The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

by Bandy X. Lee

  5.   Future positive people plan for the future and trust that things will work out.

  6.   Future negative people feel the future is predetermined and apocalyptic, or they have no future orientation.

  THREE MAIN TP BIASES

  1.   Past bias: Good and bad things happen to everyone. Some of us view the world through rose-colored glasses (past positive), whereas others see the world through a darker lens (past negative). We have found that people who focus primarily on the past value the old more than the new; the familiar over the novel; and the cautious, conservative approach over the daring, more liberal or riskier one.

  2.   Present bias: People who live in the present are far less, or not at all, influenced by either past experiences or future considerations. They focus only on the immediate present—what’s happening now (present hedonism). Decisions are based on immediate stimulus: internal hormonal signals, feelings, smells, sounds, the attractive qualities of the object of desire, and what others are urging them to do. Present-biased people who are influenced by past negative experiences are likely to feel stuck in the mire of the past now (present fatalism).

  3.   Future bias: No one is born thinking about how to plan for the future. A number of conditions, including living in a temperate zone (where it’s necessary to anticipate seasonal change), living in a stable family or stable economic/political society (where a person learns to trust promises made to him), and becoming educated, can create future-positive-oriented people. In general, future-oriented people do very well in life. They are less aggressive, are less depressed, have more energy, take care of their health, have good impulse control, and have more self-esteem. Those stuck in the past, and locked into negative memories, feel fatalistic about the present and may have lost the ability even to conceive of a hopeful future (future negative).

  Healthy Versus Unhealthy Time Perspectives

  Through years of research, we have discovered that people who live healthy, productive, optimistic lives share the following traits—what we call an “ideal time perspective”:

  • High past positive/low past negative;

  • Low present fatalism/moderate selected present hedonism; and

  • Moderately high future-positive orientation.

  Conversely, we have found that people with pessimistic time perspectives, usually due to trauma, depression, anxiety, stress, or posttraumatic stress, share the following time perspective profile:

  • High past negative/low past positive;

  • High present fatalism and/or high present hedonism; and

  • Low future/no future orientation.

  Having a dose of selected present hedonism in one’s overall time perspective profile is important because enjoying oneself and having fun is a healthy part of life. Yet, too much of a good thing can cause numerous problems.

  Present Hedonism and Arrested Emotional Development

  As just mentioned, present hedonists live and act in the moment, frequently with little to no thought of the future, or the consequences of their actions. Most children and teenagers are present hedonists. Each day, they build on past experiences, but their concept of the future is still under development. People suffering from arrested emotional development, usually caused by a childhood trauma, are also present hedonists. Without therapy, the ability to mature emotionally beyond the age of trauma is difficult to impossible. When they reach adulthood, they may be able to hide their lack of emotional maturity for periods, but then, when in a stressful situation, they revert to behaving the emotional age they were when they were first traumatized. Depending on the degree to which the childhood trauma affected the person suffering from arrested emotional development, they may find that, over time, their present-hedonistic time perspective has morphed into extreme present hedonism.

  Without proper individual assessment, we can only make a best guess as to whether Donald Trump suffers from arrested emotional development, which may or may not be a factor in his extreme present hedonism. Yet, with access to the extensive amount of print and video media exposing his bullying behavior, his immature remarks about sex, and his childlike need for constant attention, we can speculate that the traumatizing event was when he was sent away to military school at the age of thirteen. According to one of his biographers, Michael D’Antonio, Trump “was essentially banished from the family home. He hadn’t known anything but living with his family in a luxurious setting, and all of a sudden he’s sent away” (Schwartzman and Miller 2016). This would help explain his pubescent default setting when confronted by others.

  Extreme Present Hedonism

  An extreme present hedonist will say or do anything at any time for purposes of self-aggrandizement and to shield himself from previous (usually negatively perceived) activities, with no thought of the future or the effect of his actions. Coupled with a measure of paranoia, which is the norm, extreme present hedonism is the most unpredictable and perilous time perspective due to its “action” component. Here’s how it works:

  The extreme present hedonist’s impulsive thought leads to an impulsive action that can cause him to dig in his heels when confronted with the consequences of that action. If the person is in a position of power, then others scramble either to deny or to find ways to back up the original impulsive action. In normal, day-to-day life, this impulsiveness leads to misunderstandings, lying, and toxic relationships. In the case of Donald Trump, an impulsive thought may unleash a stream of tweets or verbal remarks (the action), which then spur others to try to fulfill, or deny, his thoughtless action.

