What is DARVO, and how does it apply to Trump?

Here are excerpts from an article in the March 13, 2019 Chicago Tribune:

At the climax of Gayle King’s interview with R. Kelly, he tries to take control of the situation by making it emotional.

First Kelly addresses the camera directly as if this were not King’s interview, and then he tries to force her into a showdown by jumping from his seat into an arm-flailing rage.

King too refuses to engage. She remains calm and watches him for a while before shutting him down with a single word: “Robert.”

Last week, that interview, and the image of Kelly looming above the still-seated and Sphinx-like King burned through the multiple layers of our collective conscious as if it too were powered by the Tesseract.

The rage building in Kelly as the interview continues is obvious; before he leaps to his feet, he punches his fist into his hand so hard you can hear it, and as it becomes clear that King did not come to play softball, he addresses the camera directly, attempting to hijack the interview and turn it into a personal service announcement.

“It sounds like you think you’re the victim,” King says at one point. “You’re playing the victim card.”

If this sounds familiar — a celebrity being accused of a crime, responds by denying, then attacking, then finally assuming the role of the victim — it should.

It’s so common, it even has a name, the acronym: DARVO

Quoting from an article about this pattern, “DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators of wrongdoing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior.

DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.”

The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim — or the whistleblower — into an alleged offender.

This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of “falsely accused” and attacks the accuser’s credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.

It should sound familiar, because Brett Kavanaugh turned it into an art form with his over-the-top, melodramatic, weeping performance during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

He first denied accusations of sexual assault, then he attacked the women making the accusation, and finally he put on a “Reverese Victim and Offender” performance worthy of an Oscar.

It worked for him.

He may have learned the schtick from Judge Clarence Thomas, who pulled the same, successful stunt during his confirmation hearings.

(Now that we have at least two accused sexual predators on the court, watch them vote against abortion. Ah, but men voting against women is another issue.)

It also should sound familiar, because DARVO is the modus operandi of President Donald J. Trump.

When Trump is accused of anything his pattern is first to deny (“It’s a witch hunt”) and lie, (Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia),

then to attack the accuser, (Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump  Despite the most hostile and corrupt media in the history of American politics, the Trump Administration has accomplished more in its first two years than any other Administration.

and finally to adopt the “woe-is-me” position that he really is the victim (Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!)

As Trump said in a video, “I’ve had many false accusations. I’ve had it all — I’ve had so many. And when I say it didn’t happen, nobody believes me.” 

He even is wrong about that. His remaining followers believe him on everything he says, no matter how patently false.

When you hear Trump moan about the unfairness of life, and the burden he must carry, remember this:

Don Lemon: “The New York Times reports his father gave him the equivalent of $413 million.

He’s plastered his name on buildings around the world.

He married one beautiful woman after another and divorced and had six children among them, turned his fame into reality TV stardom, and now he lives in the White House.

“Only Donald Trump could call himself a victim with a straight face. But he does it again and again and again.”

The next time you see Trump speak, or you read something he said, remember DARVO — Deny (and lie), Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

You’ll be able to mark the exact points in his speach when he adopts his familiar pattern.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY