House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy invited former George W. Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey to give Republican leadership a presentation on the escalating Trump-China trade war. It turned weird when Lindsey took the opportunity to inform the assembled Republicans that he had asked two psychologists to evaluate Trump's behavior and they came to the same conclusion as most of the rest of the planet.

The professionals found that Trump was a “10 out of 10 narcissist,” Lindsey told the Republicans, according to a GOP aide present at the talk who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Lindsey apparently didn't just leave it there, but used it as the tee-off for an unflattering two-minute look into Trump's psychology.

While the Washington Post's sources say his Republican audience was "taken aback" at the unexpected detour, they also say nobody disputed it. And in Lindsey's defense, if you want to understand the origins of Trump's bizarre fixations and policy shifts you can't very well leave out the man's most defining characteristic: His defining personality trait is that he is an extreme (and malignant) narcissist. His actions stem from a belief that he is smarter than every other human being on the planet put together, that his every choice is the right one, and that if any of his ideas end up not working it is because somebody else, or everybody else, sabotaged the effort. He enjoys watching others squirm for his own amusement, including would-be allies; his only loyalties are to whatever will get him the most television praise on any particular day.

So have a good look at the elephant in the room, everybody. It ain't going away just because Kevin McCarthy tossed a throw rug over it.

Anyhoo, it looks extremely unlikely that Bush economic adviser Larry Lindsey is going to ever again be summoned to talk to House Republicans about policy issues. It's not because he was wrong in his analysis; it's because he said what he said out loud. Dear Leader's allies don't want to hear this stuff.

Published with permission from Daily Kos.