I am looking at the Nytimes report of his businesses and the losses ... Something struck me

[JHB]

37. That framing leaves out how personally repellent Trump is

It wasn't just that they were old-money Manhattanites and he was a new-money kid from Queens. If there was ever a time to break out of the Gatsby mold and get acceptance into that crowd, it would have been the 70s and early 80s.

However, Donald himself cut off any possible inroads because of who he is, the parts that have nothing to do with where he was born. His personal crudity, his self-centeredness, his dictator-chic crass sense of style, his desperate need for external validation, his lack of interest in anything didn't put money in his pocket, praise in his ear, or get him laid, etc., repelled the old-money "cool kids" every bit as much as it repels us today.

It's not the reason for his behavior. It was an early manifestation of it.