The TrueTrump® Brand: Psychopathy, Narcissism, Incompetence, and Collusion
“Once you start going, it’s kind of like an addiction, honestly,” said April Owens, a 49-year-old financial manager in Kingsport, Tenn., who has been to 11 rallies. “I love the energy. I wouldn’t stand in line for 26 hours to see any rock band. He’s the only person I would do this for, and I’ll be here as many times as I can.” (On the Road With Trump’s Rally Diehards.)
Trumpeteers in The TrueTrump® Marching Brand
As we know, Donald Trump is all about the brand. What is hard to explain is why more than 40% of Americans faithfully buy such a bogus brand. Building on an analysis showing how Trump’s narcissism and psychopathy work together to make him a consummate con man we need to go further in order to explain the success of the Trump brand. We also need to explain how his epic incompetence — six bankruptcies and 13 other business failures such as Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Magazine, and Trump University, to name a few better known examples — doesn’t render his empty boasting completely ineffective.
During the 2016 campaign, Maryanne Trump, Donald’s oldest sister (a Republican and a federal judge first nominated by Ronald Reagan) was talking to her niece, Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, about their uncle and brother.
“He’s a clown,” my aunt Maryanne said during one of our regular lunches at the time. “This will never happen.”
I agreed.
We talked about how his reputation as a faded reality star and failed businessman would doom his run. “Does anybody even believe the bullshit that he’s a self-made man? What has he ever accomplished on his own?” I asked.
“Well,” Maryanne said, as dry as the Sahara, “he has had six bankruptcies.” …
We thought the blatant racism on display during Donald’s announcement speech would be a deal breaker, but we were disabused of that idea when Jerry Falwell, Jr., and other white evangelicals started endorsing him. Maryanne, a devout Catholic since her conversion five decades earlier, was incensed. “What the fuck is wrong with them?” she said. “The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there. It’s mind boggling. He has no principles. None!” [1]
So, there is a need to explain the anomaly created by the election to the Presidency of the United States of a man of such prodigious ineptitude and breathtaking dishonesty. As we shall see, the explanation hinges on a link between incompetence and collusion, which when joined together with psychopathy and narcissism comprise the Four Horsemen of the TrueTrump® Brand.
But before we examine the way in which incompetence and collusion come together, we need to be clear about our terms. Most of us feel we have a good sense of what incompetence means. Collusion, however, has proven to be a different story. And since there is so much partisan word spinning, mincing, and outright lying around Trump, it becomes necessary to be absolutely clear about our words.
What exactly is “collusion?”
Merriam-Webster defines collusion as
cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose.
And Webster’s New World Law Dictionary defines collusion as an
agreement between two or more individuals to perpetrate a fraud.
That’s pretty clear. And there’s really not much difference between the standard English meaning and the legal term. So let’s turn to considering whether this term applies to Trump.
A brief recap: Mueller didn’t find evidence of collusion
Robert Mueller’s investigation found plenty of evidence of criminal wrongdoing including various acts of obstruction of justice. But it became painful to watch as Mueller the boy scout was completely outplayed by the Bill and Don, street fighting, tag team. Mueller’s lifelong integrity, his military service, his commitment to his country and his duty, and his respect for law and order turned a man-of-honor into an oxymoron, a mealy-mouthed Marine. He may have been instrumental in taking down John Gotti, a mobster, but he could not bring himself to go up against the Commander in Chief of the United States, no matter how much corruption he found.
We now know that Mueller didn’t feel the evidence supported a collusion conclusion. But after the Barr smokescreen cleared, it was evident that Mueller had found plenty of evidence of criminal activity, including the fact that members of the Trump team tried to collude. But is Attempted Collusion a crime? Did Donald know about it and was he directly involved? And could it be proven beyond a reasonable doubt? That’s a pretty high standard.
