He was being glib and you have to anticipate that pretty much any humor is inappropriate in this situation. That humor won't likely translate across the WH Press Corp very well. He stepped in it pretty good there.
I don't know if he was being glib. But, having watched the clip in full a number of times, I don't think he was kidding. Certainly Dr. Birx, who wanted to disappear in her chair, didn't think so. And his trying to pass it off a sarcasm the next day was his attempt at "winning" under any circumstances, and by whatever criteria he thinks he can get away with. He was as sincere as I have ever seen him, as he was asking (telling?) Birx et al to look into his brain fart. And she wasn't smirking with him in a conspiratorial or playful way. She looked like was trying to make herself invisible. Of his his stepping in it, there is no doubt. But his claiming the next day that he did so with full intent doesn't pass the smell test. So to speak.
Highly inappropriate glibness is of course a signature of narcissism plus a number of other psychiatric conditions. I do side twoard he actually knows no better as well. With engineer training and dev experience, if it walks/acts and certainly qucks like a Donald (duck).. The proposal: He does what he does because of his (abnormal) brain structure. It has been well established that psychopaths can be identified with high accuracy using MRI and I found this recent paper discussing findings with the less popular (no money in it? ) narcissism. If you would forget a moment why he does things and think as an engineer looking at it, (being nosy in neuro-biology) given his brain structure why is anything a surprise and anything more than? https://www.imedpub.com/articles/the-cognitive-neuroscience-of-narcissism.php?aid=22149 Neuroanatomical Features Associated With Components of Narcissism We know that the front part of the brain, the frontal cortex, regulates much of our thinking and reasoning abilities. Similarly, around the lower sides of the brain are areas called the temporal lobes, where we find the keys to controlling many emotional states including fear and anger. We have a growing understanding of how these features relate to NPD, but because those suffering from NPD believe they do not have any behavioural or mental health problems it is difficult to recruit large numbers of these persons for clinical studies. Regardless, there have been some neuroscience studies done with NPD that provide us with a picture of how the brains of these individuals differ from healthy people. In recent years neuroscience has made great progress in uncovering the brain mechanisms related to how we are able to feel what another person is feeling. It is intriguing to note that consistent evidence shows that sharing the emotions of others is associated with activation of neural areas that are also active during the first-hand experience of that emotion. For example, one recent study showed that patients with lesions caused by removing brain tumors in the anterior insular cortex (AIC) had deficits in explicit and implicit empathetic pain processing [39]. This study provides evidence suggesting that the empathy deficits in patients with brain damage to the AIC are surprisingly similar to the empathy deficits found in several psychiatric diseases, including autism spectrum disorders, borderline personality disorder, NPD and others, suggesting potentially common neural deficits in those psychiatric populations. The insular cortex is comprised of a complex network of neurons coming into and exiting this brain region and is divided into subsections. It receives input from several sensory systems associated with emotion and empathy and receives projections from the glossopharyngeal nerve involved in the sensation of pain as well as tasting, swallowing and salivary secretions [40]. Insular neurons also respond to stimulation of the vagus nerve [41] that also has important autonomic nervous system functions. Some of these may be related to changes in heart rate associated with emotional events. In humans, the insular cortex has critical afferent and efferent connections with other regions of the cortex, including the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes; the cingulate gyrus; and subcortical structures such as the amygdala, brainstem, thalamus, and basal ganglia [42]. In this way, the insular cortex is able to receive, process and transmit signals regulating important emotional functions related to our sensory, motor and autonomic systems. The insular cortex has been commonly associated with somatotopic representations of bodily states such as itch, pain, temperature, and touch [43,44]. In addition, neuroimaging studies consistently show that AIC activation is associated with disgust [45,46], interoceptive awareness [47], general emotional processing [47-49], intuition, unfairness [50], risk and uncertainty [51-54], and norm violations [55,56]. It has also been observed that patients with focal epileptic seizures that arise from the AIC report heightened emotional awareness and enhanced wellbeing [57]. The insular cortex overall appears to form an internal image of the physiological state of the person and to relay these states and needs for one’s awareness of feelings [44]. