Venom
“Venom” examines the many ways in which Donald Trump, as a social actor, displays remarkably low levels of agreeableness, a broad personality trait that may be the most valued trait in the world. People low in agreeableness are generally viewed to be antagonistic, uncaring, vengeful, and mean-spirited. Where does Trump’s “venom” come from? The chapter scours Trump’s biography to evaluate a number of potential answers to the question, from inborn temperament dimensions to the influence of the gangster-lawyer Roy Cohn. The chapter shows how Trump’s low standing on the agreeableness dimension may have developed via an implicit and unfolding psychological synergy between nature and nurture, a kind of unwitting conspiracy of genes and environments, as each reinforced the other.