Goldwater

As a short digression into the world of psychiatric diagnosis, the chapter “Goldwater” discusses the controversy over whether or not mental health professionals should diagnose President Trump with a mental illness, such as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). The chapter’s title recalls the 1964 U.S. presidential election wherein the results of a survey of psychiatrists were published in an American magazine, concluding that the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater was mentally unfit to hold office. Goldwater later sued the magazine, and the case led to what has become known as the Goldwater Rule, prohibiting psychiatrists from diagnosing public officials from afar. The chapter makes a clear distinction between psychiatric diagnosis, which adopts the language of medicine and illness, on the one hand, and psychological commentary on the other. The latter conception better characterizes what the current book aims to accomplish. Psychological commentary draws from psychological science to develop a personality portrait of a person, without diagnosis and without judgment regarding mental health and illness. Moreover, Donald Trump is much stranger than any psychiatric label can convey.

Reward

“Reward” explores the personality trait of extraversion in the life of Donald Trump. The chapter begins with an evolutionary account of extraversion’s powerful role in human groups, as a personality trait that enables social actors to attract and hold the attention of others. Studied for over 70 years by personality psychologists, extraversion entails social dominance, gregariousness, and the relentless seeking of reward. Donald Trump is one of the most extraverted human beings on the planet today. The chapter traces the development of this trait in Trump’s life and illustrates how it has served Trump well, infusing tremendous energy and primal charisma into many of his social moments, as he moves from one moment to the next in life. Extraversion is one of five broad and basic traits identified by personality psychologists, often called the Big Five.

Prologue

The prologue introduces this psychological interpretation of Donald Trump’s life through the lens of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th-century novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Whereas Stevenson’s story famously illustrated the split duality of human personality, the strange case of Donald Trump suggests a startling reversal: There is no duality: Trump is all Hyde, and no Jekyll. In the strange case of Donald Trump, there is no artifice, no hidden inner self behind the public persona. Trump is completely present in the moment, which is the psychological key to understanding his overwhelming strangeness. He is a man without an inner story, a primal force that moves from one discrete moment in life to the next, with no narrative build-up, no story arc. The prologue introduces the book as an evidence-based and objective analysis of Trump’s life and his personality, drawing extensively upon contemporary research and theory in personality, developmental, and social psychology.

Truth

“Truth” aims to explain why Donald Trump lies more than any other public official in the United States today, and why his supporters, nonetheless, put up with his lies. The chapter combs the biographical record to highlight some of the most egregious examples of Trump’s untruths and then considers reasons behind Trump’s remarkable penchant for lying. For Trump, truth is effectively whatever it takes to win the moment, moment by moment, battle by battle—as the episodic man, shorn of any long-term story to make sense of his life, struggles to win the moment. Among the many reasons that Trump’s supporters excuse his lying is that they, like Trump himself, do not really hold him to the standards that human persons are held to. And that is because many of his supporters, like Trump himself, do not consider him to be a person—he is more like a primal force or superhero, more than a person, but less than a person, too.

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.

Me

The chapter, “Me,” examines in detail Donald Trump’s love of himself—that is, his narcissism. Tracing the concept back to the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, the chapter explores different theories of and empirical research on narcissism, and considers how they may apply to Trump. The chapter dismisses common clinical speculations regarding the origins of Trump’s narcissism in the alleged early failings of the mother–infant bond. The chapter traces Trump’s long career in narcissism, from school experiences through the presidency. Trump never tires of glorifying the self. As the episodic man, each new moment is a completely refreshed opportunity to gaze anew at the beautiful and powerful me. If too many moments go by without the fix, Trump feels an aching longing for me, a desire to gaze upon the me, like Narcissus gazing into his reflection in the pool, as if he were addicted to the me—the me as an object, not a person, but a beautiful and mesmerizing thing.

Deal

The second chapter, “Deal,” examines Donald Trump’s unique manner of making deals, focusing ultimately on his efforts to broker a nuclear deal with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in the summer of 2018. For Trump, deal-making is always about wielding power in the ever-present moment, operating as the quintessential episodic man who pays no heed to long-term consequences. The chapter delineates five principles of Trumpian deal-making: (i) fill a need, (ii) bend the rules, (iii) put on a show, (iv) exert maximum pressure, and (v) always win. The chapter traces the origins of the first three principles back to the deal-making displayed by Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, when he immigrated to the United States, and by his father, Fred Trump, as a builder and real estate mogul in Queens during the middle years of the 20th century. The latter two principles derive from Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, as well as his life.

Redemption

The last chapter in the book, entitled “Redemption,” begins with a summary of the book’s argument up to this point and then considers the broad cultural and political role of redemptive narratives in American life. Redemptive narratives affirm triumph over suffering and adversity and they hold out hope of progress in the future. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama constructed redemptive stories for their own lives, and they projected those stories onto America. By contrast, President Trump has no story for his own life—which marks the central thesis of this book—and the story he does project for America is little more than a motto: Make American Great Again (MAGA). The chapter analyses the meaning of MAGA and then considers the possibility that many Americans no longer believe in redemptive narratives. As such, Trump’s bleak view of the world and his episodic approach to life—a life without a redemptive narrative arc—may resonate with many Americans today. Nonetheless, many Americans do still see their own lives in redemptive terms; whether or not they can project that kind of narrative onto their nation remains an open question.

Primate

“Primate” delves into evolutionary biology and primatology to unearth the psychological roots of human leadership as they apply to the case of President Donald J. Trump. In broad terms, evolved patterns of human leadership follow one of two forms. The older form, dominance leadership, traces back over 7 million years to our common ancestor with chimpanzees. The latter form, prestige leadership, traces back about 1 million years or so, reflecting our evolution as hunters and gatherers living in migrating groups. More than any president in American history, Trump personifies the pure dominance leader. The chapter documents the uncanny similarities between the behavior of alpha male chimpanzees and the leadership style of President Donald Trump. Dominance leaders rely upon force, bluffing, intimidation, and the power of their presence, whereas prestige leaders rely upon expertise and the promulgation of a narrative to justify authority. This characterization recalls the central thesis of the book: Donald Trump is a man without a story.

Story

The first full chapter, “Story,” presents the central thesis of the book: Donald Trump has never developed an inner story in his mind to explain who he is and how he came to be. Refusing to be introspective, retrospective, or prospective, Trump lives outside of time, as an episodic man. Each moment in life presents Trump with a battle that he must win. But the battles do not add up; his psychological existence is, and always has been, continual warfare with no end in sight and no long-term reason to fight, except to win. The chapter describes psychological research on people’s inner life stories—their narrative identity—and takes the reader through early years in Trump’s life, leading up to his decision to collaborate on the writing of his first book, The Art of the Deal.