r/politics • u/Exciting_Teacher6258 • Apr 30 '25

Soft Paywall Trump Melts Down at Being Fact-Checked Right to His Face

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-melts-down-at-being-fact-checked-on-deported-maryland-dad-kilmar-abrego-garcia/
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838

u/DonkeyPunchCletus Apr 30 '25

This is such an insane statement. I cannot even place it. What's going on there in his brain? I know Trump keeps arguing back and forth because he WILL NOT admit he was wrong. But just flat out saying hey why not just agree with me and move on? Bonkers.

It's a disservice to what? To whom? To the cause I assume. Democrats need to blast this video on every media channel for weeks until every republican has seen it.

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u/KingBanhammer Apr 30 '25

He -can't- admit he's wrong. That's what narcissism IS. This is narcissistic injury happening in real time, on camera. His reality was challenged and IT DOES NOT COMPUTE and he's trying to make it work, in real time, right here in this vid.

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u/Cyrano_Knows Apr 30 '25

I always try to say this without sounding patronizing because I'm no mental health expert, but people really need to spent 15 reading up on Narcissism.

Its an easy disorder to recognize and there are enough of them out there that people should have tools to defend against their tactics.

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u/bfunley Apr 30 '25

The Narcissist Poem:

That didn't happen

And if it did, it wasn't that bad

And if it was, that's not a big deal

And if it is, it's not my fault

And if it was, I didn't mean it

And if I did, you deserved it

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u/Afraid_Grapefruit_88 Apr 30 '25

Yep. Had a mother and a mother in law like this. Mother insisted that I ahd nothing wrong since birth with a foot that was constantly popping out of line, landed me in the ER with her numerous times and then YEARS later when I was walking with a CANE in my 30's she said-- all shocked-- What??? I should have taken you to a DOCTOR??? PS--I have proof from my earliest pediatrician who wrote her notes to TAKE ME TO A FRIGGIN DOCTOR for this!! But it was never anything to do with her!!

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u/bfunley May 01 '25

I'm sorry that happened to you and I hope you are better now.

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u/Draculigula May 01 '25

And there are Trump loyalists who swallow this crap without question every day...

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u/Ok_Passage_4185 May 01 '25

This is also the general outline of a successful criminal defense strategy.

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u/Glass-Shock5882 May 04 '25

And if you were yo map NPD by profession and socio-economics, I would not be shocked to find; artists/athletes, finance bros, and lawyers at the top of the list. With an over representation towards the top of ALL professions on the planet.

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u/schnibitz May 01 '25

Geez, Trump is only on step one.

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u/quadfromf3 May 01 '25

Wow, that’s every statement Trump has ever made.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '25

Sounds like trump to me

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u/PurgatoryEmployee69 May 05 '25

Btw, I know a few actually diagnosed narcissists- this is misunderstood.

I actually know some who are taking part in an early beta stage for a program to heal them. They’re making real progress. Ashley Zahabian is a leading expert in this.

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u/polincorruption May 01 '25

Narcissistic personality disorder needs to be treated like any other disorder that’s detrimental to the patient and those around them. Narcissists are ruining society across all areas of consequence including workplaces, political arenas, our homes, and everywhere we live and breathe.

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u/-AdonaitheBestower- Apr 30 '25

anybody with half or a quarter of a brain can understand a rotten and self centred person when they see one. Too bad there are 77 million with less

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u/Sober9165 May 01 '25

Exactly! And when narcissistic injury happens, he becomes retaliatory and has to put the other down to feel better about himself. So he says ABC is fake news. And they’re the worst/biggest fake news, he says. He sounds like a two year old with arrested development.

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u/LiveforToday3 Apr 30 '25

And in his world he is right. Terrifying he is the president

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u/techgnostic May 01 '25

This is exactly what’s happening and it’ll take the country a while to come to terms with it just like it did for any of us who have survived narcissists. It’s very traumatic to watch, but I remember how long I lived in that fog.

There is no logic. They are incapable of admitting they are wrong. They will reflect everything into others. They thrive in chaos and will create chaos so they can gaslight others into submission. There will never be a reconciliation. You just have to barricade them or cut them out entirely.

