In “1984” Winston Smith says, “The best books are the ones that tell you what you already know.” We have all intuited and surmised much of what is now being revealed by Donald Trump’s niece, Mary. These are not new observations, but coming from a woman who is a clinical psychologist and a relative, they ratify all of our worst fears. Mary Trump says, in essence, that Uncle Donald is such a mess that if it wasn’t for his money, who knows what he would be able to do in the world, in the condition he’s in? New York Times:
Like other critics of the president, Ms. Trump takes issue in the book with the notion that Mr. Trump is a strategic thinker who operates according to specific agendas or organizing principles.
“He doesn’t,” she writes. “Donald’s ego has been and is a fragile and inadequate barrier between him and the real world, which, thanks to his father’s money and power, he never had to negotiate by himself.” […]
“The fact is,” she writes, “Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neurophysical tests that he’ll never sit for.”
At another point she says: “Donald has been institutionalized for most of his adult life, so there is no way to know how he would thrive, or even survive, on his own in the real world.”
And then here’s another revelation, one that makes complete sense. Trump paid somebody to take his SAT.
As a high school student in Queens, Ms. Trump writes, Donald Trump paid someone to take a precollegiate test, the SAT, on his behalf. The high score the proxy earned for him, Ms. Trump adds, helped the young Mr. Trump to later gain admittance as an undergraduate to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton business school.
Mr. Trump has often boasted about attending Wharton, which he has referred to as “the best school in the world” and “super genius stuff.”
It’s not surprising that this is already a best seller based on pre-sales alone. I haven’t finished Bolton’s book yet, but I will carve out time to read this tome. I predict that come next week, the 14th when this is released, the national conversation is going to explode. You notice that Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about this book, right? He’s petrified.
I have it pre-ordered on Amazon, should be a fun read.
What I see as meaningful, is the fact that our best psychologists and psychiatrists have speculated what is wrong with Trump. Now we’re going to get the facts that fit into the theory and prove it up. This is going to be something. BTW, Melania’s buddy, Stephanie Wolkoff, who ran the inauguration, wrote a tell-all about Melania. It’s supposed to be pretty trashy. What else could it be?
Based on the little we know of Melania, she seems to be almost as transactional as her spouse. LOL, I’m sure the book will be quite trashy.
The levees have broken. EVERYBODY’S going to start talking about Trump now. Only a man on his way out gets this kind of treatment.
The book will be widely discussed, for certain. The comment has been made that it won’t change anybody’s mind about Trump. I guess his followers will just paint his niece as an angry tool of the Deep State or whatever. This kind of blind cult devotion is scary. And it’s not a devotion to Trump at all. He’s a weakling and a coward. It’s a devotion to the hatred and negativity that he represents, his act.
The Bible had something to say about the perils of following false prophets.
They’ll call the book lies and fake news. K McEninny is doing that, and calling it a “fictitious book” – which isn’t saying what she seems to think it is.
…..and once fully released it will be a matter of contention with the press for about a week until the next shiny object bombshell scandal comes along…. (see Russian bounties).
*shakes head*
We need to turn our backs to Trump. Stop our obsession of what he does every few hours. Right now he couldn’t exist without his media existence. Turn away, and his ego has nowhere to go.
While I can agree in principle, Annette, I would argue that first, we need to break his ego down even further. Only once he is an utter whipped dog in November and slinks off to Mar-A-Lago for the last three months of his “presidency” will I feel safe enough to ignore him.
Or, Blue, it becomes the Rosetta Stone by which all his future antics are decoded, which he will HATE.
Somehow, we really need to get pst the notion that facts change opinions. Humans are hard wired to discount information which clashes with what we already know (or think we know.) Intelligent, thoughtful people can get past that – with intellectual honesty and with effort. People who support Trump*? Not going to happen. Yes, there may be a few. But not enough to move the needle on a poll. The polling losses we are seeing are related to people suffering actual injuries (and nowhere near all of them), not to any revelations in a book.
Perhaps it’s just that I’m from the outside looking in or because I’ve been dealing with my own issues since my late teens. But I see nothing complex about Trump. I see a sheltered but abused child who would long been destroyed by a world that he was ill-prepared for, desperately trying to make it pay for that insult to his dignity.
My understanding is that he wasn’t really “at” Wharton. He implies it – but he lies all. the. time.
tRump graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business from the University of Pennsylvania. Wharton doesn’t grant undergraduate degrees. Wharton is affiliated with U of Penn but not the same school
Good stuff. I don’t know what she means by institutionalized.
I wondered the same thing. I know he was sent to reform school (military school to some) when young and that the Presidency is very regimented and controlled, but I was perplexed by the statement. I found one definition that may help explain.
Institutional syndrome. … In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutionalization or institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons, or other remote institutions.
Perhaps his family business was like an institution. An institution that had rules and expectations regardless of how perverse,
I ordered the Mary Trump book a few weeks ago, and just received an update from Amazon on delivery date. They must be overwhelmed with pre-orders, because the estimated date of delivery is now between August 10 and September 2.
I ordered the e-book from Amazon and they just sped up the release from 7/28 to 7/14.
I thought we’d have to wait until later in the week for excerpts but clearly the book has been sent to journalists as well as distributors. Any remote chances of Trump quashing publication are gone. Sure, they can still try but practically speaking it means that any legal filing Trump or his family members make is dead on arrival in court. I’ll admit it will be fun to watch them try – and shot down!
Discovery would be fun. For everyone else. (It isn’t like most of us didn’t already think Himself paid others to take tests and write papers for him.)
Sort of like now.
*smirk*
“Donald has been institutionalized for most of his adult life, . . . ” This is the bomb!
what does that mean?
I’m taking the ‘institutionalized for most of his life’ to mean that he has been sheltered and he hasn’t had to deal with general life hassles and its drudgery. Things in life like real jobs with evaluations and balancing budgets and car payments and health care and on and on…..
He’s never had money worries or had to deal with other people and their issues.
Hell, he lives in a padded cell and doesn’t know it.
“Today, Donald is much as he was at 3 years old: incapable of growing, learning or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information,”
This pretty much sums up why tRump acts like a toddler that never got past the “Terrible Twos”, as I have been saying for quite q while now. More and more snippets are being released, confirming what many mental health professionals (and many of us!)have been saying about tRump for several years now!
I am also reading Bolton’s book and thoroughly enjoying it. He has an interesting sense of humor. I preordered Mary Trump’s book and have already received Washington Post’s book, Donald Trump and His Assault on the Truth.
Well, she has no reason to lie, and she certainly doesn’t need the money. This ought to be good…..LOL
Hmm is anyone else having problems with the pictures on this blog loading?
I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.