Referring back to the dictionary definitions of collusion, I’d be willing to bet a significant portion of my life savings that, back during the 2016 election, DJTJ arranged the Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer in order to find a way “to cooperate for an illegal purpose.” And after his dad became President of the United States, he and his dad (and others aboard Air Force One) certainly “agreed to perpetrate a fraud” when DJT manufactured a lie for DJTJ to tell in order to explain away the meeting. But “beyond a reasonable doubt” is a high standard. If I were sure a jury could reach that standard, I’d be willing to wager my entire life savings.
You see, there is a slight possibility that DJTJ actually thought he was hosting a meeting to just learn something, possibly something of interest about the election. Since he was disappointed with the outcome, he appears to have agreed to host the meeting without being sure about what he’d hear. Rather than intending to engage in a nefarious activity, maybe he really was just an excitable boy who just happens to have an abiding passion for taking meetings (“I love it!”).
And anyway, it was, in fact, a stupid mistake. He was just a kid (of 38) who didn’t understand that political laws aren’t the same as the real estate laws his father taught him to treat as mere hints and suggestions.
It does appear that Junior really didn’t know that what he was doing was illegal. Though he may not be the brightest bulb on the tree, he isn’t stupid enough to RSVP via email to a fawning, self-promoting, potential conspirator, in essence putting in writing, “Yes. I’m absolutely delighted to set up a meeting with you in order to engage in an illegal activity. Count me in!” DJTJ appears to have been completely ignorant of the illegality of what he was trying to do. Given these considerations, a jury would be loath to say there is no reasonable doubt and convict him of anything.
So, while it is clear that numerous criminal acts had been committed — including quite a few by The Donald that were, in fact, documented in the Mueller Report — it doesn’t look like there was enough evidence to prove that Trump, himself, colluded with the Russians in their interference in our election. Encouraged them? Yes. (“Russians, if you’re listening …”) But actually interacted and directly communicated and coordinated with Russians about the operation? Probably not.
Mueller was able to determine that some of Trump’s subordinates did try to collude and it’s possible that they succeeded, that is, that collusion may very well have occurred. However, though Trump may have been knowledgeable of their activities and even directed them, that would be hard to prove. Mueller didn’t find evidence for it that he felt could meet the high standard of proof required in a criminal case. Therefore we did need to let that one go. After all, innocent until proven guilty.
So, if Mueller felt the evidence was insufficient, how has Trump been guilty of collusion?
In looking more deeply into this question, we have to remember that Trump is a very talented person, possibly the greatest, as he compulsively tells us every chance he gets. His absurd braggadocio aside, there is simply no question that he does have a true gift for reading an audience and telling people what they long to hear; he is a highly competent, performance artist with enormous energy and a willingness to deceive others in order to promote himself.
Those are, however, his only real talents. If instead of a series of entrepreneurial rackets, had he just invested the half billion dollars that his father illegally gave him in an index fund, he would have been worth well over $17 billion today. Instead, he so squandered and mismanaged his father’s largesse that, at one point, as he confided to his favorite child, his net worth was negative by about $8 billion.
“I remember once my father and I were walking down Fifth Avenue and there was a homeless person sitting right outside of Trump Tower and I remember my father pointing to him and saying, ‘You know, that guy has $8 billion more than me,’ because he was in such extreme debt at that point, you know?”
Of course, we have no idea what he is actually worth today. He claims $10 billion but his recently revealed tax returns confirm the general suspicion that he is a compulsive liar who was blatantly lying about his wealth.
“Lying is second nature to him,” [Tony] Schwartz said. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.” Often, Schwartz said, the lies that Trump told him were about money — “how much he had paid for something, or what a building he owned was worth, or how much one of his casinos was earning when it was actually on its way to bankruptcy.” … “He lied strategically. He had a complete lack of conscience about it.” Since most people are “constrained by the truth,” Trump’s indifference to it “gave him a strange advantage.” [2]
We do have to admit that there is a kernel of truth to be found in his incessant boasting. He is, after all, a truly gifted con artist. And, before he was President, for a politician he was involved in an record breaking number of lawsuits, over 4,000. And for a number of years, he apparently lost far more money than any other American!
In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years. (Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses)
But other than such exceptional “accomplishments,” in those operations in which Trump was fully in charge and ran the show, he is close to an abject failure. The apparent contradiction between that statement and the fact that he did become the 45th President of the United States will now be resolved.
