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According to the website www.simplypsychology.org, projection is a "psychological defence mechanism that involves attributing one's undesirable traits, feelings, or impulses to other people. For instance, someone who is dishonest might accuse others of being dishonest, thereby shifting attention away from their dishonesty".

Projection works as a defence mechanism by helping to protect the ego from anxiety-provoking thoughts or feelings. "By attributing these unwanted aspects to someone or something else, the individual distances themselves from what they find unacceptable within themselves".

I am not a psychologist, but Donald Trump strikes me as a classic case of someone "suffering" (if that is the right word, since in fact it is everyone else who suffers from his behaviour) from projection.

Trump launched his tariff wars because he believes other countries are "ripping off" America with their allegedly unfair trade practices. This, from the man who, throughout his business career, routinely stiffed others - whether by defaulting on bank loans, defrauding investors, failing to reimburse building contractors for their services, or duping students into paying thousands in tuition for fake courses at his now-defunct Trump University.

Trump launched his war on "woke," targeting "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" initiatives, because these allegedly discriminate on the basis of race and gender. Yet this is the administration that is now quite deliberately eradicating the record of prominent African American people, Native American people and women from the nation's museums and institutions, pushing for schools and colleges to stop teaching the history of race relations, threatening to cut funding or cooperation with private businesses and organisations that maintain DEI programmes, while celebrating the "achievements" of known racists, such as former President Andrew Jackson.

An executive order issued in late March cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian Institution as a whole is engaging in a "concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history." It empowers Vice President JD Vance to review all properties, programmes and presentations to prohibit programmes that "degrade shared American values" or "divide Americans based on race," and orders Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine if any monuments since January 2020 "have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history." Trump has long criticised the removal of Confederate monuments - a movement that gained steam after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.

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Critics argue that the cumulative impact of these actions will be to sanitize America's history of racism, including slavery, and roll back decades of advances in racial and gender equality.

Trump has also claimed to be a champion of free speech, signing on day one of his new Presidency an executive order decreeing that "no federal officer, employee or agent may unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen."

Yet, in practice, his administration has been busy intimidating opponents into silence - including by threatening Democratic members of Congress with investigation for criticis...