# Interesting - Turn's out Trump's over the top egomania isn't just some clever act, it's real **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978 "2017-01-12T18:23:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/21 "2017-01-13T08:40:08Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Yeah…wrong. Trump’s handlers may have outlined a strategy for the best states to campaign in, but it was a longshot. The things that _really_ swayed the election were the Russian hackers and the wishy-washy FBI investigation. Trump had zero control over any of that. Even up until Election Night, his only long-term strategy was to blame illegal immigrant voters for making him lose, he said so in many campaign speeches. Keep telling yourself that if it helps you feel better. I voted for HRC. The FBI/email issue was a blip for most people. The overriding issue was that HRC was a problematic candidate with cartloads of past baggage beyond the email issue and relatively little charisma and a palpable sense of entitlement. It rankled people that another Clinton was in the POTUS mix again (it rankled me and I still voted for her). This election did not swing on Comey’s antics there were much larger forces at play. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/22 "2017-01-13T15:20:59Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > If he’s been like this for 30 years, it’s not an act. It’s real. Yeah, but a lot of us had to double-take given the results of his completely real, non-acting campaign and election. Once he started beating Republicans in the primary, and then won the nomination, and then the freaking _election_ – I had to sit back and think it over each time. Was I missing something? _Is_ Trump smarter than I thought? _Is_ he a harder worker than I thought? Does he have more talent, skills, nuanced beliefs, _anything_ more than I thought? The answer is _no_. He’s the same selfish, simple-minded, wannabe conman, Jerry Springer show punchline that Mad magazine made fun of 30 years ago. And that’s a bitter pill to swallow. It’s not that I thought the election would _change_ him, I just thought he would finally prove _me_ wrong after all these years. I mean, he’s the freaking US president, you can’t get that job unless you are thoughtful and/or an inspiring leader or at least somewhat intelligent, right? But I was not right about that. at all. That’s the surprising part, for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/23 "2017-01-13T17:44:56Z")
> [@astro](#): > > The overriding issue was that HRC was a problematic candidate with cartloads of past baggage beyond the email issue and relatively little charisma and a palpable sense of entitlement. I really don’t understand how people can say this about Hillary and not realize that every bit of it applies doubly so to Trump. Baggage? The dude brags about grabbing pussy, doesn’t pay his contractors, refuses to show his taxes, and has multiple ongoing lawsuits filed against him. Charisma? He’s a used car salesman in an ill-fitting suit, who can’t string a coherent sentence together, and has record low approval ratings. Entitlement? His fortune came from his father, his entire business model is putting his name on everything he owns, and he shits on a gold-plated toilet, ferchrissakes. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/24 "2017-01-13T19:15:11Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > I really don’t understand how people can say this about Hillary and not realize that every bit of it applies doubly so to Trump. A great many people favor one candidate or the other, for whatever reasons matter to them, and then dismiss criticism of said candidate while focusing on criticism of the opponent. Part of the weaker side of human nature. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/25 "2017-01-13T19:39:21Z")
Trump is a white man. A good percentage of the electorate feel that the role of President should only go to a white man. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/26 "2017-01-13T19:55:06Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Keep telling yourself that if it helps you feel better. I voted for HRC. The FBI/email issue was a blip for most people. The overriding issue was that HRC was a problematic candidate with cartloads of past baggage beyond the email issue and relatively little charisma and a palpable sense of entitlement. It rankled people that another Clinton was in the POTUS mix again (it rankled me and I still voted for her). This election did not swing on Comey’s antics there were much larger forces at play. What past baggage? As far as I could tell, it was nearly all lies, repeated over and over and over. Consider Whitewater. Yes a get-rich-quick scheme and like most they lost money over it. Where’s the scandal? Vince Foster? All fake news, made-up. Yes she voted for the Iraq war, but so did loads of others on the basis of fake intelligence reports. Yes, she was in bed with too many Wall Street types, but Trump is a Wall Street type. And so on and so on. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/27 "2017-01-13T20:11:51Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Trump is a white man. A good percentage of the electorate feel that the role of President should only go to a white man. Cite? The electorate had lots of white men to choose from, what they wanted was a walking fart joke for president to “destroy Washington.” ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/28 "2017-01-13T20:46:06Z")
