Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Trump's Biographers: Trump is a Very Dangerous Man


I try to remain upbeat and convince myself that a majority of Americans are sane enough to realize that Donald Trump poses an existential danger to American democracy.  True, the Christofacists (especially the most parasitic of them) and white supremacists continue to blindly support Trump, but god help us, the do not represent a majority of the populace.  A piece in Politico Magazine looks at the the reactions of past Trump biographers and their conclusions are frightening.  Trump is nothing short of dangerous and, as the biographers make clear, mentally unstable based on my reading of the piece.  Here are article excerpts:
Back in early March, Politico Magazine brought together five Donald Trump biographers for a conversation over lunch at Trump Tower. At the time, the country was just beginning to grapple with the reality that the presidential nominee from one of the two major American political parties stood a good chance of being a real estate mogul and entertainer. Wayne Barrett, Gwenda Blair, Michael D’Antonio, Harry Hurt and Timothy O’Brien knew him better than anybody, had studied him more than anybody, had written an aggregate 2,195 pages in books.
In a conference call on Monday with Barrett, Blair, D’Antonio and O’Brien, the biographers were unanimous in their assessment of what we are seeing: They are not surprised. Trump is who they thought he was. This, they said, is not a show. It is not an act. This is the man they wrote about. In 1992. In 1993. In 1999. In 2005. In 2015. This is a man who has been one of the most famous people in America for going on 40 years. Only now, though, are many people, finally, really, getting to know Donald John Trump.
He is, the biographers said, “profoundly narcissistic,” “willing to go to lengths we’ve never seen before in order to satisfy his ego”—and “a very dangerous man for the next three or four weeks.”
[O]n the one hand, this seems all totally unprecedented in American politics; on the other hand, it seems somehow utterly predictable in the context of the personality of Donald Trump.
Michael Kruse: So this past Friday when you all heard the hot mic tape from the gossip show bus, were you surprised?
 Gwenda Blair: No.
Michael D’Antonio: Raise your voice if you were surprised.
Blair: Yeah. I don’t think any of us were surprised.
 Kruse: Why not?
Wayne Barrett: Well, I would have to say that “grabbing by the pussy” was a little surprising to me. You know, thrusting his tongue down whatever mouth was available wasn’t much of a surprise, but “grabbing by the pussy” was not something I had anticipated.
Timothy O’Brien: I think he’s always been a skirt chaser. I guess, you know, in that context, it didn’t surprise me. I think he’s always boasted about the things that he’s the most insecure about, which is his wealth, his intellect and his sex appeal.
Barrett: They talk about this as if this is locker room bragging, and really, I was in a lot of locker rooms and I never heard anything like this. Men don’t brag about forcing themselves on women. They want to paint themselves as desirable, and, you know, he doesn’t look like a stud here. He looks like a predator.

D’Antonio: . . . .And the thing that I found consistent where Donald is concerned is that this kind of language and act is in his mind. I mean, that’s the thing that really shocks me is that he’s so predatory and so oriented toward seizing what he wants rather than relating to a person that, you know, it’s pathological. I’ve never heard anyone say this kind of thing ever, and the way that he’s talking about it, as if it’s locker room talk, is just ridiculous.
O’Brien: Graydon Carter in Vanity Fair, in the most recent issue, recounted inviting Trump to one of the Vanity Fair parties in the ’90s and seating him next to Vendela Kirsebom, the Swedish model. And about halfway through the dinner, she comes running up to him quasi-hysterical because she can’t handle sitting next to Trump any longer because of all of his lewd behavior.
But the problem with reporting all of these things is that the women involved often are afraid to go on the record. I know that his ex‑wives, when I was reporting, were very wary of being interviewed and running afoul of him by doing so, at least when they spoke with me.
D’Antonio: Well, I think that what Tim is saying is consistent with the guy who would decide to have this campaign in the first place. You know, who would proceed knowing that he has all of these problems in his background, knowing how much audio and video exists, having been on “Howard Stern” and said horrible things? He just doesn’t seem to recognize his own issues and problems and how he’s perceived. So maybe for the next three weeks, he’s going to be trying out, you know, Breitbart TV and proving to the masses that follow him that he’s as red in tooth and claw as he seems to be. And, as Tim said, he’s already laid the groundwork to declare it was rigged in the first place.

There's more.  The take away? Trump is a dangerous psychopath

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