  Case in point: Trump’s impulsive tweet “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” (Associated Press 2017) caused members of his staff to scramble to find evidence to make the false and slanderous claim “real.” That one extreme present hedonistic tweet has led, ironically, to multiple investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible Russian connections at the expense of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.

  Another concerning characteristic of extreme present hedonists is the often unwitting—we like to give some extreme present hedonists the benefit of the doubt—propensity to dehumanize others in order to feel superior. This lack of foresight and compassion is also a trait of narcissism and bullying, which we address later in this chapter.

  Donald Trump’s Extreme Present Hedonistic Quotes

  It could be argued that almost anyone can be presented in a negative light when scrutinized or quoted out of context. However, when one runs for the highest office in the land, and then wins that prize, such scrutiny is expected. In the case of Donald Trump, a rich trove of recorded examples gives us a strong picture of the inner workings of his unbalanced psyche. The following well-known quotes, which we’ve organized into categories—some of them overlap multiple categories—compiled by Michael Kruse and Noah Weiland for Politico Magazine (“Donald Trump’s Greatest Self Contradictions,” May 5, 2016) illustrate his extreme present hedonistic penchant for off-roading from his script and/or saying or tweeting whatever pops into his mind, making things up, repeating fake news, or simply lying:

  DEHUMANIZATION

  • “Sometimes, part of making a deal is denigrating your competition” (The Art of the Deal, 1987).

  • “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … They’re sending people that have a lot of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people” (Republican rally speech, June 16, 2015).

  • “Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy. You ought to see this guy” (remark made while contorting his face and moving his arms and hands around awkwardly, at a campaign rally in South Carolina, November 24, 2015, about journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that can limit joint movement or lock limbs in place).

  LYING


  • “Made in America? @BarackObama called his ‘birthplace’ Hawaii ‘here in Asia’” (Twitter, November 18, 2011).

  • “I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down … And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering” (at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, November 21, 2015). The next day, This Week host, George Stephanopoulos, pointed out that “the police say that didn’t happen.” Trump insisted otherwise: “It was on television. I saw it happen.”

  • “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” (Twitter, November 27, 2016).

  MISOGYNY

  • “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her—wherever” (remarks during CNN interview with regard to Megyn Kelly, following the previous night’s Fox News debate co-moderated by Kelly in which Kelly asked Trump about his misogynistic treatment of women, August 7, 2015).

  • “Look at that face! Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?… I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?” (remarks in Rolling Stone interview with regard to Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, September 9, 2015).

  • “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ’em by the pussy … You can do anything” (off-camera boast recorded over a hot mic by Access Hollywood in 2005 and published by the Washington Post in October 2016).

  PARANOIA

  • “The world is a vicious and brutal place. We think we’re civilized. In truth, it’s a cruel world and people are ruthless. They act nice to your face, but underneath they’re out to kill you … Even your friends are out to get you: they want your job, they want your house, they want your money, they want your wife, and they even want your dog. Those are your friends; your enemies are even worse!” (Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, 2007).

  • “My motto is ‘Hire the best people, and don’t trust them’” (Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, 2007).

  • “If you have smart people working for you, they’ll try to screw you if they think they can do better without you” (Daily Mail, October 30, 2010).

  RACISM

  • “You haven’t been called, go back to Univision” (when dismissing Latino reporter Jorge Ramos at an Iowa rally, August 2015).

  • “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” (at a rally in Charleston, South Carolina, December 2015).

  • “Look at my African American over here. Look at him” (at a campaign appearance in California, June 2016).

  SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT

  • “I’m, like, a really smart person” (during an interview in Phoenix, Arizona, July 11, 2015).

  • “It’s very hard for them to attack me on my looks, because I’m so good looking” (in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, August 7, 2015).

  • “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.… My primary consultant is myself” (from MSNBC interview, March 16, 2016).

  Trump also exhibits two generally known personality traits that, when combined with extreme present hedonism, amplify our concern: narcissism and bullying behavior. In order to help readers understand the complexities of narcissists and bullies, how these two characteristics dovetail with extreme present hedonism, and demonstrate how the president displays these predispositions, we’ve condensed years of study on these two subjects.

  The Narcissistic Personality

  I alone can fix it.

  Donald Trump, Republican National Convention, July 2016

  In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud introduced narcissism as part of his psychoanalytic theory. Throughout the ensuing decades, it was refined and sometimes referred to as megalomania or severe egocentrism. By 1968, the condition had evolved into the diagnosable narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissistic people are out of balance in that they think very highly of themselves while simultaneously thinking very lowly of all those whom they consider their inferiors, which is mostly everybody. Narcissists are emotional, dramatic, and can lack compassion and empathy, as those traits are about feeling for others.

