PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

“He was hectoring and imperious. He was domineering and defiant. And he was audacious and cavalier.

“In the nearly three weeks since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry, President Trump has struck a posture of raw aggression. His visceral defenses of himself — at the most vulnerable point of his presidency — have shined a spotlight on Trump’s state of mind.

“Like an aging rock star, the president is now reprising many of the greatest hits from his hellion days. He has bullied and projected — at times leveling against others the very charges he faces — while simultaneously depicting himself as a victim. And he has turned to ominous depictions of America, and in moments sounded an authoritarian tone.”

That’s a good description of the person who, incredibly, occupies the Oval Office, with all the risks his conduct portends for America.

In a piece for the Washington Post, two writers – Ashley Parker and Phillip Bump – do a good job of cataloging Trump’s unhinged approach.

Trump is so unhinged that it does strikes me as plausible to say that he has a “state of mind.” Instead, he flies by the seat of his pants, uttering through tweets, whatever happens to enter his mind at any point in the process regardless of the result.

Incredibly, only five days after the impeachment inquiry began, Trump sent forth a torrent of four dozen tweets and re-tweets, making it, at the time, the third most prolific day of tweeting of his entire presidency.

Then, the next day, Trump passed that previous milestone with 59 total tweets, including 33 in just 20 minutes. All told, in the week before the launch of the inquiry, Trump averaged 18 tweets per day.

Here, then, is a summary of the Trump traits Post writers Parker and Bump describe.

Martyr

Trump strode onstage to rapturous applause at a packed arena in Minneapolis Thursday night ostensibly to campaign for re-election in 2020. But he was obsessed instead with the 2016 election, delivering a jeremiad of persecution and self-pity.

The president cast himself as the ultimate victim of harassment from congressional Democrats, the intelligence community and the media.

Victimization has long been central to Trump’s political identity, rooting him in the grievance politics of the right and inspiring in his millions of followers a duty to protect the president from any perceived threat. But Trump’s feelings of oppression and persecution have been especially pronounced during the impeachment crisis.

Heckler

It was another episode of “Chopper Talk” — Trump’s freewheeling question-and-answer sessions with reporters before he boards the Marine One helicopter — only this time the president was especially agitated. He strode back and forth and sliced the air with his hands.

As has long been his habit, Trump has applied derogatory nicknames to his impeachment antagonists. Schiff is “Shifty Schiff,” Pelosi is “Nervous Nancy” and Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican most outspoken about Trump’s conduct, is “Pompous Senator.”

Autocrat 

In Trump’s “great and unmatched wisdom,” he is a leader to be obeyed.

In fact, the president offered that self-assessment in response to criticism of his decision to remove U.S. troops from northern Syria and, in doing so, abandon a longtime critical ally.

“As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!),” Trump tweeted.

But the general sentiment also reflected the often-defiant posture Trump has adopted while facing impeachment, a “Dear Leader” tone more associated with an authoritarian regime than a democracy.

Projectionist 

If the Twitterati takeaway of Trump’s news conference with Niinistö was that the president was having a #TrumpMeltdown, in Twitter parlance, Trump had a different view of the situation: It was Schiff who was imploding.

In response to a question about whether the White House would comply with House subpoenas, Trump accused Schiff of having “some kind of a mental breakdown.”

The tactic is one long-favored by Trump, in which he takes a charge or accusation leveled against him and wields it like a cudgel back on a perceived foe, even in cases where the counter-assault may seem hypocritical or preposterous.

Conspiracist 

Trump decried the impeachment effort against him as a “coup.” He accused the intelligence community whistleblower — as well as the whistleblower’s sources — of spying on him and committing “treason.” He described the impeachment process being run by Pelosi and Schiff as “a totally compromised Kangaroo court.”

To Trump, the impeachment probe is evidence of a plot to remove him from office, part of a dystopian alternate reality he is combating with ominous language and dark proclamations.

Perhaps most ominously, Trump has warned of a civil war. On September 29 — a day of extreme presidential angst as measured by his near-record output of tweets — Trump shared the warning with his 65.6 million followers.

So, for me, there is little question but that Trump is unhinged.   He cannot focus on his job given his negative mental health status. And that leaves all of us in jeopardy.