WHY I CAN NO LONGER SUFFER DONALD J. TRUMP

Donald J. Trump

There was a time when I admired Donald J. Trump, not for his policies, but for his apparent resilience. He seemed capable of surviving political, legal, and personal crises that would have ended most careers. His refusal to quit, his instinct to fight back, and his sheer stamina gave the impression of strength.

Over time, however, that impression collapsed.

What once looked like resilience increasingly revealed itself as dominance without discipline, aggression without responsibility, and defiance without purpose. Trump’s behavior consistently demonstrates a lack of conscientiousness: disregard for norms, institutions, truth, and even basic consistency. Loyalty is demanded, but rarely reciprocated. Accountability is avoided, not embraced.

Equally troubling is his emotional instability. Criticism is treated as persecution, disagreement as betrayal, and compromise as weakness. This fuels a pattern of grievance, paranoia, and hostility that poisons discourse rather than leading it. Leadership requires emotional regulation; Trump thrives on emotional escalation.

Most damaging of all is his relentless self-centeredness. Everything becomes about personal victory, personal humiliation, or personal revenge. The public good is secondary to the preservation of ego. When antisocial behavior, lying, intimidation, scapegoating, becomes routine rather than exceptional, admiration turns into disillusionment.

I eventually concluded that what I once mistook for strength was merely survival instinct untethered from character. Trump may be educated and experienced, but education without integrity and experience without responsibility amount to little. In the end, I no longer see a fighter worthy of respect, only someone endlessly struggling to protect himself, offering nothing larger than that struggle.

J. Michael Dennis

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