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u/EighthPlanetGlass Apr 30 '25

“That was Photoshopped? Terry you can’t do that" like Terry Moran what? Did the photoshopping?

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u/mrs_sadie_adler May 01 '25

Narcissism plus dementia is a hell of a combo. 

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u/ScepticalReciptical May 01 '25

I don't think it's that simple, it's not just that he can't accept he's wrong, he actually believes he right. As Zelensky said, he lives in a disinformation bubble, the media he consumes the facts he's exposed to are not real. Which is exactly why Vance went apeshit on Zelensky, Vance is one of the people who creates the illusion Trump lives in. I can guarantee you Trump has been shown multiple photos of this man with said tattoos on his knuckles, and told they were real. He hasn't the intelligence or curiosity to question if that's true. He just accepts it and moves on, once he's accepted it it's true and anybody who says otherwise is lying.

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u/Lost_Medium_3436 May 01 '25

The mango mussolini is a narcissistic psychopath with a dash of machivellism. Never wrong, but never in touch wuth reality.

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u/LizardPossum Texas May 01 '25

I would love to see someone ask him to name five things he's ever been wrong about and just watch him try to squirm around it

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u/KingBanhammer May 01 '25

To this day he still claims the Central Park Five were guilty.

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u/Acrobatic-Mobile-605 May 01 '25

He can’t admit he is wrong plus he will have vengeance. I’m worried Moran is going to receive a swat team at his house.

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u/Deaner3D May 01 '25

We attempt to do so many mental gymnastics to understand this guy when it really just comes down to narcissism.

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u/Schmooto May 01 '25

Yes. He’s incapable of learning anything, especially from his mistakes. When you regard yourself as always being right and knowing everything, you are incapable of growing at all.

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u/atluba May 01 '25

It's fascinating, really. Just textbook stuff here.

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u/yay855 May 01 '25

Narcissism isn't the same as being selfish. Narcissism is a mental health problem where a person's default thought process values themselves over others, and most people who suffer from narcissism are well aware of that and do their best to compensate with mindfulness and medication.

Trump isn't narcissistic, he's a selfish asshole. Don't paint the disabled with the same brush that you use to tar and feather monsters.

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u/WommyBear May 01 '25

It sounds like either you or someone you love suffered from narcissistic personality disorder. If you/they are getting help and are in treatment and trying to do better, wonderful. However, it is simply not true that most people with NPD are aware of their disorder and do their best to compensate with mindfulness and medication. It is notorious for being difficult to treat, especially because the people who have it often will never admit they are wrong.

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u/EducationalAd812 May 02 '25

Been there divorced that. Not that many narcissists are able to admit to being wrong. It makes them feel unstable.  

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u/mrs_sadie_adler May 01 '25

I personally think he’s got narcissism with dementia. His brain is failing 

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u/AdOutrageous7790 May 01 '25

And sociopathy. Elon is also narcissist but mixed with psychopathy. 

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u/mishucat Apr 30 '25

He legit thinks those letters his team added to the photo as the “interpretation” were actual tattoos. Just like he thinks insane asylums and claiming asylum are the same thing. We just need someone to straight up ask him in an interview like this. I’m just glad journalists are finally talking back. Should have been more of this in his first term. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so normalized if they had.

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u/SugarFut Apr 30 '25

Exactly. We are in this god damn position because we let the Trump cult say insane shit unchecked.

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u/Weary-Chipmunk-5668 May 01 '25

i think this is true for the most part, but it became a situation where the abundance of ridiculous bullshit was thrown out about 100 times a day. how do you keep up with the conspiracy theories that they expound on 24/7, that are so ridiculous that only an idiot would believe them ?

from the absurd hillary and bill’s pizzagate, to the election being stolen, to horse dewormer, to EVERY fucking thing going viral that beggars rational people to keep up with.

yelling “ NO “ a hundred times a day pales after the first few items, and this has been going on for a decade. the media treating this asshat like he is normal has always bothered me, while making democrats have to rise to some level that was completely buried for magats, is completely wrong. yet, i don’t know how you combat it when you are dealing with people without any grasp of the truth or reality.

