Prosecutors last year convicted Honduran President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya’s opponent in the country’s 2022 national elections — the same man who overthrew her husband and the former Honduran president. Indeed, a federal court in the Southern District of New York found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty in April of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
Holding heads of state to account is not an aberration. Now, the United States has joined many countries that have done that. Smuggling drugs is a sleazy crime. And so are Donald Trump’s misdeeds, all compounded by trying to hide the behavior from voters just before the 2016 election.
Trump’s character is at issue. John Gartner is a psychologist who founded Duty to Warn, a group of mental health professionals who emphasize that Trump is psychologically unfit for office. Gartner’s professional diagnosis is that Trump is a “malignant narcissist” — a disorder with a dangerous mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior and sadism.
“Trump does not care about the peaceful transition of power,” Gartner said ahead of the 2020 election. “If he loses power, he goes to jail. He will burn the country to the ground before he gives up power. He will sacrifice everyone and everything for his own survival.”
“Malignant narcissism is the kind of personality disorder that screws all the people all the time,” added Gartner, a professor for 28 years at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “He either exploits them or destroys them — all for his own profit or glorification. And when we see a malignant narcissist, it is our duty to warn. Trump will escalate this madness.”
Trump’s “winning image” was a mirage. Duty to Warn said Trump “bullies” others to cover for all his “inadequacies.” His niece, Mary Trump, revealed that her uncle paid a friend to take his college entrance exam for him — the one that got him into the University of Pennsylvania. He got away with it, and his enablers are working to ensure he does so again. They should insist on accountability.
Trump’s legal rights are paramount. However, Crisis Management 101 tells us that the proper response is to come clean as soon as the facts are known — not to double down and threaten adversaries. This strategy fails if the aim is to win over the American populace.
Peter Sandman, a risk communications expert, said exposing bad news or embarrassing information on someone else’s terms will do 20 times more harm than if the accused had ’fessed up. However, Trump is incapable of that. Others, though, should rise to the occasion.
Minimizing the misconduct creates a bigger problem, implying that some people are above the law and potentially encouraging others to break laws. Witness the long list of Trump’s appointees who either went to prison or were convicted: Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Peter Navarro, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon and George Papadopoulos.
The United States can learn from other countries. Consider Colombia, where prosecutors have charged its former president, Alvaro Uribe, with bribery and witness tampering. Uribe, who denies the allegations, could get 12 years in prison if convicted.
France has found two former leaders guilty of crimes. Prosecutors won a conviction against Jacques Chirac on charges of embezzlement. He got a two-year suspended sentence. They also won several convictions against Nicolas Sarkozy.
Meanwhile, Italy charged its former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, with dozens of crimes. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spent 16 months in prison for bribery and obstruction of justice, while former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader has been in jail on corruption charges.
The list includes Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Taiwan and Thailand.
Nations must deal with corrupt leaders to cleanse their spirits and forge fresh paths forward. Honorable leaders will set the tone and restore national confidence. It’s about accepting responsibility and preserving democracy — not burning down the country to save the offenders.
