In the run-up to Henry V’s invasion, the French state was weakened by the reign of a delusional king. Charles VI went through long periods as an alternate personality. The court politics was organized around ensuring access to the king during his initial moments of coherency. The lucky individual had complete control of the affairs of state.

What is pathetic in the current era is the obvious manipulation of our Chief Executive by the unscrupulous. Trump is a paranoid delusional, his antagonism to government reinforced during impeachment by the parade of public servants who came forward to expose his malfeasance.

The fear of destruction justifies all selfishness. In an executive, it is thus the crowbar used to destroy institutions. The characteristic attitude of selfishness is “I do not care what it cost to make this. I do not care how much damage its loss will cause. If I want it, I will take it; and if it threatens me, it will be destroyed.”

Trump’s usefulness to the selfish is no more evident than in his decision to abandon the Postal Service, the largest non-profit public service institution in America. With the threat of universal vote-by-mail kept in the shadows, he manufactured a charge that the Postal Service subsidizes Amazon deliveries. Delivered with absolute conviction – as was his assertion that injecting disinfectants would cure COVID-19 infections – clearly the same process is in play: he was given a brief by someone, and passed the information on to the public as true.

The Postal Service has been under attack by private delivery services for many years. Much as in the health insurance market, they want to carve out the low-cost delivery operations in urban areas, abandoning the rural communities. That those communities, already deprived of health care services, would be further cut adrift and disempowered electorally, is of no concern to them. They simply seek profit.