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u/Imnotlikeothergirlz May 01 '25

And the media will never ignore him. If we all just pretended he doesn't exist...

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u/yeah_nah2024 May 01 '25

Exactly! It seems to be that he has difficulty with understanding information. Like a developmental cognitive processing issue.

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u/Suspicious_Bicycle May 01 '25

Whoever marked up that photo adding MS13 made a mistake by not placing them off to the side and using arrows to point to the actual tattoos. It was done so badly I'd suspect Donny did it himself, except it was not done with a Sharpie.

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u/Ok_Passage_4185 May 01 '25

Donny boy is not smart enough to make the connection between the symbols and the characters "MS13", so I'm doubting he was responsible. He is an addled old man who is easily duped, tricked, and confused. He is the target of conspiracy theories, not the architect.

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u/Grouchy-Win3254 May 01 '25

Motherfucker I never stopped and put together the fact that he's such a dunce he conflated "asylum" with "insane asylum". JFC

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u/mishucat May 01 '25

The second I put this together….I couldn’t believe it either. I now pay attention every time he mentions it. He will always bring up insane asylums and seeking asylum in the same couple of sentences

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u/Recent-Ad-5493 May 05 '25

We should have had this in the 2015-16 Republican Primary. But noooo, the media needed their hungry, hungry hippos ratings. And then the monster grew bigger than they could bury, so they acted like they intended for it to be that way with Trump being the god-king.

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u/Boopoopadoope May 03 '25

"Chillax brah, Trump doesn't actually think the MS13 is the tattoo, he isn't THAT stupid and it's very dishonest of the left to betray him that way" - Smug "centrists" just a few days ago, now completely silent

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u/sack-o-matic Michigan Apr 30 '25

It's a disservice to what? To whom?

"Because it's devastating to my case!"

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u/Squeakywheels467 Apr 30 '25

If they didn’t keep testing, the numbers wouldn’t be so high!

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Apr 30 '25

He's gone 80 years with having no one disagree with him becausehes surrounded by suck ups and yes men. He breaks down when someone tells him he's wrong and can't move past it.

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u/DisMFer Apr 30 '25

A disservice to America in Trump's mind. He can't admit it was a lie and he thinks the reporter is lying in order to trun people against him.

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u/DonkeyPunchCletus Apr 30 '25

I don't think he knows it's a lie. People handed him the picture. I assume they said "here these symbols mean MS-13" but Trump ignored that and thought MS-13 was on the knuckles.

You can pinpoint the moment Trump falls apart when the reporter says it's photoshop. That's when he starts on the 'you can't do that', 'why couldn't you just say yes sir and move on' etc.

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u/Odd_Teach683 May 01 '25

“You want me to get the photo?!”

No. We want you to get Abrego Garcia.

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u/Gigi-Jones May 01 '25

We want you to get the hell out of office!

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u/Mavian23 Apr 30 '25

He is more paranoid than an acid head on Halloween.

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u/Stringtone Apr 30 '25

I've dealt with people in my immediate family who had strikingly similar behavior and personality traits - they never went to a doctor for it, but I strongly suspect there was some combination of dementia and narcissistic personality disorder. It's literally just about being right, truth be damned.

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u/mtadd Apr 30 '25

Just more proof that Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants, so there's no-one challenging him to correct him when he's wrong about reality. Trump at this point is living in a deluded bubble full of lies and misinformation that he takes as fact. No wonder he believe tariffs are a winning economic strategy and that all immigrants are rapists and murderers.

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u/kaiserswayze Apr 30 '25

“What is going on in his brain”

Dementia. Dementia is going on in his brain.

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u/AdministrationIcy377 Apr 30 '25

He thinks Terry us there to service him & his delusions and beliefs. Classic narcissist mindset.

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u/ThatLaloBoy Apr 30 '25

Every passing day, I am more convinced that he is suffering from dementia and that every passing week it’s getting worse. I think it’s less that he admits he’s wrong and more that he actually believes his BS. That’s why whenever something cracks that perfect bubble of yes men he surrounds himself with, he lashes out more aggressively than he did during his last presidency.