The link between incompetence and collusion
Here is where collusion comes in. You see, others have spotted Trump’s talent as a performance artist and have colluded with him to create a fraudulent, marketing image they can sell to the public for large profits.
Schwartz
Tony Schwartz colluded with Trump and wrote the best-selling, fantasy novel that masqueraded as non-fiction, The Art of the Deal. (Later, Schwartz was quite guilt stricken and repentant.) The book sold more than a million copies, spent 48 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, and generated millions in royalties (half of which went to Schwartz).
When Trump was running for president, he said:
“We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ ” If that was so, Schwartz thought, then he, not Trump, should be running. Schwartz dashed off a tweet: “Many thanks Donald Trump for suggesting I run for President, based on the fact that I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ ” … The book expanded Trump’s renown far beyond New York City, making him an emblem of the successful tycoon. Edward Kosner, the former editor and publisher of New York, where Schwartz worked as a writer at the time, says, “Tony created Trump. He’s Dr. Frankenstein.” … [A]s he watched a replay of the new candidate holding forth for forty-five minutes, [Schwartz] noticed something strange: over the decades, Trump appeared to have convinced himself that he had written the book. Schwartz recalls thinking, “If he could lie about that on Day One — when it was so easily refuted — he is likely to lie about anything.” … “I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” [2]
Burnett
Schwartz also created the image of competence that gave producer, Mark Burnett the idea for the hit, TV series, The Apprentice. Note that during the time that Schwartz and Burnett were creating the fictional character, the Super Successful Wheeler Dealer was actually descending into bankruptcy and massive debt. He had already become a well-known, monetary black hole; banks would no longer extend loans to him and he was reduced to laundering money for Russian mobsters.[3]
[The Apprentice] reportedly paid Trump up to $3 million per episode, and instantly revived his career. “The Apprentice turned Trump from a blowhard Richie Rich … into an unlikely symbol of straight talk, an evangelist for the American gospel of success, a decider who insisted on standards in a country that had somehow slipped into handing out trophies for just showing up,” journalists Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher observe in their book Trump Revealed. “Above all, Apprentice sold an image of the host-boss as supremely competent and confident, dispensing his authority and getting immediate results. The analogy to politics was palpable.” … [H]is credit was still lousy, and two more of his prized properties in Atlantic City would soon fall into bankruptcy, even as his ratings soared. (ibid.)
Mark Burnett profited even more fantastically than Schwartz from his collusion with Trump. Burnett created a meticulous exaggeration of Trump’s competence, thus helping refine and promote his fabricated persona:
“The Apprentice” portrayed Trump not as a skeezy hustler who huddles with local mobsters but as a plutocrat with impeccable business instincts and unparalleled wealth — a titan who always seemed to be climbing out of helicopters or into limousines. “Most of us knew he was a fake,” Braun told me. “He had just gone through I don’t know how many bankruptcies. But we made him out to be the most important person in the world. It was like making the court jester the king.” Bill Pruitt, another producer, recalled, “We walked through the offices and saw chipped furniture. We saw a crumbling empire at every turn. Our job was to make it seem otherwise.” (The New Yorker)
Bannon
For political success, Trump needed to collude with yet another image maker, Steve Bannon. Bannon had been looking for
a vessel to deliver his “populist-nationalist ideas” and building a system for the far right to thrive in. Bannon was not set on Trump being that vessel and had met with Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Ben Carson ahead of the 2016 election. But in Bannon’s eyes, Trump distinguished himself when he challenged whether Obama was a citizen. Trump promoted the so-called “birther” conspiracy movement and saw that prominent Republicans would not strongly condemn his accusations. … “Trump was plumbing the depths of latent racist hostility toward the president and discovering that there was a lot of it there,” [journalist, Joshua] Green writes. “Everybody in politics knew this sentiment existed, but the longstanding consensus had been that it should be kept out of the public arena.” [4]
Despite the conventional wisdom on the left, it is hard to find any unequivocal evidence to support the notion that Bannon, himself was a racist or an antisemite. Rather, as with Trump, whom Bannon came to manage, pandering to racists was simply a useful expedient. In Trump, Bannon knew he had finally found his vessel. And Trump had found the third competent image consultant who would collude with him in crafting an ersatz persona he could sell to unsuspecting consumers.