  What follows are some of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. (Note that because this is about narcissists, we use the term you.)

  • Believing that you’re better than others: This is across the board in your world; you look down your nose at other people.

  • Fantasizing about power, success, and attractiveness: You are a superhero, among the most successful in your field; you could grace the cover of GQ or Glamour magazine, and you don’t realize this is all in your mind.

  • Exaggerating your achievements or talents: Your ninth-place showing in the golf tournament becomes first place to those who weren’t there and, if you’re brazen enough, even to those who were. Although you plunked poorly on a guitar in high school before you lost interest in the instrument, you tell others you took lessons from Carlos Santana.

  • Expecting constant praise and admiration: You want others to acknowledge when you do anything and everything, even if it’s taking out the garbage.

  • Believing that you’re special and acting accordingly: You believe you are God’s gift to women/men/your field/the world, and that you deserve to be treated as such by everyone. They just don’t know this.

  • Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings: You don’t understand why people get upset with you for telling it the way you think it is or what you think they did wrong.

  • Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans: There is only one way and that’s your way, so you get upset when others share their thoughts or plans because surely theirs aren’t as good as yours.

  • Taking advantage of others: You take your parent’s/friend’s car/tools/credit card/clothing without asking, or cut in line in front of an elderly person, or expect something much more significant in return for doing a small favor. “What’s the big deal?”

  • Expressing disdain for those whom you feel to be inferior: “That homeless person isn’t even wearing a coat or shoes in freezing weather. What an idiot!”

  • Being jealous of others: You, and not so-and-so, deserved the award/trophy/praise and recognition. Also, if you think someone is more attractive/intelligent/clever or has a more prestigious car/significant other/house, you hate and curse him.

  • Believing that others are jealous of you: You believe everybody wants to be you.

  • Having trouble keeping healthy relationships: Your family and friends don’t understand you, so you don’t stay in touch with them anymore. You lose interest in your romantic relationships each time someone better comes along; you have recurring unsatisfying affairs.

  • Setting unrealistic goals: You believe that one day you will be a CEO/president/great musician/artist/best-selling author, marry a movie star, or have Bill Gates’s billions.

  • Being easily hurt and rejected: You don’t understand why people purposefully hurt your feelings, and either it takes a long time for you to get over it or you don’t ever get over it.

  • Having a fragile self-esteem: Underneath it all, you are just a delicate person, which makes you special, and you don’t understand why people don’t see this about you.

  • Appearing tough-minded or unemotional: Read: You act like Mr. Spock.

  While some of these symptoms may come across as simply elevated personal confidence or high self-esteem, they’re different in people who have a healthy dose of confidence and self-esteem because whereas these people don’t value themselves more than they value others, the narcissist looks down on others from his lofty pedestal. The narcissistic personality frequently appears to be a conceited, pompous braggart who domi
nates conversations and has a sense of entitlement. He wants the best of whatever is available, and when he doesn’t get his way, he may become annoyed or angry. He becomes Mr. or Ms. Petulant in action.

  Interestingly, what lies underneath this personality type is often very low self-esteem. Narcissists can’t handle criticism of any kind, and will belittle others or become enraged or condescending to make themselves feel better when they perceive they are being criticized. It’s not unusual for a narcissistic personality to be blind to his own behavior because it doesn’t fit his view of his perfect and dominant self. But a narcissistic personality can spot one of his kind a mile away, and will either put down or generally avoid that other mindless competing narcissist.

  Unfortunately, narcissistic people may find their relationships falling apart. After a while, folks don’t want to be around them; all their relationships (personal, work, or school) become problems. Sometimes their finances are troublesome, too, because it’s hard to keep up their image without expensive accoutrements.

  The Bully Personality

  I hope Corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses Goofy Elizabeth Warren as her running mate. I will defeat them both

  Donald Trump, Twitter, May 6, 2016

  Bullying is defined as systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt and/or psychological distress on one or more people, whether they are students at school, peers in the workplace, or family members. Research indicates that some bullies may suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, while others may have difficulty interpreting or judging social situations and other people’s actions—they interpret hostility from others when none was meant. For example, a person unintentionally bumps into a bully, who views this accident as an act of aggression; he therefore overreacts, which triggers the bully response of seeking revenge.

  Bullying behavior is often learned at home from family members, such as parents or older siblings who display this form of aggression. Generally, bullying behavior is caused by stress in the bully’s life. Bullies have often been abused or are driven by their insecurities. They typically want to control and manipulate others to feel superior. The anger they feel as a result of their hurt is directed toward others. Their targets are those whom they consider weaker than they and/or different.