Why You Can Count on Donald Trump Wanting to Use Nuclear Weapons-And Why He’s Damn Near Slobbering For the Chance

How Narcissism, Weakness, and Authoritarian Hunger Make This His Ultimate Fantasy

Why You Can Count on Donald Trump Wanting to Use Nuclear Weapons-And Why He’s Damn Near Slobbering For the Chance

How Narcissism, Weakness, and Authoritarian Hunger Make This His Ultimate Fantasy

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #628: Sunday, November 2nd, 2025

Let’s Stop Pretending This Isn’t Who He Is

There’s a hard truth most pundits won’t say out loud…not because they don’t know it… but because they’re terrified….of being the first one on television…to speak the thing that rips the last veil off Trump’s psychology.

Here it is:

Donald Trump doesn’t just “consider” nuclear weapons.
He lusts after them.

And now, in his second presidency with J.D. Vance as vice president…he again wields the nuclear authority that comes with the office.

He sees them not as a last resort…not as the horror they truly are…
but as the ultimate proof of power…the throne…the scepter…the crown…and the ego-satisfying orgasmic display of dominance he has craved his entire life.

People dance around this.
They nibble the edges.
They hint…whisper…insinuate.

Not here.

Because when a man with Trump’s wiring gets his hands anywhere near world-ending weapons…

You don’t mince words.
You damn well spell it out.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A MAN WHO WANTS TO FIRE GOD’S THUNDER

To understand why Trump would eagerly use nuclear weapons…you must understand the internal architecture of his mind.

It’s not normal.
It’s not stable.
And it’s not restrained.

Trump’s psychology is a four-engine afterburner pointed at pressure…dominance…and spectacle. Nuclear weapons aren’t a burden to him.

They’re a fantasy.

Below are the four psychological components that make this not just possible —
but predictable.

1. THE GRANDIOSE NARCISSIST’S DREAM: AN ACT SO BIG IT CAN NEVER BE IGNORED

Normal presidents dread nuclear use.

They spend their entire terms trying to avoid any scenario where such a decision even glimmers in the fog.

Trump is not wired this way.

For him, the question is not:

“Should we?”
It’s:
“Why the hell not?”

To Trump, nuclear force is not horror.
It is legacy.

Think about it:

Narcissists crave the kind of historical footprint that echoes for centuries.
But narcissists with authoritarian appetites?
They crave the type that wipes entire civilizations off the map.

To Trump, nuclear use would be:

• Proof that he is the strongest man on Earth

• A permanent branding of his dominance

• A spectacle no other president ever dared to unleash

• A “bold move” that only a “winner” would make

• A cosmic thumbprint of his power on the world

This is not hyperbole.

This is straight-line psychology.

Every narcissist on Earth dreams of a moment so huge…so irreversible…that history becomes their hostage.

And nothing… nothing… engraves a name into human memory…like a mushroom cloud.

Trump knows that.
And he salivates at it.

2. THE EMPATHY DEFICIT: HUMAN LIVES MEAN NOTHING TO HIM…BUT HUMILIATION MEANS EVERYTHING

Let’s talk empathy.

Most people imagine empathy is something you “develop” or “learn.”
They’re wrong.

Empathy is a pre-installed piece of the human OS…like a security protocol against cruelty.

But here’s what’s true of pathological narcissists:

The empathy is there. But it’s weaponized.
It’s a sniper scope…not a safety switch.

They can see exactly what others feel…
they just use that knowledge for advantage.

And that means:

• civilian deaths do not horrify him

• mass casualties do not deter him

• global catastrophe does not shake him

• moral horror does not register

What does register?

Humiliation.
Submission.
Respect.
Fear.
Adoration.

Trump feels embarrassment as intensely as most people feel pain.
And he sees foreign adversaries as personal rivals who disrespect him.

When you combine:

• hypersensitivity to humiliation

• zero emotional brakes

• instant rage when challenged

• a worldview where human suffering is collateral noise

…you get a man who treats nuclear force not as a tragedy…but as a tantrum with consequences.

He would push the button out of:

• vanity

• revenge

• ego

• impulse

• dominance

• grievance

• theatrical flair

And he would sleep just fine afterward.