> [@astro](#): > > In that context I had an uncanny valley reality/unreality confusion moment listening to the news a few days ago where Trump was responding to intelligence assertions that the Russian hacking was specifically targeted to help Trump win by only releasing compromising material from networks tied to the Democrat re-election efforts and none from the GOP networks. > > He’s burbling along about how this was impossible and that the reason they could not infiltrate the GOP was that he (Trump) had personally warned Priebus to increase security and make the GOP campaign networks unhackable and commented “I’d like to think I had something to do with that”. Its still hard to determine from this whether he actually believes that he had something to do with it, or if he just wants others to believe that. Its difficult to tell the difference between a delusional narcissist and a over the top self promoting pathological liar. The fact that he tends to back down on his assertions when they have served their purpose and he is confronted by reality leads me to believe the second option is more likely to blame for his most outrageous statements. (not that he isn’t also a delusional narcissist). If he really believed everything that came out of his pie hole, he would even now be trying to lock Clinton up, and getting on the phone to Vicente Fox about whether Fox would pay up for the price of the wall in one payment January 20th, or whether he would prefer an installment plan. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/29 "2017-01-13T21:22:10Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Its still hard to determine from this whether he actually believes that he had something to do with it, or if he just wants others to believe that. Its difficult to tell the difference between a delusional narcissist and a over the top self promoting pathological liar. He probably means he called up Putin and asked him not to hack the Republicans. He can certainly take credit for that. But he should also fess up that he gave away Eastern Europe in exchange. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/30 "2017-01-13T22:02:13Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > … and getting on the phone to Vicente Fox about whether Fox would pay up for the price of the wall in one payment January 20th, or whether he would prefer an installment plan. a. Fox is not President of Mexico, so doesn’t have the power to make that deal; b. Fox has already said some rather critical things about Trump, and would most likely respond to such a call with the Mexican equivalent of “go pound sand” or something even less polite. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/31 "2017-01-14T20:48:59Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > a. Fox is not President of Mexico, so doesn’t have the power to make that deal; > > b. Fox has already said some rather critical things about Trump, and would most likely respond to such a call with the Mexican equivalent of “go pound sand” or something even less polite. Fox not actually being President of Mexico, doesn’t necessarily mean Trump wouldn’t call him to get stuff done. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/32 "2017-01-16T17:13:22Z")
Guess the OP never read [this article based on Trump’s ghostwriter.](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all) > [@](#): > > This year, Schwartz has heard some argue that there must be a more thoughtful and nuanced version of Donald Trump that he is keeping in reserve for after the campaign. “There isn’t,” Schwartz insists. “There is no private Trump.” This is not a matter of hindsight. While working on “The Art of the Deal,” Schwartz kept a journal in which he expressed his amazement at Trump’s personality, writing that Trump seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention. “All he is is ‘stomp, stomp, stomp’—recognition from outside, bigger, more, a whole series of things that go nowhere in particular,” he observed, on October 21, 1986. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/33 "2017-01-16T17:14:59Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Its still hard to determine from this whether he actually believes that he had something to do with it, or if he just wants others to believe that. Its difficult to tell the difference between a delusional narcissist and a over the top self promoting pathological liar. \ First I freely admit I still don’t understand nor can I keep up with Trump. The one thing I do know is that the man is a good salesman. Not great, but better than average. He has a patter that sells. Usually the patter sells used cars or high-risk real estate deals, but in this case he sold himself the Presidency. From what I have read, most of his technique comes from a Sophomore level college textbook on marketing. It isn’t new and it isn’t hard. His major task is to keep his name leading the story. It really doesn’t matter what he says, he isn’t going to necessarily do anything he says, all that matters is that the customer keeps listening to him. As long as he is talking, the other guy isn’t. No one is going to bring up old promises if the promise on the table at the moment has everyone’s attention. And by the time the old statements come up, he simply denies/ignores them and keeps the conversation going his way. it is irrelevant to the sales job whether he is a delusional narcissist and a over the top self promoting pathological liar. All that matters to the sales job is that he is doing the talking. Selling is all he knows and he is always going to look at the world and his job through that lens. How that plays out over the next few years is TBD. Of course the measure of his character will matter when he starts making consequential decisions, but we haven’t seen any of those yet. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978/34 "2017-01-17T23:50:59Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Its still hard to determine from this whether he actually believes that he had something to do with it, or if he just wants others to believe that. Its difficult to tell the difference between a delusional narcissist and a over the top self promoting pathological liar. > > The fact that he tends to back down on his assertions when they have served their purpose and he is confronted by reality leads me to believe the second option is more likely to blame for his most outrageous statements. (not that he isn’t also a delusional narcissist). If he really believed everything that came out of his pie hole, he would even now be trying to lock Clinton up, and getting on the phone to Vicente Fox about whether Fox would pay up for the price of the wall in one payment January 20th, or whether he would prefer an installment plan. Well… that’s kind of the thing. You’re not sure if it’s a gambit or if he’s fully invested in the kookery or what. The weird thing to me is that the barking little dog has actually caught the bus, he is now the POTUS so you’d figure if it was a gambit he’d scale it back, but it’s still full speed ahead with the kooky nonsense. You have someone in charge of the USA who really, truly does not give a shit about how he comes across or what comes out of his mouth. It’s uncharted territory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-turns-out-trumps-over-the-top-egomania-isnt-just-some-clever-act-its-real/776978.md?page=1)