcissistic people in the news, there's Elon Musk, who I wrote about on Monday:

Click above to read article

Of course he wants to own Twitter. He's the world's richest person so he doesn't need the money. This is all about keeping himself in the news. Once he takes control most of what I read says that one of his first acts will be to re-instate Trump's account.

Assuming Trump starts tweeting there, which I think he will, it will render his Truth Social platform just about worthless. I don't know if Trump has any of his own money invested in Truth Social but if he does it will be flushed down the toilet. Even if he doesn't loose money it will on the list as yet another of his failed ventures.

He'll spin his return to Twitter as a victory and revel in having a large audience for his tweets. However, what he will also have to deal with is the media republishing some of the most snarky of the replies to his tweets the way they post the tweets like those shown in the HuffPost article referenced in my story today.

I will post news stories which pique my interest as they break though the day. Here's some you may have missed. 

Maggie Haberman Flushes Out The Book Detail That Really Troubled Donald Trump

Of all the details about Donald Trump in Maggie Haberman’s new book “Confidence Man,” the New York Times reporter said the former president was most riled by her reporting that he tore up and flushed papers down White House toilets.

“I think that was what upset him the most,” Haberman told Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Late Show.”

“He had an immediate and pronounced and angry reaction to that reporting when I put it out many months ago,” she continued. “He issued a statement, it was a phone call to the world, and I think his exact statement was, his question was, ‘Who would know that?’ Which I think was actually a literal question that he was asking, but he asked it out loud.”

Trump in response to the story “spent some time asking his aides, ‘What do you think of that reporting?’” Haberman added. “Usually that’s because he’s trying to figure out whether something is damaging to him or not or how much more could be there.”

When Haberman initially broke the news, Trump denied the claim. The reporter later tweeted photographs of papers, with what appeared to be Trump’s handwriting on them, clogging up toilet bowls.

Trump coup attempt loses title of 'funniest Supreme Court filing'

What world do we live in that a satirical outlet defends First Amendment rights better than police and our courts?

Hunter Biden might be charged with some stuff — but not enough stuff to satiate Republicans

Feds say there's evidence to charge Hunter in relation to taxes and a gun purchase, but his enemies want to squeeze

Herschel Walker, or one part of him, may be telling the truth

Herschel Walker, or one part of him, may be telling the truth 

By Hal Brown

Updated: May 7, 2023

Follow-up essay about the therapist who he claims cured him.  

He believes in demonic possession and exorcism.

Update May 7, 2023: A HUFFPOST article by an author who has Dissociative Identity Disorder:

This is the author's Twitter page.

Here's my original blog essay:

Breaking story:

‘Train wreck’: Herschel Walker criticized for new ad claiming God helped him ‘overcome’ mental illness

One does not "overcome" a serious disorder like he claims to have had with help from God.

Here's my original story:

During my 40 year career I have treated five patients with dissociative identity disorder of DID. I could write a book about them and my experiences in trying to help them avoid engaging in the self-destructive behavior which was caused by one or more personalities, or alters, trying to hurt or even kill the others. In some cases these alters didn't know that killing the body of another alter or alters would also end their lives. The belief system of such alters sometimes didn't include a recognition that they resided in the same physical body as the other alters. In fact when in control these alters often had far greater physical strength than the others and didn't experience pain.

This being said I have come to a conclusion about Hershel Walker claiming that allegations of his paying for an abortion or abusing his ex-wife are lies may be the truth as he knows it, or at least as the Walker saying this knows or remembers it. 

The best way to understand Hershel Walker may be to consider his own book about how he suffered from dissociative identity disorder (which until it was renamed it was called multiple personality disorder or MPD). You can read a good summary of it here.

To quote the article:

Everyone has various facets that make up his or her personality -- assertive, angry, comforting. But, experts explain, in DID, these various parts -- known as alters -- don't come together as one cohesive single personality. Instead, one or the other part of the identity takes over and determines one's behavior. 

Asked how many different personality facets, or alters, he has, Walker replied: "To be honest, I have no idea." But in the book, Walker talks about a dozen. They're described by their roles or function: the Hero, the Coach, the Enforcer, the Consoler, the Daredevil, the Warrior, to name a few.

Some of these alters did a lot of good, he said. But others led to some extreme and violent behavior, most of which Walker said he doesn't remember. As a result, the disorder, or DID, led to the breakup of his marriage. "I lost the person that was like everything to me," he said. "I lost my wife and that's totally, totally devastating to me." 