Because Trump doesn’t lose sleep over destruction.
He loses sleep over being made to look weak.

Give a man like that nuclear power…

And you’ve built a fuse.

3. TRUMP’S WORLDVIEW: POWER ONLY EXISTS WHEN OTHERS ARE AFRAID

If you strip Trump’s worldview down to its chassis, you get this:

Power = Fear.
Fear = Respect.
Respect = Validation.
Validation = Survival.

He doesn’t understand diplomacy.
He doesn’t believe in restraint.
And he has openly mocked every president who avoided conflict as “weak.”

He openly said:

• “If we have them, why can’t we use them?”

• “Being unpredictable makes countries afraid.”

• “People only respect strength.”

• “Hit them harder than they hit you.”

This is not strategy.
This is a schoolyard bully’s worldview…scaled to nuclear doctrine.

To Trump…the logic is simple:

If America is feared…Trump is respected.
If Trump is respected…Trump is godlike.

So imagine the temptation…

Imagine being a man whose entire psychological identity rests on the idea that he must be the strongest…most feared man alive…and imagine giving him a red button that proves it.

To Trump:

Nukes aren’t deterrents.
They’re stage props.
They’re status symbols.
They’re toys.

And the man has always wanted to show the world his toys.

4. TRUMP NEEDS A “HISTORIC EVENT” TO OUTSHINE HIS FAILURES

History is Trump’s ultimate scoreboard.

And here’s the problem he feels deep down in his marrow:

Nothing he’s done so far is “eternal.”

• businesses failed

• marriages failed

• policies failed

• coups failed

• reputations burned

• impeachments stacked

• legacy tarnished

• scandals everywhere

So what does a man like that crave?

A moment so large that no one can ever overshadow it.
A moment so monumental that criticism becomes irrelevant.
A moment so seismic that future generations will whisper his name with awe or horror…he doesn’t care which.

To Trump:

Infamy is still immortality.
Disaster is still legacy.
Destruction is still domination.

Using nuclear weapons (even in a “limited” way) would be like carving his initials into the planet.

And for a man whose ego demands worship…

That’s the closest he can get to godhood.

PART II: THE DARK ARCHITECTURE OF TRUMP’S NUCLEAR FETISH.

This is the material readers can’t get on cable news.

This is the part that will piss off the right people.

5. TRUMP ONLY FEELS “LARGE” WHEN HE MAKES SOMEONE ELSE FEEL SMALL

Trump’s entire life is a pyramid of dominance.

He only feels tall when someone else is on their knees.

He only feels powerful when someone else is powerless.

He only feels safe when someone else is in fear.

Now scale that psychology up to nuclear weapons.

To Trump…nothing shrinks a rival…like the threat of annihilation.

Nothing humiliates a critic like global intimidation.

Nothing proves dominance…like the power to erase cities with a single decision.

He wouldn’t think of it as genocide.

He’d think of it as winning.

And if someone insulted him
…even a foreign leader…
and the restraints were gone…

The impulse would surge like a drug hit.

Because nukes don’t just kill millions.

They inflate narcissists.
They supercharge the ego.
They give the illusion of absolute invulnerability.

And Trump has been chasing that feeling his entire life.

6. TRUMP HAS ALWAYS CRAVED “THE BIGGEST” ANYTHING…AND NOTHING IS BIGGER THAN THIS

Trump wants the:

• biggest building

• biggest rally

• biggest defeat

• biggest revenge

• biggest spectacle

• biggest comeback

• biggest score

• biggest win

Now ask yourself:

What is the biggest possible “action” any human being can take on Earth?

It is not passing a law.
It is not winning an election.
It is not building a building.

It is nuclear fire.

The biggest weapon.
The biggest blast.
The biggest consequences.
The biggest shockwave.
The biggest moment.
The biggest decision any human can make.

And for a man addicted to size…

This is the final hit of the strongest drug on Earth.

7. TRUMP BELIEVES U.S. GENERALS “FAILED” HIM …AND HE’S NOW SURROUNDING HIMSELF WITH LOYALISTS WHO WILL ALWAYS SAY “YES”

This is where the danger stops being theoretical.

Trump is president again…and he has made one thing unmistakably clear through his staffing choices…public statements…and the figures he has elevated since taking office:

He does not want independent military leadership.
He wants loyalty. Total loyalty.