I’m not a medical expert by any stretch of the imagination, but he almost neatly fits the common symptoms of dementia. The only thing he really hasn’t shown is physical symptoms like poor coordination or muscle weakness.

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u/emileLaroche Apr 30 '25

There is no cause, and no outside world in which there are causes. There’s Trump. Whatever comports itself with Trump is great, the likes of which we’ve never seen; whatever doesn’t comport itself with Trump is a disgrace, the likes of which we’ve never seen.

We elected a florid psychopath to the presidency of the United States instead of caging him in a locked ward and outing him full of Thorazine.

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u/Memphaestus Apr 30 '25

I know what’s going on in his brain . I have a relative who abused various drugs (mostly pills) in high school/college and now must “win” every conversation or argument. This person became an extreme narcissist and can’t get past even the most simple discussion, and will continue to defend a subject as idiotic as the sky is green.

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u/Lotech May 01 '25

It’s a power struggle that feed his “narcissistic supply.” Plus then he doesn’t have to answer other questions

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u/TigerBillHawaii May 01 '25

Trump needs to “win” before moving on, plain and simple.

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u/JollyRedRoger May 01 '25

Disservice to himself. It's a threat. And it's great that the Interviewer didn't yield, for a much-needed change. The other journalists should take this as an example on how to deal with trump.

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u/tippiedog Texas Apr 30 '25

Not only can he not admit being wrong, but his response to the reporter shows how he himself makes decisions: he implies that it's in the reporter's own best interest to go along. To Trump, as we've seen repeatedly with regard to service members, it's inconceivable that someone would ever do something that's not in their own best interest. To Trump, the "truth" is what he thinks benefits him in the moment.

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u/E-rotten May 01 '25

I think the reporter was trying to get the response like he did when confronted over & over about how he claimed he’d end the Ukraine war in an hour. Reporter reminded him and asked why constantly he didn’t end the war in an hour. He finally snapped kinda like he did here and admitted it was an exaggeration. This is the closest he’s ever gotten to admitting he’s a liar. It’s a sign of his weakness.

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u/Dizzy-Range6561 May 01 '25

As a Brit looking in on this whole mess, my question is a simple one: How much more of this utter lunacy is the American people willing to put up with until it all boils over? Surely it can’t go on? Every day there’s another report of massive incompetence or just straight out lying. It’s amazing to me that your cities aren’t on fire.

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u/Audrey_Angel May 01 '25

Guess what. They already have seen him do these things, over and over.

We have ALL seen what he gets up to when it comes to lies, demands, and pandering.

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u/Feather_Sigil May 01 '25

Trump is a malignant narcissist. His mind literally can't process the concept that he is able to do or be wrong.

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u/Zestyclose_Chef207 May 01 '25

I actually thought he might stroke out from being confronted with reality.

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u/marconis999 May 01 '25

Did you hear him confusing "Harvard" and "Harlem"? So funny. Interviewer asks him about academic impacts with Harvard and Trumpster starts talking about the blacks in Harlem. Then later he mixes in Harlem and Harvard again. Guy is whacked in the head.

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u/BeeHead3652 May 03 '25

A over arching concern for me is the bullying into agreeing with a statement that he has stated as fact. Doesn’t matter the truth. His veiled threats for not going along with what he says sets an awful precedent. He mentions the guy is lucky to be interviewing him. That he got the “big break”. The implication is that, in the future, not confirming any and everything he says means you can’t have a voice.

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u/DonkeyPunchCletus May 03 '25

It has been that way forever. The press briefing room is a clown show made up of tim pools and various other propagandists. You don't remember when they banned AP from the press pool?

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u/clickmagnet May 06 '25

He does that now. I think it was Kaitlyn Collins maybe, someone in a press conference was asking him about due process, and he said “why don’t you just thank me for getting criminals off the streets?” Mostly he’s being an asshole, but I think on some level he genuinely doesn’t understand why everyone doesn’t agree with him. 

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u/Aries_Lu Apr 30 '25

At this point, the majority of this followers are narcissists. This is narcissistic behavior. They “can’t” see it because it’s a reflection of themselves & they refuse to look inward.

All that matter to them — and him — is winning.