Walker said a competitive alter caused him to be a danger to himself, playing Russian roulette more than once. In the book he describes another incident, the very late delivery of a car, that made him so angry he had thoughts of killing someone. It was the moment he realized had to seek help, he said, which ultimately led to his diagnosis.

 

There are two crucial sentences above:

• Some of these alters did a lot of good, he said. But others led to some extreme and violent behavior, most of which Walker said he doesn't remember.
• Walker said a competitive alter caused him to be a danger to himself, playing Russian roulette more than once.

In the first sentence what is most important to note is that he admits to amnesia. In the second sentence he refers to a competitive alter engaging in suicidal behavior. Calling this merely a competitive alter minimizes the fact that this alter was dangerously self-destructive and malevolent. Having such an alter is, if not a universal trait in DID at least is very common. It is a personality that in order to protect the core personality or personalities identified with the aggressor.

The following is based on my own experiences with DID patients, extensive reading, and attending workshops presented by experts.

DID develops as a way to cope with extreme childhood abuse. It is usually sexual abuse of a female by an adult male in the family, usually a father, step-father, or other caregiver. DID in males in less common. The most well known case of a male with DID is Billy Milligan. 

For reasons not known, some victims are capable of creating alter personalities which experience the abuse and then instead of developing totally amnesia for it create, through a kind of self-hypnosis, another personalty which has no memory for it. 

In DID a patient can have only two personalities, one with the abuse memories and one with no memory of them. Other patients may continue to create new alters to deal with other incidents of abuse, and then use this ability to continue to spin off alters to deal with other life stress.

Sometimes they never seek treatment because despite periods of amnesia they don't feel much distress.

It is an unfortunate aspect of the disorder that in the worst cases the patient has an alter that identified with the authority figure who abused the actual patient who is perceived by this alter as a different person. While originally a protector they can develop to be a destructive force in the patient's life.

A hallmark of DID is amnesia.  During many of the times when certain alters are in control other alters have no memory of what was happening. 

Here's a clinical example from my own experiences (with all names changed):

One of my patients first came to me with the presenting problem being that she was losing things, and when I pressed her to explain she reluctantly told me she was also losing track of time, sometimes entire days. In that first session I said matter-of-factly "is there someone here who'll tell me what happens when Alice doesn't remember what is going on. Alice was very puzzled by this question but I told her to bear with me and I asked again three or four times. She then changed her facial expression, looked me directly in the eyes, and said in a slightly different voice, "she's so stupid she doesn't keep her valuables in a safe place." I asked who I was talking to and my patient said "I'm Denise." Then I went on to talk to Denise and when I realized I was dealing with a full-blown case of DID I also ended up "meeting" the malevolent and dangerous personality who I eventually had to tell with in almost all of our sessions. This was George who eventually was created as a protector when Alice was being sexually abused by her father but when she was an adult also became her most destructive alters.

Successful treatment of someone with DID usually means working with the healthier alters to form alliances among them so they can resist having the dangerous alters take control. All of the therapy involves with these alters must be conducted with the therapist knowing that the dangerous alter is aware of your intervention and observing the session. That personality sometimes takes over so the therapist has to deal with him (with females it is usually a male) and works both an advocate for the vulnerable alters and tries to create a relationship with the dangerous alter. There are times when the therapist "makes deals" with the dangerous alter. 

Curing DID is exceedingly difficult and those therapists who claim they have done this may be deceiving themselves. A complete cure means that all the alters have integrated into one, that the memories of being abused have been dealt with in therapy, and there are no incidents of present day amnesia. The reports of amnesia with someone with DID means that another alter or alters were in control during the period of lost time.

Back to Herschel Walker -

If Walker really had DID it would mean that at some point in his life he suffered severe abuse and that this was most likely prolonged and came from an authority figure. It could have been a family member or someone in the community like a church leader or coach.

If he now is a mostly functional individual who still has unresolved issues with DID, perhaps with several personalities present at different times but with the destructive  personality dormant, he would still have amnesia for things that personality did in the past.

If Walker had DID it is likely he still has it. He identified several different alters in his book. If Georgia voters elect the body and the brain that contains them they are electing all of them to be their senator. He could also create new alters as needed once he is a senator. This isn't deliberate in the way we understand someone consciously developing a persona. People with DID sometimes have alters who create alters because there isn't one central psychic entity. They don't exist as one person, they exist as a group of people/personalities some of which have no knowledge of the existence of the others. They live their lives in a way unique to people with DID.