“It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit–or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes…”
This is the Donald Trump I first wrote about in The Huffington Post when he had just won the 2016 Presidential election and Tony Schwartz, his first ghost-biographer, described the experience.
Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign debate with Vice President Kamala Harris just confirmed nothing has changed. He couldn’t complete sentences, much less complete thoughts, during the 90-minute debate with her on ABC.
“President-elect Donald Trump is about to move into the White House,” I wrote then. “This is the man who has become a case-study and textbook model of Narcissism for Psychotherapists. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as defined by Wikipedia, ‘is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of understanding of others’ feelings.”
“Or a Narcissist can also be defined as one who must believe he cannot do wrong, cannot admit he has ever been wrong or apologized for any of his failings. So it would be helpful to understand President-elect Trump’s failings, in order to understand and perhaps influence (as President Obama says he wants to attempt), just how he might behave as ‘our’ next President.
In fact, that is why Trump doubles down on any who would question him, accusing the accuser of the same misdeeds. Maria Konnikova implied that Trump was a classic Con Artist in her now famous New Yorker article:
“A grifter takes advantage of a person’s confidence for his own specific ends—ends that are often unknowable to the victim and unrelated to the business at hand. He willfully deceives a mark into handing over his trust under false pretenses. He has a plan.”
That must be why Trump maintained during the 2016 campaign that he would convene a special prosecutor to prosecute and jail Hillary Clinton for her “crimes”, when in fact Trump himself has been prosecuted for outright criminal behavior, such as the three Trump University lawsuits that he settled.
Or he accused President Obama of not being born in the US for six years, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Was Trump being stupid? No, he was currying favor with the birther movement to gain their support; mainly white male, racist Tea Partiers still fighting the Civil War who wanted to cast doubt on Obama’s legitimacy as the first African American President.
“What ultimately sets con artists apart is their intent,” says Konnikova. “To figure out if someone is a con artist, one needs to ask two questions. First, is their deception knowing, malicious, and directed, ultimately, toward their own personal gain? Second, is the con a means to an end unrelated to the substance of the scheme itself?”
Why does he continue to perpetuate so many cons, when he has broken contracts, filed multiple bankruptcies, and been involved in 4,000 lawsuits at last count–on his way to become the celebrity billionaire? The toll on his supporters–even families–must be devastating to maintain that image of success with overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
A major reason is his very short attention span that has gotten worse with age. It was first described by Tony Schwartz, ghost writer of Trump’s “The Art of The Deal“: “Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told Jane Mayer, author of a New Yorker article.
“It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit–or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” said Schwartz
We can now know the reason for his admiration of Vladimir Putin, for instance, who Trump has been wanting to cultivate since his 1980 Miss Universe contest held in Moscow. It was really an attempt to buy a Moscow luxury hotel. He had to turn to Russian oligarchs and Mafia figures to fund many of his real estate ventures that conventional banks wouldn’t touch. How’s that for a classic conflict-of-interest as President?
He was quoted once upon a time in a New York Times interview that he believed “Presidents cannot have a conflict of interest,” even though it is blatantly unconstitutional under the emolument clause that prohibits gifts or favors from foreign governments or individuals.
Is it possible that he even conned the majority of SCOTUS justices into ruling that presidents are immune from prosecution for almost any activity while president?
So it’s good news that he couldn’t con Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor and Attorney General, that he is above the law.
Harlan Green © 2024
Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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