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Who is Trump? A needy man who, knowing that he’s not fully developed emotionally or intellectually, thinks that attracting others to applaud him validates him, helping him believe he has achieved personal integration. But attracting others to applaud you by saying what pleases them, is not a path to integration, so Trump is unable to quell his core desperation. In turn, that desperation leads him to please more in search of greater applause.
His interactions with Putin are revealing.
Trump wants the Russian’s admiration. I think he believes it will validate him.
Trump has had power. In business first and then political, but in both realms he lacked finesse.
Somehow, what power he achieved, could not ground him. Power grounds us when it helps us see the world with little or no envy. Power grounds us when we come to appreciate and accept the power of others and the limits of our own power.
An ambitious man, Trump realized that the number of golf courses and namesake towers he could build, would not sooth his thirst for public acclaim and being idolized.
So he turned to politics.
His approach was clear. Appeal to the baser impulses.
In 2016, for cultural reasons, the country was hesitant to elect a woman president (Hillary Clinton) coming on the heels of having twice elected an African American president.
Was the country moving too fast? Who would be next? A Gay president? A Chinese one? Too much…
