Many months ago I suggested that our president was suffering from arrested development. At the time no one picked up on it. Today I read that Tony Schwartz, from his Washington Post article, “Trump’s self-sabotage is rooted in his past,” describes Trump’s condition.

Schwartz had been close to Trump for 30 years, writing his first book, “The Art Of The Deal,” and he writes about how Trump believes “you either dominated or you submitted.”

“This narrow, defensive world-view took hold at a very early age, and it never evolved,” Schwartz writes, adding that Trump told him, “When I look at myself today and I look at myself in the first grade I’m basically the same.”

“His development essentially ended in early childhood,” Schwartz writes, adding he “always sensed a hurt little boy who just wanted to be loved … What Trump craves most deeply is the adulation he has found so ephemeral … Trump’s need for unquestioning praise and flattery also helps to explain his hostility to democracy and to a free press … He reacts rather than reflects. This is what makes his access to the nuclear codes so dangerous and frightening.”

Thank you, Tony Schwartz.

Eliot Chandler

Augusta


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