Trump is a “Consummate Narcissist”: Former Attorney General Bill Barr

Escalating his mounting criticisms of Donald Trump, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr called the former president “a consummate narcissist” and a “fundamentally flawed person” in a scathing interview on Sunday. Once a staunch Trump ally, Barr has been a vociferous critic in the weeks following Trump’s federal indictment on charges of illegally possessing classified information.

“He’s like a defiant 9-year-old kid who is always pushing the glass towards the edge of the table, defying his parents from stopping him from doing it,” Barr said in an interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” adding that “our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.” Last week, Barr told Fox News that “if even half” of the 49-page indictment is true, Trump “is toast.”

A second former Trump administration official spoke out on Sunday. In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” former defense secretary Mark Esper called Trump’s alleged possession of classified documents an “irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around.” According to the special counsel’s indictment, Trump allegedly kept sensitive documents in a public ballroom, bathroom, and bedroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“People have described him as a hoarder when it comes to these types of documents. But clearly, it was unauthorized, illegal and dangerous,” Esper added.

Barr and Esper’s Sunday comments add to a growing chorus of denunciations from former Trump administration officials, even as much of the current crop of Republican presidential candidates have largely avoided discussing the indictment or have actively come to the former president’s defense.

Last week, former Trump national security advisor John Bolton called the indictment a “potentially catastrophic turn of events” for Trump, and said that if the allegations are proven to be true, “it should put Trump in jail for a long time.”

Also last week, former Trump chief of staff John Kelly told The Washington Post that Trump was “scared s—tless” over his legal troubles, adding that “for the first time in his life, it looks like he’s being held accountable.” Trump retaliated on Friday morning in a post on Truth Social, writing that Kelly “pretended to be a ‘tough guy,’ but was actually weak and ineffective, born with a VERY small ‘brain.’”

In addition to their recent criticisms of the former president, Barr, Esper, Bolton, and Kelly all have one thing in common: an early departure from the Trump administration. Barr resigned in December 2020, just a few weeks before January 6; Esper was fired by a Trump tweet a month prior; Bolton was fired in 2019, also by tweet; and Kelly was out less than two years into Trump’s term.