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using MRI to measure brain structural volume, Schulze and colleagues demonstrated a consistent structural deficit in the insular cortex. For the NPD group, this region of the cerebral cortex was markedly reduced in thickness compared to the control group. The amount of empathy was directly correlated to the volume of gray matter in the insular region. Overall, patients with narcissism exhibited a significant reduction of gray matter in the insular cortex [58]. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging In the past decade scientists have used fMRI to identify several regions in the brain associated with empathy for pain. Fan, et al. combined assessments of non-clinical subjects on Narcissism inventories with fMRI measurements of empathy. High narcissistic subjects showed higher scores on the Symptom Checklist-90–Revised (SCL-90-R) and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) when compared to low narcissistic subjects. High narcissistic subjects also showed significantly decreased deactivation during empathy, especially in the right anterior insula. The neuroimaging data indicates lower activity in the insula in high narcissistic subjects [59,60]. Another recent study firmly establishes that the AIC is where the feeling of empathy originates [61]. A unique cell type-the von Economo neuron (VEN) -- is located there. These rare neurons appear to be linked to empathy and self-awareness [62,63]. It is intriguing that VENs have been found to exist only in humans and great apes [64-66], macaque monkeys Evrard et al., elephants [67], cetaceans and a number of their related terrestrial herbivore species [68-70]. VENs are very large projection neurons well-suited for rapid, long-distance integration of information [66-71]. Diffusion Tensor Imaging One characteristic of narcissists is that they exude a sense of confidence. However, the brain activity of these persons is inconsistent with their appearance. At a neural level, narcissists appear needy and insecure. Chester, et al. [72] used a method of measuring brain activity called diffusion tensor imaging that measures the amount of connected activity between different brain areas. Such scans produce more accurate wiring diagrams of the brain, in contrast to structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that show the brain’s gray matter, and functional MRI scans (fMRI) that measure overall neural activity. Higher narcissism scores were associated with lower connectivity between certain brain areas, including the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. These areas are associated with the ability to think positively about oneself and thus low activity in these areas may prompt NPD individuals to repeatedly seek out affirmation from others. This is consistent with theories that state these people have difficulty understanding their own self-concept, and may have low implicit self-esteem underneath their confident and arrogant exterior.
I regard you as interesting which is saying something coming from me. But cmon man... a actor throwing the narcissist label around is pretty damned rich don't you think? It doesn't bother me when you do it however. I'm just not troubled by that label. I once had an embarrassing Myers-Briggs experience. At work they had us all take the Myers-Briggs test online. Then they herded us all into a huge conference room and lined us up by the Thinking/Feeling category of the test result. I was all the way on one end of the line. I had scored the highest in the room for thinking and absolutely zero for feeling. My secretary was on the other end of the line. Lowest score for thinking and highest for feeling. We made a good team actually. But then they read out each person's M-B type and read a short description then named two historical figures which are thought to have had that M-B type. It seemed to me that all of the historical figures being cited were positive ones noted for their contribution to civilization. My secretary's historical figures were Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa. When they got to me it got a little darker lol. I'm ENTJ and the description was a bit shocking then they cited the historical figures with my type. Gaius Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. Ouch. It was painful because I simply don't like people in my head. I've had a waiver for decades from being polygraphed. They tried twice decades ago and they could not get a baseline. They had me state my real name then they asked me to say that I was Abraham Lincoln and they would eventually start yelling that I wasn't cooperating then I would lose my temper, both times lol. I'm told it likely means I cannot do hypnosis either. So.. narcissist? Yeah you could say that lol.
I'm not a very good actor OK.. So.. You think Trump is not a clinical narcissist? For real? I guess it's the old if you don't know one, you are one thing. Anyway, Trump is not quite a real boy.
All I can say is people need to see that Trump is driven by a specific defect in his physical brain. Having worked in anti poaching (hunters) and with police a lot in the UK, abrnomal mental behavior becomes something you can't help but see clearly. There are ways to deal with pushy normal people, reason with them, but a psychopath or narcissist.. They are thinking animals however if you can't given them what they want you often need to be unpleasant to protect others.