Consider the similarities between the two men as seen by a former editor-at-large at Breitbart, the influential conservative, Ben Shapiro:
“I have no evidence that Steve’s an anti-Semite. I think Steve’s a very, very power-hungry dude who’s willing to use anybody and anything in order to get ahead, and that includes making common cause with the racist, anti-Semitic alt-right. … It also doesn’t mean that Jews who work [at Breitbart] … have been discriminated against … I wasn’t when I was working there. What it does mean is that he allowed the site to be taken over and used by a bunch of alt-right people who are not fond of Jews, are not fond of minorities. … I don’t think that Trump is particularly racist. I think he’s an ignoramus. I think that more than anything, Trump is willing to pay heed to and wink at anybody who provides him even a shred of good coverage. So if the alt-right, which worships at the altar of Trump — if they provide him good coverage, he’s willing to wink and nod at them.” [5]
It is well known that nobody in the Trump camp expected to win the 2016 election. Trump’s own polls showed him losing. In fact, he did lose the popular vote by a significant margin. Bannon, virtually alone, thought Trump would win. Bannon understood the populist resentment toward the elite. He understood how much of middle, red America was feeling left behind by the coastal, blue states. Bannon understood social media. And he understood how to forge a coalition between the disenfranchised, the religious fundamentalists, and the racist whites who who were easily encouraged to blame the spiritual emptiness in their lives and their fading prospects on people of color.
Bannon became the Trump whisperer who guided him down the populist path to victory. Steve Bannon helped Trump refine his targeting of the disgruntled Americans who had been responding to Breitbart and Fox News. He colluded with Trump to help forge the image of an unrefined, down-to-earth, heroic anti-politician. Trump was the super-successful businessman who was going to “drain the swamp” and rescue us all from the Washington insiders who had sold out America to foreigners. Trump would — as only Trump could — “Make America Great Again.”
Incompetence and collusion
Despite his claim to be a genius, under his combed-over crown he has an entirely vacuous head: he tells India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, that it’s a good thing the country doesn’t have a border with China, and at a ceremony in Pearl Harbor he asks what exactly happened there to justify the commemoration. Forget about CIA briefings: as Steve Bannon puts it, Trump “doesn’t even know what intelligence is.” (The Guardian)
After the election, Trump’s entire transition team was summarily fired.
Trump was going to handle the transition more or less by himself. Not even Bannon thought this was a good idea. “I was fucking nervous as shit,” Bannon later told friends. “I go, ‘Holy fuck, this guy doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t give a shit.’” [6]
In his recent book, The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton presented some additional evidence of Trump’s towering ignorance:
Mr. Trump did not seem to know, for example, that Britain is a nuclear power and asked if Finland is part of Russia, Mr. Bolton writes. … Even top advisers who position themselves as unswervingly loyal mock him behind his back. During Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, according to the book, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.” [7]
“There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection.” [8] While the president is often accused of a short attention span, “when it comes to the politics of his re-election, he has an infinite attention span.” [9]
In addition to Trump’s ignorance and disinterest in learning anything (except how to improve his ratings and promote his brand), Bannon considered Trump a criminal. When interviewing Steve Bannon for his second book on Trump, Siege: Trump Under Fire, Michael Wolff said Trump’s businesses had “increasingly seemed to resemble a semi-criminal enterprise.” Chuckling, Bannon replied: “I think we can drop the ‘semi’ part.” Bannon also predicted that the investigations into Trump’s finances would reveal that he was “not the billionaire he said he was, just another scumbag.” In Wolff’s earlier book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Bannon was quoted as saying that DJTJ’s Trump Tower meeting was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
Though Wolff’s books have been criticized for flawed reporting, there was at least one person who was convinced Bannon said those words, Donald Trump. Trump immediately disavowed Bannon and severed their connection. Bannon’s subsequent obeisant campaign of accolades in support of his agenda’s vessel has subsequently turned the head of the Narcissist-in-Chief whose hunger for flattery knows no bounds. Apparently, in return for his renewed sycophancy, Trump dealt Bannon a get-out-of-jail-free-card just before leaving office. But Trump’s response at the time made it clear that there was no question that he believed that Bannon thought Trump was an incompetent, criminal ignoramus:
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind … Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party … Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory”
Of course, like many if not most things Trump says, that wasn’t true. It was Bannon’s understanding of the divisiveness fostered by the balkanizing Internet and how to reach the disgruntled through the savvy use of social media that enabled a Trump victory. Bannon was almost always by Trump’s side during the final months of the campaign. During the weeks before the election, Trump could be seen anxiously walking around asking, “Where’s my Steve?”