And we’re already seeing exactly what that looks like in 2025.

As of 2025, Trump is back in office and has been explicit that he wants “loyal” personnel who will “carry out the mission.”

Early in the term, he moved to remove inspectors general across multiple agencies …independent watchdogs that often serve as tripwires when illegal or dangerous orders are floated. Reuters and AP documented a late-January purge affecting at least 17 IGs.

In May, the FBI disbanded a Washington-field public-corruption squad…part of a broader reshuffle watchdogs warned would chill oversight.

None of this proves a nuclear decision is imminent.

It does show a consistent pattern: weaken guardrails…reward loyalty…punish dissent…the opposite of the culture you want….around nuclear command and control.

For context: Gen. Mark Milley explained in 2021 congressional testimony why guardrails mattered during Trump’s final weeks. That history is part of why 2025 personnel shifts matter so much.

Instead of surrounding himself with seasoned commanders who understand nuclear doctrine…Trump has been installing and empowering:

• sycophants

• ideological loyalists

• political operatives

• grievance-driven “true believers”

• people who want proximity to power more than responsibility

• advisers selected for obedience…not expertise

These are not the kinds of people who tell a president “slow down.”
They are the kinds who say “whatever you want.”

Trump has also repeatedly attacked the military officials who pushed back on him during his first term. He has openly said they “betrayed” him, “failed” him, or “should have listened.”

He has not been subtle about what he wants this time:

“People who won’t undermine me.”
“People who are loyal.”
“People who will carry out the mission.”

Translation:
Yes-men. Not guardrails.

During his first presidency…he had people like Milley…leaders who slowed dangerous impulses…demanded proper process…and refused to green-light catastrophic decisions.

Now?

He has spent 2025 promoting…elevating…and listening to people whose first job is reassurance…not restraint.

A military chain of command filled with loyalists doesn’t just fail to stop a bad idea.

It accelerates it.

Because when a narcissist surrounds himself with total loyalty…
when dissent becomes disloyalty…
when expertise gets replaced by flattery…

You don’t just lose the brakes.

You lose the steering.

And a narcissist with nuclear authority…surrounded by people unwilling to say “no”?

That’s the most dangerous man alive.

8. TRUMP CONFUSES DESTRUCTION WITH STRENGTH

This is where the psychology gets primitive.

Trump was raised in a worldview where force is respect and restraint is weakness.

He believes:

• breaking things is power

• threatening violence is power

• humiliating others is power

• shocking the world is power

• chaos is power

So nuclear use is not a moral dilemma.

It’s the purest expression of his worldview.

You don’t need to look at policy.

Just look at his childhood:

• Fred Trump taught him that the world is divided into killers and losers.

• Trump learned that cruelty is dominance.

• He learned that destruction is a shortcut to fear…which he mistakes for respect.

So when the moment arrives…the moment he feels cornered…or challenged…or insulted…or threatened…

He won’t see nuclear use as “the end.”

He will see it as
the ultimate move.

9. TRUMP WANTS TO BE THE MOST FEARED MAN ON EARTH…AND HE SEES NUKES AS HIS PATH

This is the core of everything:

Trump does not want love.
He wants worship.

He does not want admiration.
He wants submission.

He does not want a legacy.
He wants an empire.

You cannot understand Trump unless you understand this:

He wants to be feared on a scale so massive that no other man in history ever matched it.

And nukes are fear incarnate.

They are the one instrument on Earth that guarantees immediate global domination in the psychological arena.

He craves that.

He’s obsessed with that.

It answers every weakness he’s ever tried to hide.

10. THE FINAL COCKTAIL: TRUMP + NARCISSISM + POWER + IMPUNITY + NUKES = CATASTROPHE

If you give a man like Trump:

• absolute authority

• unrestrained military loyalty

• a fantasy of revenge

• zero internal brakes

• a persecution complex

• a craving for domination

• a belief that strength = destruction

• and the psychological wiring of a man-child with an inferiority complex…

…and then hand him the nuclear football…

You have created the most dangerous psychological scenario ever placed in the Oval Office.

And the scariest part?

He wants it.

