Trumpology: A Master Class

[Skidmore]

Something to share around in whatever social media you use.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-campaign-biography-psychology-history-barrett-hurt-dantiono-blair-obrien-213835

The personality that looms largest over the 2016 campaign did not emerge on the political scene as an unknown. In fact, Donald Trump might be one of the most deeply studied presidential candidates ever. Beginning in the early 1990s, as the real estate mogul dealt with corporate calamities, and until last year, when he descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, a half-dozen serious biographies have been written about a man who has imprinted himself on American culture in towering gold letters. But those biographies—which dig into Trump’s family history, his early business successes and later financial disasters, his tabloid sex scandals and the television showmanship that saved him—had largely receded into the depths of Amazon’s bestseller list. Now those books—which have not always been to Trump’s liking; he sued one of the authors unsuccessfully for libel—have become precious source material for those eager to explain Trump’s surge toward the GOP nomination.

Want to know where Trump inherited his entrepreneurial bent? Gwenda Blair traces it to his grandfather, who ran a series of restaurants in the Klondike that featured some of the best food in town, as well as private areas where “sporting ladies” could “entertain” miners. Who was really doing the deals that made Trump famous? Wayne Barrett will tell you the only signature that really mattered on a contract belonged to Trump’s father, Fred. What broke up Trump’s first marriage? Harry Hurt III writes that Ivana “confided to female friends that Donald had difficulty achieving and maintaining an erection.” How did a man who came perilously close to personal financial ruin sell himself as a master dealmaker? By exaggerating everything, including his net worth, which Timothy O’Brien revealed was far less than advertised. And if you wonder what now drives Trump’s pursuit of the White House, Michael D’Antonio has argued it’s the same deep neediness he felt as a child and that has fueled every business deal and attention-chasing stunt since then.

In early March, Politico Magazine convened these five Trumpologists: Barrett, a longtime Village Voice reporter; Blair, a bestselling author; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist D’Antonio; Hurt, an author and videographer; and O’Brien, a writer and editor at Bloomberg. They gathered, together for the first time, for a discussion at Trump Grill, a restaurant in the atrium of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan—where Trump lives and his company is based. Moderated by Politico Editor Susan Glasser and senior writer Michael Kruse and presented in edited form below, the conversation ranged from the emotional wounds that drive Trump to the roots of his demagoguery to his alleged ties to the mob. The rest of the media might still be struggling to explain Trump’s political rise, but these five writers saw his ambition—and ego—from the very early days. Here’s how Trump the candidate came to be....

[Control-Z]

1. Is there a way to read this

without signing up for, or giving my twitter account over to, the publisher? I would love to read it!

[Skidmore]

2. I fixed it.

Sorry, forgot to check.

[Control-Z]

3. Thanks, Skidmore! (nt)

[underpants]

5. I just clicked on the Here

Or whatever the hyperlink was in the text

[underpants]

4. Barrett: It could be he’s not an authentic racist—there’s almost nothing authentic about him

Glasser: So it’s a TV show about a book about a guy who was an invented character.
O’Brien: Yes.

[Hortensis]

8. I believe that understanding that almost nothing about Trump

is real, that his construct is a big bag of wants and needs without depth, character, ideology, is critical to understanding him. He's always been an invented character, and this one is created to use the easily excited fears and angers of racists, nationalists, populists to get him elected.

Unlike most racists he has little or no passion to waste on enmity because almost all his ability to care about anything is devoted to himself. The Donald. Mr. Trump as he styles himself these days. "Leader of the world" in future, when he imagines even powerful President Putin will look up to and admire him.

[underpants]

6. This is a GREAT piece. I hope the Clinton team reads this. Can't k&R enough

I know the Clinton team has their own research going but if it has anything like this in it she should have no problem handling him.

Anyone who's ever played ball and trash talked could use the material in here to make him rip his suit off.

Very good look into a very dark man. The drawing in of his debtors and putting them over the barrel with him was interesting. The relationship with his father and how they basically used each other is, to be honest, sad.

[vlyons]

7. Excellent read

Damn but this is a good read. I have been posting here and on other social media that I experience Trump as appearance and emptiness. No matter how he appears from one day to the next, the underlying reality is always emptiness. There's nothing real there. All fog and mirrors.

[pansypoo53219]

9. sex issues. i bet he LOVE the thought of RAPE tho.

[underpants]

10. Kick for anyone who didn't see it yesterday