President Donald Trump had a manic episode on national television Wednesday night during which he projectile vomited lies at a national audience. As the spectacle progressed, his volume grew louder, his speed grew faster, and his falsehoods grew more egregious. In fact, it may have set new world records for lunatic, mendacious vapidity.

From a political perspective, the president’s intentions were as clear as his results were a failure. Trump and his team of deranged Christmas Elves thought an unhinged remake of Bad Santa was just the thing his plummeting ratings needed. But his used-car-salesman-on-coke demeanor sent a message of desperation; his efforts to command people to believe him rather than their own lived experiences very likely compounded the collective unease with this particular moment in U.S. history.

From a psychological perspective, it offered a textbook case of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ theory of the stages people go through as they grapple with impending mortality. Trump displayed not just one but all three of the first stages observed by the psychiatrist in dying subjects: denial, anger and bargaining. He denied reality. He ranted angrily. He promised checks of $1,776 each to every member of the military, even though he, as president, has........

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