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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

Psaki: Donald Trump is addicted to power; planning, not so much

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MS NOW, Jen Psaki

Politics, News, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant

4.4975 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jen Psaki proposes that Donald Trump is motivated by a the rush of making himself feel powerful, which explains why so many of his actions don't appear to have rational, principled justifications, and also why so many of his actions have no follow-up plan for dealing with the messes he makes.

Transcript

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0:00.0

So Donald Trump, we know this. He doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't take any recreational

0:05.8

drugs that we know of. But Donald Trump has a different kind of addiction, I guess we could call it.

0:12.3

He's addicted to feeling like he is powerful, even if he's not really powerful. Often he's not.

0:19.3

He lives, lives for the dopamine rush that comes with

0:22.9

big public displays that make him feel strong and important. Actions that feed his fragile ego

0:28.9

and quell all of his insecurities, and there are many. I mean, he kind of suggested as much last

0:34.2

month, saying out loud when he publicly admitted to having a possessive and addictive type personality.

0:40.4

That's just the kind of person you want in the White House, right?

0:42.8

Now, Trump craves the high that comes from the public displays of power so much that he doesn't concern himself with the consequences of his actions.

0:53.3

Because by the time the dust finally settles,

0:56.0

he's already chasing his next dopamine hit. And Donald Trump's decision to invade a foreign country

1:02.4

and arrest its president is kind of a perfect example of this. I mean, he relished the images of

1:08.8

the dramatic overnight raids who captured Nicholas Maduro,

1:11.7

who I would note is not a good guy. He's a very bad guy and a very corrupt guy, but still.

1:16.5

Trump loved the scene of Maduro being perp walked off a plane in his track suit into an American prison.

1:22.5

He even told his favorite Fox morning program, quote, I watched it like I was watching a television show.

1:28.7

The speed, the violence. It was an amazing thing. That's the president of the United States,

1:33.5

everybody saying that. See, for him, this is all about the spectacle, about the images of

1:40.4

toughness and conquest. It's why he's obsessed with the idea that the U.S. is now going to take their oil.

1:47.4

It's a fantasy he's been fixated on for almost 40 years, seizing oil wherever the U.S.

1:54.3

confects its military might.

1:58.4

We got to go in and take over their oil.

...

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