# Why Trump Ran for President **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 27, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317 "2022-09-27T13:55:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/21 "2022-09-27T16:33:31Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > I think he did it for the grift (campaign money) and didn’t really expect to win. This. He saw it as a way to make a lot of easy money and boost his brand worldwide, and it almost worked. I think he thought he would win because everyone loved him so much. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/22 "2022-09-27T16:50:37Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > … a narcissist is like an addict with two desires that inform all their actions. The first one is the need for [attention](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/attention), admiration and confirmation that they are the best, the second one is the urge to hide their fragile egos, to keep themselves safe from being exposed as insecure or less good as they portray.\* Yes… in a technical, narrow sense, it’s probably true that in 2016 Trump ran to avoid prison, but only because narcissists are always partially motivated by avoiding exposure and accountability. I would say his 2020 run was motivated by a bigger proportion of crime-covering, and even more so his 2024 run (or whatever he’s doing for 2024, which might just be endlessly declaring his candidacy to avoid indictment). Narcissists are little more complicated than roundworms. They turn toward adulation, they run away from pain. The only complex part of the equation is understanding what stimuli are in effect, and in what proportions. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/23 "2022-09-27T17:40:10Z")
An aide from very early on said the beginning and end of it was to run, drop out fairly early, and then spend the rest of his life saying “I could have won if I’d wanted to, but who wants to be president?” All the other stuff, even the potential for fundraising grift, came later. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/24 "2022-09-27T18:26:47Z")
Yeah, that’s what son-in-laws are for. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/25 "2022-09-27T18:30:56Z")
I’m actually going to break the OP into 3 questions: Why did Trump run (2016)? Then again for (2020) and lastly, Why will Trump run 2024? 2016 - I agree with the majority opinion, mostly for the free publicity, expecting a huge increase in the value of the Trump brand, and possibly to set up his own media company after using the publicity to make sure he was spending other people’s money. I’m sure it stroked his ego as well, but I actually think that was a lesser point, in that I don’t think he was going into it to win it, but to be able to scream ‘a plague on both your houses’ at some point, and make sure everyone knew he was better than all those ‘by-the-book’ folks. 2020 - Now, back to the OP’s point, by this point, he _does_ have substantial legal consequences from the many investigations going on. Not that several _more_ haven’t come up _because_ of his actions during and immediately after his run, but he probably felt some pressure. And he felt that 4 more years would let him finish his process of leveraging all possible judges while further running his opponents out of time and money (and office). Of course, now the narcissist is in control as well, and he CANNOT imagine losing, which I think is one of the reasons he refuses to do so, as long as there are people who will support that delusion. In fact, there was a short while there where he seemed to accept the loss, and with it seemed to lose a great deal of energy, but the adoring fans supporting the ‘Stop the steal’ quickly put the pep back into his step. 2024 - Now he DEFINITELY has legal issues to try to dodge, and that may well be a key point in the reasoning. All the chicken’s coming home to roost give’s him every reason to add a major 4 year mulligan on many/most of his issues, because now it’s delay Delay DELAY. And hope that he can ruin / fire / replace his opponents during those 4 years (or die in Glory as El Presidente!). ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/26 "2022-09-28T13:44:13Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I thought his plan was to run and lose, then start a media empire to rival Fox and use it to go after his enemies, like President Hillary. > > Seems I also remember hearing somewhere that one reason he decided to run was because he wanted NBC to pay him more for “The Apprentice” than they were paying Christina Aguilera on “The Voice”, and they wouldn’t. (In which case, if NBC could have coughed up a few million extra, they might have saved this country a whole lot of heartache.) This 100%. When I saw this thread, this was exactly what I was going to write. And, If by some strange reason he won, he would not have to actually do anything. Just sit in the White House, and be honored. Throw an occasional dinner party. And, that’s pretty much the way he handled it. Other than his ‘executive’ time where he just watched FOX and GOOGLED his name while eating McD’s. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/27 "2022-09-28T14:04:58Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > And, If by some strange reason he won, he would not have to actually do anything. Just sit in the White House, and be honored. Throw an occasional dinner party. There was a cartoon I saw when I was a kid, about a little boy who didn’t want to do his homework (or something). He started daydreaming about how great it would be to be President, with ticker-tape parades and Cabinet meetings that were just big ice cream parties and life was great up until the fact that other countries existed as well, and when he tried dealing with them, he wound up getting into a nuclear war. Then he woke up. I really wish I could find that cartoon now. It was eerily predictive of what the America-hating fuckstick Administration turned out to be (except for the nuclear war). ETA: Hey, it’s my cake day! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/28 "2022-09-28T14:13:32Z")
You guys are all wrong. Trump wanted a chance to serve his country and improve the lives of his fellow citizens by- Sorry, I just couldn’t do it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/29 "2022-09-28T15:15:02Z")
Lots of good ideas in this thread, but Pardel-Lux best sums up my take on this. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/30 "2022-09-28T15:15:49Z")