Incompetence is why Trump needs to collude
Note that none of these three men who colluded with Trump to create a false image for sale to the masses believed in their creation. Schwartz created an image of Trump the consummate businessman while privately describing him as an intellectually lazy, self-deluded, chronic liar. Burnett and his team saw a tarnished Trump Tower and were aware that his mismanagement of his businesses had him on the brink of destruction while they simultaneously created the image of an impeccably brilliant leader for whom it would be the ultimate honor to work. And though Bannon saw Trump as a criminal ignoramus, he could, nonetheless, advance Bannon’s populist agenda.
Trump’s monumental incompetence — his ignorance, impulsivity, narcissism, and complete disregard for truth — is the reason he needs to collude with the likes of Schwartz, Burnett, or Bannon in order to create a successful venture. Unlike Trump, these three collaborators are competent people, each of whom had achieved dramatic success utilizing their own talents and diligent effort. They knew how to orchestrate and organize Trump’s chaotic presentation. Trump’s collaborators used a dishonest, incompetent businessman who is a skilled psychopathic actor in their concoction of a fictional character who could advance their personal aims.
Without such structure imposed from the outside, many (all?) Trump enterprises ultimately fail. By his fourth year in office, Trump had purged all the adults from his administration and replaced them with sycophants. Trump was then making all decisions on his own when the COVID-19 crisis arrived followed by skyrocketing racial tensions after the killing of George Floyd. His handling of both proved to be tragically indicative of his ineptitude whenever he has acted on his own without guiding handlers.
Collaboration or collusion
But why use the word “collusion?” Why not see Trump as a talented actor who artfully co-created a character in a collaboration with writers and producers? The answer is that Trump is a con man who — unlike professional actors — falsely claims that the image thus created is real. He then uses that fabricated image to manipulate and cheat others, not the least of whom comprise his loyal base. The professional actor collaborates with writers and directors to co-create an entertaining illusion for the audience. Trump the psychopathic salesman, in contrast, colludes with others to co-create an illusion that he then uses to bilk and defraud his audience.
In defense of the Schwartzes and Burnetts of Trump World, note that they had no way of knowing just how damaging their creation would be. Who would have believed it? They may have thought that they were simply creating something harmless to entertain an audience. So, it would be wrong to accuse them of collusion. Unlike COVID-19, there really were very few people who saw what was coming. Trump, however, has spent decades carefully crafting his image in order to use it to make his “truthful hyperbole” more convincing so he can successfully engage in his various crooked cons:
“People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do,” Trump [actually Schwartz] added in The Art of the Deal passage. “That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.”
It is true that Burnett has continued to seek ways to profit from the lucrative (Mounte)Bank of Trump he co-created, even exploring the possibility of The Apprentice: White House.
“There have been several discussions between Burnett and Trump about The Apprentice: White House,” a person with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Beast. “It is something Burnett thinks could be a money-spinner and Trump is very keen on doing.” … One person who has spoken with Burnett about Trump said he openly boasted of his relationship to the president: “Mark would say ‘My relationship with the president is incredibly strong. I’m the most powerful person in Hollywood because of it. I could wipe the floor because of it.’ Mark has no shame.”
