Dear Editor,
For the purpose of understanding the title of this column, the key characteristics of a narcissist are an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a constant need for excessive admiration, a lack of empathy for others, a sense of entitlement, and a willingness to manipulate others without guilt or shame to achieve goals.
It hardly seems a year has passed since President Trump initiated the demolition of the White House East Wing to construct a grand ballroom. Opinion, both public and political, remains divided over what critics see as an unprecedented vanity project that has destroyed a historic structure without adequate review. Most vocal critics have noted that the teardown proceeded without prior public notice or traditional vetting, resulting in ethical and financial questions about the project’s funding.
Over this past Columbus Day weekend, the administration abruptly cut down more than 400 trees at Washington D.C.’s, historic East Potomac Golf Links, originally designated in 1897 as a public recreation space, which President Trump intends to redevelop into a championship-level course. Critics see this as another example of Trump’s unilateral quest to remake D.C. and his tactics for doing so, much like the now lost White House East Wing.
On October 10, while speaking to reporters, President Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for continuing drone and missile strikes on Russian oil refineries and for opposing a newly announced U.S.-Russia diesel fuel arrangement, suggesting Ukraine needs to have a leader capable of making a peace deal. Remember, it was in February 2025, at a meeting in the Oval Office when, during a heated exchange, Trump told Zelenskyy, “You don’t have the cards right now.” Since then, Trump, after making repeated phone calls to Kyiv urging concessions to end the war, was saying by this past September that Ukraine could win back all territory lost to Russia.
Energy concerns and high diesel prices in the U.S. have given Trump grounds to distance himself once again from Zelenskyy, whom he blames for contributing to high energy prices following Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries this past week, rather than acknowledging the role of the U.S.-led war in Iran, which has elevated world energy prices. Given Trump’s on-again, off-again relationship with Zelenskyy, if the U.S. turns its back on Ukraine, that will place a colossal burden on European supporters to take on a greater share of keeping Ukraine going.
As Trump has referenced lifting some restrictions imposed on Russia through the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Act, such easing of pressure would only reward and encourage Russian President Putin. Putin may well believe that Trump is moving toward turning America’s back on Europe. Additionally, Trump’s deal with Putin to buy diesel fuel from Russia, in an attempt to combat high prices in the U.S., seems contrarian. The consensus opinion is that such purchases from a country otherwise subject to sanctions will have next to no effect on fuel prices here in the U.S., while providing a financial lifeline for Putin’s war machine, thereby undercutting Western economic pressure on Russia and solidarity efforts with Ukraine.
If this appears to be a hypocritical policy reversal by Trump, driven by short-term hopes of lowering fuel prices before the midterm elections, understand that a narcissist’s needs always supersede those of others.
Peter Wibell Rutledge