He wants the power.
He wants the fear.
He wants the moment.
He wants the history-shattering spectacle.
He wants the legacy.
He wants the dominance.
He wants the size of it.

And yes…
He wants the mushroom cloud with his fingerprints on it.

That’s the truth.
Nobody wants to say it.
But you damn well need to hear it.

What You Do With This Truth Matters

You made it this far… which tells me something important:

You don’t want surface-level takes.
You don’t want the sanitized version the networks spoon-feed America.
You don’t want the “safe” commentary that tiptoes around the truth.

You want the real thing.

The gloves-off version.
The version that explains what’s actually happening…not what people wish were happening.
The version that isn’t afraid to map out the danger…and the path through it.

That’s what I give my paid subscribers every single week.

Because while the free side tells you what is happening…
the paid side tells you what it means…where it’s going…and how to stay steady while the ground shakes beneath you.

If this issue hit you like a jolt…
if it clarified what you already sensed…
if it connected the dots no one else will say out loud…

Then imagine what the next layer looks like when I take the restraints off.

The deeper analysis.
The red-flag patterns.
The behind-the-scenes shifts happening right now.
The resilience frameworks that keep you grounded while the country’s on fire.

That’s where this conversation is heading next.

👉 Upgrade to paid today and you’ll get the full version…The one that will come on Monday evening….the one I can’t publish out here in the open.

Not with the way things are moving.
Not with the stakes this high.

If you’re ready for the unfiltered truth…

Just say the word.

Join the Inner Circle.

Back soon,

-Jack

Sources & Further Reading

These are the publicly documented reports, testimony, memoir excerpts, and investigative pieces that inform the psychological…political…and strategic analysis in this issue of The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter.

I’ve grouped them by theme so readers can dig deeper if they want.

Trump’s Views on Nuclear Weapons, “Unpredictability,” and Power

• Reporting on Trump asking advisors why the U.S. “can’t use nukes” (Scarborough statement; Trump denial; widely covered by major outlets).

• Trump’s public comments emphasizing “strength,” “hitting back harder,” “unpredictability,” and “dominance” as core foreign-policy principles.

• Trump’s decades-long framing of international relations as personal contests for respect…fear…and submission.

Documented Examples of Extreme or Reckless Military Ideas

• Mark Esper, “A Sacred Oath” (2022)…former Defense Secretary details Trump asking about launching missiles into Mexico and “not saying it was us.”

• Axios (2019)…reporting that Trump floated the idea of using nuclear weapons on hurricanes.

Evidence of Trump’s Sensitivity to Humiliation / Retaliatory Impulses

• Long-established behavioral patterns: rally speeches…debate meltdowns…public rages…cabinet-meeting tirades.

• Psychological analyses by multiple historians and behavioral scientists noting Trump’s impulsivity…grievance reflex…and fixation on dominance.

2025 Oversight Rollbacks & Loyalty Consolidation (Current Administration)

These items reflect actions taken during 2025, relevant to nuclear-era guardrails and chain-of-command stability:

• Reuters / AP (Jan–Feb 2025):

  • Reporting on Trump’s removal of at least 17 inspectors general across federal agencies.

  • Legal challenges and congressional concern regarding weakened internal oversight mechanisms.

• Associated Press (May 2025):

  • Reporting that the FBI disbanded a Washington-based public-corruption squad, part of a restructuring that alarmed former officials and watchdog groups.

• Ongoing 2025 staffing shifts:

  • Preference for loyalty-based appointments across DOJ, DHS, and intelligence-adjacent agencies.

  • Repeated statements from Trump and senior aides that they want officials who “carry out the mission” rather than “undermine” presidential priorities.

Historical Context: Guardrails & Milley Testimony

• Gen. Mark Milley’s 2021 congressional testimony describing backchannel calls to China, concerns about Trump’s emotional volatility, and the “proper procedures” he insisted on for any nuclear order.

• 2021 reporting from multiple outlets on military leadership’s concerns during Trump’s final weeks in office.

Behavioral, Psychological & Leadership Profiles (General)

• Writings by experts on authoritarian psychology…narcissistic grandiosity…and crisis decision-making under stress.

• Comparative analyses of leaders who frame foreign relations as dominance hierarchies rather than diplomatic systems.