This is why Trump is buried in scandals, Art of the Deal ghostwriter explains

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published 17 May 2017

President Trump is buried beneath such an enormous pile of scandals that onlookers likely can't help but wonder if there is a teensy bit of self-sabotage at play. According to at least one person who worked intimately with Trump decades ago, the answer is yes.

The Art of the Deal ghostwriter Tony Schwartz wrote for The Washington Post that the way the president has behaved in the past week was "entirely predictable" if you look at his childhood:

[To survive,] Trump felt compelled to go to war with the world. It was a binary, zero-sum choice for him: You either dominated or you submitted. You either created and exploited fear or you succumbed to it — as he thought his older brother [who died an alcoholic at the age of 42] had. This narrow, defensive worldview took hold at a very early age, and it never evolved. "When I look at myself today and I look at myself in the first grade," he told a recent biographer, "I'm basically the same." His development essentially ended in early childhood. [The Washington Post]

Schwartz goes on to note that "over the past week, in the face of criticism from nearly every quarter, Trump's distrust has almost palpably mushroomed."

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"The more he feels at the mercy of forces he cannot control — and he is surely feeling that now — the more resentful, desperate, and impulsive he becomes," Schwartz ominously adds. Read his entire assessment at The Washington Post.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.