Bannon, like Trump however, is unquestionably guilty of collusion. Bannon helped Trump create a false image of himself and knowingly continued to promote a man whom he considers an incompetent, deluded, criminal dunce for the Presidency of the United States. When exaggeration morphs into outright lies and fraud, such promoters are definitely guilty of “conspiring with others [to create an image they then use] in order to cheat or deceive others,” which as we saw, is the very definition of collusion.
Psychopathy, narcissism, incompetence, and collusion: The Four Horsemen of the TrueTrump® Brand revisited
As a clinical psychologist, I am fully aware of and have written about the ways that psychiatric diagnoses can be misused and whether or not we should ever violate the so-called “Goldwater Rule” and diagnose Donald Trump. Nevertheless, along with my colleagues, I also showed how an understanding of Trump’s psychopathic narcissism can help us come to terms with the apparent paradox encapsulated in the oxymoron, “President Trump.”
Given the effectiveness (after all, he did become the POTUS) of his many lies, we didn’t claim that the narcissism and sociopathy that enables him to distort reality so thoroughly is an indication of psychopathology. Trump’s lies are no more dysfunctional (given his aims) than the anglerfish that has a fleshy growth protruding from the top of its head deceptively resembling a yummy worm (as well as Trump’s hairdo) that entices its prey to approach and become its next meal.
Despite his colossal ineptitude as a businessman and leader, with the help of his co-conspirators, Trump’s functional, sociopathic narcissism had more than 40% of the American population fooled into thinking that the protrusion from the top of his head indicated that he was a competent, virile, alpha male.
Finally, Trump needs to collude with an entire team of make-up artists
When his hair wasn’t done, his strands of dyed-golden hair reached below his shoulders along the right side of his head and on his back, like a balding Allman Brother or strung out old ’60s hippie. … Trump doesn’t have a simple combover, as it would appear. The operation was much more involved than a simple throw-over of what was left of his hair: the three-step procedure required a flop up of the hair from the back of his head, followed by the flip of the resulting overhang on his face back on his pate, and then the flap of his combover on the right side, providing three layers of thinly disguised balding-male insecurity. The concoction was held in place by a fog of TREsemme TRES Two, not a high-end salon product. Flip, flop, flap, and there was the most famous combover in the world.[10]
As we now know, according to Trump’s tax return, this hairdressing process is rather costly, to the tune of $70,000 a year. So, in case you were wondering how Trump’s hair dressers and make-up artists painstakingly recreate his visage every morning, consider these three illustrations of some of their unparalleled wizardry in this 30 second video.
By the way, if you feel this video is a crass, rude, and crude exaggeration of the essence of the Trump presidency, you may need to reread this article.
“Don’t compare Trump with a chimpanzee, because it’s terribly rude to the chimpanzee.” (Jane Goodall)
[1] Trump, M. (2020). Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. New York: Simon & Schuster.
[2] Mayer, J. (2016). Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All. The New Yorker, July 18.
[3] Unger, C. (2017). Trump’s Russian Laundromat. The New Republic, July 13
[4] Holpuch, A. (2017). ‘Where’s my Steve?’: How Bannon masterminded Trump’s election win. The Guardian, July 18. “In Devil’s Bargain, journalist Joshua Green backtracks from election night to show how Bannon found a vessel for the far-right movement in a ‘birther’ conspiracist.”
[5] Pesca, M. (2016). The Alt-Right Is Using Trump: Ben Shapiro on how the group will take advantage of its newfound prominence. Slate, November 23.
[6] Lewis, M. (2018). ‘This guy doesn’t know anything’: the inside story of Trump’s shambolic transition team. The Guardian, September 27.
[7] Baker, P. (2020). Bolton Says Trump Impeachment Inquiry Missed Other Troubling Actions. The New York Times, June 17.
[8] Baker, P. (2020). Seizing the Presidency to Suit His Own Needs. The New York Times, June 18.
[9] Baker, P. (2020). Bolton Assaults Trump From the Right, and Takes Fire From All Directions. The New York Times, June 23.
[10] Cohen, M. (2020). Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. NY: Skyhorse Publishing.
