Finally, it’s time for some serious football watching — both college bowl games and NFL playoffs. But how many times has our favorite team driven us crazy, outplaying their opponent on both sides of the ball, but simultaneously making unforced errors, missing scoring opportunities, and incurring dumb penalties? We keep yelling at the TV (although it never seems to do any good) and watching helplessly as the game slips away, bit by bit.

That’s the same feeling I get observing the past few months of Donald Trump’s follies.

Last November, Trump was elected president by a loose coalition comprising hard-core MAGA followers and a diverse assortment of moderate Republicans, Independents, and even some Democrats who evidently concluded that Trump’s priorities and policies mirror their own.

Now, a year later, the latter voters find themselves awed by Trump’s energy and broadly pleased with his achievements, but they also are becoming increasingly uneasy with his bluster, his careless missteps, and the endless controversy that follows him like a black cloud.

It’s not really a surprise. For as long as Trump has been in the political arena, his supporters have recognized that his extraordinary capability comes with a huge ego and a quirky, sometimes unpleasant temperament. Some armchair psychologists have recently taken to calling the president a narcissist – a diagnosis which gets tossed around by everyone about everybody they don’t like. It doesn’t matter; labels rarely provide meaningful insight, but that may be more a accurate characterization of Trump than all the very tired “Nazi” and “fascist” smears.

In fact, the textbook narcissistic personality traits — inflated self-image, thirst for adulation, rejection of criticism, impatience with constraints — are not all that uncommon among successful executives. In her widely criticized Vanity Fair interview, Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles offered her own close-at-hand view: her boss sees himself as capable of solving all the world’s problems and is therefore not uncomfortable acting like the world’s most powerful man.

In the category of unforced errors that might be triggered by narcissism, Trump is on a roll. Here are some recent ones:

• Allowing (or prompting) the Kennedy Center to be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center.
• Posting on Truth Social, and then later confirming, crass and painfully unkind remarks about the late Rob Reiner, following the gruesome murder of Reiner and his wife.
• Endlessly repeated public criticism of former President Joe Biden, going so far as authorizing the installation of bronze plaques in the White House that present as fact Trump’s own negative opinions of Biden and other former presidents.
• Routine exaggeration of his own positive achievements, using easily rebutted figures.

The above are small, relatively unimportant diversions from President Trump’s otherwise remarkable record of accomplishment in these first 11 months of his current term — a record that includes sealing our southern border, revitalizing U.S. energy generation, beefing up our military, providing leadership in international efforts to stop wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, interdicting the trafficking of illegal drugs, keeping men out of women’s sports, securing commitments for substantial foreign investment in the U.S. economy, finding and deporting dangerous illegal immigrants, and other actions.

So what’s the problem? Surely Trump supporters and prospective 2026 voters can see the difference between big important things and irritating little ones. But collectively, the unforced miscues undermine Trump’s political viability in any of several ways:

1.) Insignificant as they may be in the grand scheme of things, those behaviors are repugnant to many Americans. We don’t like rudeness, arrogance, meanness, or bragging, and we don’t like seeing them exhibited by the person who represents our nation before the entire world.

2.) They may be interpreted as validation of the absurd assertions of evil leveled at Trump for decades by his political opponents. Trump hatred remains a central political tactic by the political left, and we can count on those political enemies to jump up and yell “see, we told you so!” at every opportunity, no matter how insignificant.

3.) Such behaviors are easy to conflate with legitimate issues that properly demand close attention by the American public.

As a case in point, consider the president’s authorization of lethal military force, without seeking advice or consent from Congress, leading to the destruction of 28 small vessels, with contents and crew, engaged in transport across international waters of illegal, life-threatening narcotics. Some see that as confirmation of Trump’s narcissistic inclination to ignore the rules and do whatever he wants to do.

Possibly, but more likely it’s because Trump and his advisers feel that he already has the authority needed, given the prior action (his own) to declare drug trafficking as terrorism, and because there is ample precedent for using lethal military force against terrorists. Barack Obama employed that same justification extensively and with little objection during his presidency.

And perhaps President Trump did not consult with Congress on that matter because it is painfully clear that our present Congress is incapable of thoughtful, apolitical advice. We just endured the longest government shutdown in our history because Senate Democrats were unwilling to authorize the long-accepted process of continuing resolution to allow the government to continue to operate while knotty matters (such as ObamaCare supplements) are being debated.

Even lesser items are vulnerable to manufactured controversy for political advantage. Take, for example, the ongoing White House renovation project. From the outset, Trump opponents have pitched the viewpoint that the wannabe emperor Donald Trump sees the White House as his private residence, plans to stay there forever, and is desecrating our historic White House by adding a garish ballroom where he can entertain and impress his billionaire friends.

What nonsense. The renovation is one of many over the years, and this one is long overdue. Because of its limited interior space, large White House gatherings are necessarily held outdoors, fine on beautiful spring days but difficult and unpleasant in bad weather. The president saw the need, secured private funding for the renovation, and, with usual Trump zeal, dove headfirst into the work.

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Political pundits have a habit of pronouncing every upcoming election as “the most important ever.” This time, I think it’s true. As a rule, the political party in power loses House seats in the midterm elections: in this case, the GOP holds a razor-thin majority (three seats) going in, so even a modest loss would put the Democrats in charge. If that happens, we can expect (and House Democrats have already promised) that the subsequent two years will be a return to impeachment-fest. The election mandate of 2024 will be null and void.

A few weeks ago, on these pages, I offered the president my own unsolicited advice regarding better positioning for the upcoming midterms. Here’s another round. The ego-driven miscues are giving an excuse to every fence-sitting voter who supported you in 2024 to sit out the midterms. You can’t afford that. Our nation can’t afford it.

Therefore, please redouble your efforts on the big things, and please knock off the senseless, silly ones. As for those listed above, nip them in the bud, right now. Offer a gracious apology to the Reiner family; as chairman, direct the Kennedy Center Board to drop the renaming plan; replace those demeaning bronze plaques in the White House; direct your speech-preparers to verify in advance the accuracy of every number you quote. Do it all publicly and graciously. You’ll be surprised at how little it hurts.

Going forward, please try to swallow your pride (at least some of it), sharpen your antennae, listen to your staff, and knock off the stupid stuff. Keep your eye on the prize on every play, every decision. Narcissism isn’t the plague, and it’s not a life sentence. Rise above it, the way you face and overcome every challenge you face.

And here’s some unsolicited advice to the Trump haters — knock off the childish finger-pointing and name-calling. It hasn’t worked for you yet, and it won’t this time. Maybe you’ll get some of your voters back in the fold.