I think that was in Mad Magazine? Mid-80s? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/31 "2022-09-28T15:28:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Everything about why trump does _anything_ can ultimately be explained thusly: > > … a narcissist is like an addict with two desires that inform all their actions. The first one is the need for [attention](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/attention), admiration and confirmation that they are the best, the second one is the urge to hide their fragile egos, to keep themselves safe from being exposed as insecure or less good as they portray.\* > > [Cite](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/victim-victor/202101/what-are-the-main-values-narcissist) This is the only correct answer. While not diagnosed as such, he perfectly fits the description of narcissistic personality disorder in the DSM-5. In other words, he’s cuckoo in the coco-puffs. And also extremely dangerous when he is in a position of total control, I might add, as has been evidenced in dictators past, e.g. Mussolini, Stalin, etc. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/32 "2022-09-28T16:10:24Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > And, If by some strange reason he won, he would not have to actually do anything. Just sit in the White House, and be honored. Throw an occasional dinner party. I seem to recall a story about TFG’s search for a vice-president during his campaign. I vaguely remember Don Jr. approaching someone (exactly whom, I forget), describing the job as the VP handling all the domestic and foreign duties. When the prospective VP asked what TFG would actually be doing, Jr. said, “Making America great again.” (pretty sure that’s an exact quote) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/33 "2022-09-28T16:12:48Z")
[Kasich](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-national-convention/757729/663), per the New York Times. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/34 "2022-09-28T17:02:45Z")
My thoughts… 1. He has always wanted to run for President. 2. Most every cycle he would put out feelers. Most every cycle, they’d be ignored. Some would get play, but not often, and never for long. 3. He started heavy internet use in the 2000s. Ala Pierre Salinger, his ability to separate fact from fiction (which wasn’t strong to begin with) breaks down. 4. Latches on to the nascent birther movement online, takes it over. 5. Obama embarrasses Trump at WH correspondents dinner (2012). 6. Trump gets serious, for first time, about running. 7. Decides that his previous ‘straddle the line’ feelers is done. His ego is truly hurt. Therefore: 8. Goes hard-core anti-Obama _supporter_. Not necessarily ‘hard right’ (that’s just an accident of history - had Obama been to the Right of Hitler, Trump would attack him from the Left), but his candidacy was based on attacking not necessarily Obama, but every single Obama surrogate and supporter in the country. 9. And so when he declares, he drops his Mexicans are rapists line. It’s not _just_ a racist statement, he was stating that it was open season on _anyone_ who might be an Obama supporter. And that was the differentiator: he didn’t solely attack his opponents, he attacked their entire support structure, even their voters. So: ego and revenge, with the twist that he wanted revenge against Obama’s supporters even more than Obama himself. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/35 "2022-09-28T18:12:58Z")
As I understood it, his goal in 2016 was to get second place in the Republican nomination as a publicity stunt. The trouble is the sane candidates couldn’t agree to drop out in favor of one of their own the way the Democrats did in 2020 and the undivided crazy vote was enough to carry the day. I believe in the general election he didn’t want to win, he wanted to lose and be able to play the victim in perpetuity, milking it for sympathy and shaking down the rubes. Starting his own “news” network was probably in the cards. The plans changed when James Comey put a sledgehammer on the scales and handed him the White House. A guy who didn’t have any knowledge of basic civics and had no clue as to what presidents did was all of a sudden in charge of the bureaucracy. What to do, what to do? If you’re him, the answer is simple- grift like a motherfucker. Hurt people you don’t like. Punish enemies. Cut taxes and gut enviromental regulations like any other Republican. He ran in 2020 to keep the grift gravy train rolling and to run out statutes of limitations on some of the many laws he managed to break over the years. He loved loved loved holding rallies despite it being in a pandemic. Herman Cain can attest to how that worked out. Then the panic of losing and potentially losing his immunity led to his attempted overthrow of democracy. If not convicted in 2024 he will absolutely run again and if successful either at the ballot box or stages a successful coup, he can go back to grifting and exacting revenge. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/36 "2022-09-28T18:35:37Z")
I see now that I was wrong and right. No, Dolt 45 wasn’t trying to avoid jail during the 2016 election, but it was definitely part of the incentive to running in 2020. That’s part of why he fought so hard to overturn the results. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/37 "2022-09-28T18:42:33Z")
I don’t like analyzing people I never met, but I think that he’s the ultimate troll. I like to believe he woke up every morning and said. “What ridiculous things can I do today.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/38 "2022-09-29T07:40:13Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I think that was in Mad Magazine? Mid-80s? No, it was on TV. ---
**Author:** ![JoePockets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8dc957/32.png) [@JoePockets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoePockets)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/39 "2022-09-29T13:43:04Z")
Except for a news or media photo Trump only considers people as checker pawns He spawned all children to be raised in boarding school and trades his wife’s in faster than Avis unloads a car. Yet 30% of this nation hang on his every word & action as it is from Mt Olympus. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317/41 "2022-09-29T14:16:22Z")
Can you enlighten us as to what Donnie’s policies were? He had no policies other than to enrich himself and hurt people he didn’t like. Like fellow nutjob Colonel Kurtz, it’s not that his methods were unsound, it’s that he had no method at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-ran-for-president/972317.md?page=3)