Frederick Crist Trump Jr. (Fred Trump Jr.) was born on October 14, 1938, in Queens, New York City. The eldest son of Mary Anne MacLeod Trump and real estate developer Fred Trump Sr., as well as the older brother of Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) and sisters Elizabeth and Maryanne, Fred Trump Jr. became an airline pilot rather than enter his fathers business like his younger brother, Donald Trump.Fred Jr. struggled most of his life with the disease of addiction, largely with alcohol, a condition that contributed to his fatal heart attack at the young age of 43. On several public occasions, Donald Trumprelatedthe tragic story of his brothers life as an alcoholic. Related Rachel Maddow details stunning Trump disapproval ratings: Were gonna need a bigger boat He said in a 2017 speech that his brother had a tough life and told him many times not to drink or smoke. And to this day, Ive never had a drink, he said. I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it. To this day, Ive never had a cigarette. The president seemed to believe that in heeding his brothers advice, he has escaped thedestructiveeffects of addiction. But as we know from medical and psychological research, the disease of addiction expresses itself in many ways. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today As one definition of the word makes clear: Addiction is when you have a need or urge to do something or use something, even if it causes harm. If continued over time, addictions cause long-lasting changes in brain structures, thus making the disease of addiction both a brain disorder and a mental illness.The types of addiction include substance addiction (such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and food) and non-substance addiction or behavioral addiction (such as compulsive shopping, gambling, sex, social media, or video games). The risk of developing an addiction depends on a combination of genetic, environmental, and developmental factors. The more factors a person has, the greater the chance of developing an addiction.Signs of an addiction include obsessive thoughts and compulsive use or engagement in the rewarding stimuli (substances or behaviors) for immediate gratification. It is also characterized by increasingly continued use or engagement, even after experiencing negative consequences.What is power?In a 1968 speech given to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. defined power as the ability to achieve purpose and effect change.A dictionarydefinitionviews power (a noun) in general as: The ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something. In this definition, capacity is seen as a synonym of power.Another definition of power is as a great or marked ability to do or act;strength;might;force. In this definition, energy is a synonym.A third definition is the possession of control or command over people, with the synonyms ofauthority and influence.A final definition for our purposes here defines power as the political ascendancy or control in the government of a country, state, etc. by overthrowing the legal government with the synonymssovereignty,rule,sway,and ascendancy.We can place how leadersusetheir power on a spectrum from With on one side to Over on the other. Power With refers to a leader or leaders utilizing their power collaboratively to empower those they lead. It involves a mutual appreciation and respect for autonomy to accomplish shared goals. For the leaders, getting it right has priority over being right.By contrast, Power Over refers to an undemocratic or authoritarian approach where the leader or leaders exert their dominance by dictating the actions to be taken, often using coercion or fear in which power is gained at anothers expense. Leaders give the orders, and they expect to be obeyed without challenge. For the leaders, being right has priority over getting it right.Power as addictionHistory has shown a vast array of leaders and ordinary people who have become addicted to power. While people are initially attracted to power for a variety of reasons like promoting social change, seeking personal admiration, or wanting to control others as they accumulate power, some experience euphoria or a sense of fulfillment.Over time, as in all forms of addiction, people develop dependency, with a need to maintain and even increase their power. This dependency dominates other aspects of life, including personal relationships and previously held values. Addictions in general, and in the case of power addiction, often lead to unethical behaviors, isolation, and even paranoid thoughts that others are coming to take what is yours. Enabling the addictEnabler is the term given to those who fail to act to help addicts and stop them from harming themselves and others around them. Passive bystander or bad Samaritan is the name for someone who is conscious of bad actions developing around them but fails to intervene.Enabling and passively standing by take many forms, including literally offering an addict substances, conspiring with an abuser in a sinister plot, contributing to denial by asserting that they dont have a problem, downplaying the seriousness and making excuses for their behaviors, translating for others what the person really meant, downright lying, and so on.How many times have we heard, He didnt mean it that way. What he really meant to say was and You are misunderstanding her or I got this black eye by walking into a door. The Trump enablers Though Donald Trump has followed the warning of his elder brother to refrain from addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, one can make a strong argument by observing his behaviors that he certainly displays the classic signs of addiction in Trumps case, non-substance addictions.These include wealth, power, and sex. He stakes his personal value on the amount of wealth and power he can accumulate, and by how many notches he can carve on his bedpost representing his sexual conquests.Trumps enablers include members of the Republican Party in Congress and Republican politicians in state governments, in addition to the six Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who seem to have relinquished their constitutional roles to serve one man.They have, therefore, aided and abetted Trumps need to consume as much power as he can and to act on his compulsive paranoid need to persecute his supposed enemies. An all-consuming lust On January 9, 1961, then-President-elect John F. Kennedy addressed a joint convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In his speech, he presented a touchstone by which history should evaluate a leader.Beginning with his now-famous statement that For of those to whom much is given, much is required (a paraphrase ofLuke 12:48),Kennedy enumerated four essential criteria in assessing a leader.And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us, he stated, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions. First, were we truly men of courage.the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?Secondly, were we truly men of judgment.with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?Third, were we truly men of integrity. men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust? Finally, were we truly men of dedication with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?I have enough conclusive evidence to rank Trump as a true danger to our nation and to the world community in his all-consuming lust for material riches and sexual conquests over the common good of the people who trusted him with their vote.How do you judge him? How do you think history will judge him?Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.