What Drives Donald Trump? Fear of Losing Status, Tapes Show

[highplainsdem]

Source: NYT

The intense ambitions and undisciplined behaviors of Mr. Trump have confounded even those close to him, especially as his presidential campaign comes to a tumultuous end, and he confronts the possibility of the most stinging defeat of his life. But in the more than five hours of conversations — the last extensive biographical interviews Mr. Trump granted before running for president — a powerful driving force emerges: his deep-seated fear of public embarrassment.

The recordings reveal a man who is fixated on his own celebrity, anxious about losing his status and contemptuous of those who fall from grace. They capture the visceral pleasure he derives from fighting, his willful lack of interest in history, his reluctance to reflect on his life and his belief that most people do not deserve his respect.

-snip-

The interviews were conducted in 2014 by Michael D’Antonio, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who later wrote a biography of Mr. Trump called “The Truth About Trump.”

-snip-

Over the past few weeks, Mr. D’Antonio gave The New York Times access to the original audio as well as transcripts of his interviews with Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump’s first wife, Ivana, and his three oldest children. The Times is using them as the basis for this article and a two-part episode of its election podcast, “The Run-Up.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/politics/donald-trump-interviews.html

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This long article is a must-read (and check out the audio, too). Devastating profile of Trump.

[dalton99]

1. He will lose and he will be forgotten as a vile POS.

[PatSeg]

2. It is extraordinary that a man who has

a deep-seated fear of public embarrassment, keeps doing publicly embarrassing things.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. He must have a highly unusual idea of what is embarrassing

I think for him it means "publicly seen as a failure", rather than "looking bad from an ethical, social or intellectual point of view". While he can tell himself he's a winner at something - beating the tax system, screwing someone in a deal, forcing himself on a woman - he keeps moving.

[PatSeg]

26. Or he's a bit delusional

He apparently does not see or hear what the rest of us do, even though he is on TV every day. He seems to be more of a cartoon character than a real person.

[uponit7771]

28. He is a failure, born on 3.5 base ... given around 70 million in assets in the 70s and still not

... a billionaire in liquidity now where if he just kept his money in an indexed mut fund he would've done better.

[kimbutgar]

3. Yes, please let's give him the ultimate rejection of being beaten soundly in November

[Salviati]

4. Who?

(A question I hope we'll be asking in a few years, after his last desperate grasp to hold on to relevance fails when his play for the alt-right following finally fizzles.)

[Ruby the Liberal]

17. I hope he is a model for generations

of exactly how not to conduct yourself in a public arena.

May his legacy be lasting.

[Ellen Forradalom]

5. He may be driving himself towards the thing he fears most

To relieve the anxiety. Sort of like with fear of abandonment.

[apcalc]

6. Great article. Thanks! Does a leopard change his spots?

I think not.

[Mc Mike]

7. Rec, thanks.

I have an alternate analysis, but it isn't being put forth to argue or quibble:

He spends a lot of time thinking about his genitals. And he's shameless, therefore incapable of feeling embarrassment.

[safeinOhio]

8. His favorite book says

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

[The River]

10. He's Beyond Pride

more like full blown hubris. Pride may proceed a fall but hubris proceeds an epic beating.
hu·bris
(h)yo͞obrəs/
noun: hubris:
excessive pride or self-confidence.
synonyms: arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, hauteur, pride, self-importance, egotism, pomposity, superciliousness, superiority.

[PennyK]

9. Great article.

I can't wait to hear them play "Is That All There Is?" on Election Day!

[yardwork]

11. Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

[TonyPDX]

12. Too late. His name will be scorned and reviled for generations.

He'll be regarded like "Spiro T. Agnew," but with less admiration.

[murielm99]

14. Yes.

They wanted to make Spiro's name a household word. They did. Then he became a joke.Now, no one knows who he is.

[Raine1967]

13. Facinating.

I am going to listen to the podcast about this article and these tapes.

[graegoyle]

15. Has anyone ever commented that Trump...

Likes to hang around celebrities who are cool and tend to be Democrats or liberal but ran as a Republican because he figured he could beat them because he thinks he is cooler than most of those "conservatives"?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

23. Pretty sure he was quoted a few years back saying the Rs would

be stupid enough to vote for him.

[RussBLib]

16. people in tough spots like these...

have been known to take their own lives.

I hope Donald doesn't whip out something at one of his rallies and offs himself.

I want him to be crushed by the landslide for Clinton, but I don't want him to take the coward's way out.

[DemInND]

21. The gun wouldn't fire...

He would then scream "this gun is rigged!"

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. The big baby needs to grow up

[BlueStater]

25. A bit too late for that at 70.

He's lived his life as a loathsome piece of shit and he's going to die as a loathsome piece of shit.

[sofa king]

27. Unless a clone of Adolf Hitler shows up in the GOP...

... Trump is unlikely to lose his status as the worst Presidential candidate in modern American history.