This article from Salon was initially posted on the AlterNet website in August, 2017.
Donald Trump’s astonishing New York Times interview from July 19, which first telegraphed his threat to get rid of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has not led to Sessions’ departure — at least not yet. But it did highlight something basic about how the president operates, a method that has swept away chief of staff Reince Priebus, press secretary Sean Spicer and communications director Anthony Scaramucci, the latter dismissed before he could unpack his boxes. It’s not just that Trump’s loyalty is only to himself, as should have been obvious given the scores of associates he’s wooed, ripped off and discarded over his long career, including his own lawyers, at times. Rather, it’s the centrality of this cycle to the way that Trump operates. It’s not a bug, or a feature, it’s the feature of his career — a window both into his abnormal psyche and into the cultural and political dynamics that have allowed him to flourish in the midst of more general ruin. As Peter Turchin argues in “Ages of Discord“ (Salon review here), the erosion of prosocial norms and increase in antisocial elite behavior are key features of historical periods like the one we’re engulfed in, when state breakdown, civil wars and revolutions occur. There was also the matter of how Trump justifies the prospective discarding of associates, and how he lays predicates for wooing, ripping off and discarding the next crop of eager, willing victim/accomplices. (“I think it is very unfair to the president,” Trump said of Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation — the onlyethical option he had.) But the how of this intended discarding can only be appreciated in terms of the larger pattern — a pattern that has received far too little notice, given how much attention has been given to Trump’s mental health, or lack thereof. The cycle referred to is most insightfully described in the book “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work,” by criminal psychologist Robert Hare, whose checklist has revolutionized the understanding of psychopathy, and industrial psychologist Paul Babiak, an expert on the corporate environment. Psychopathy is not the same as anti-social personality disorder (APD), the book explains. “The difference between psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder is that the former includes personality traits such as lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow emotion that are not necessary for a diagnosis of APD. APD is three or four times more common than psychopathy in the general population and in prisons.” There’s been a great deal of commentary about Trump’s apparent psychological abnormalities, but “Snakes in Suits” describes a particular pattern that stands out for the combination of clarity it brings to bear and the broad scope of action it describes. This pattern consists of a three-phase game plan many psychopaths in corporate settings use a when engaging with victims, “a natural outgrowth of their personality” that is often more automatic than consciously planned:
First, they assess the value of individuals to their needs, and identify their psychological strengths and weaknesses. Second, they manipulate the individuals (now potential victims) by feeding them carefully crafted messages, while constantly using feedback from them to build and maintain control. Not only is this an effective approach to take with most people, it also allows psychopaths to talk their way around and out of any difficulty quickly and effectively if confronted or challenged. Third, they leave the drained and bewildered victims when they are bored or otherwise through with them.
Whether or not Trump qualifies as a psychopath or a malignant narcissist (they are closely related), he has a long public history of behavior patterns that fit this description, even though he has never worked in a normal corporate organization, the setting described in the book. Those qualifications, which would loom large for any therapist treating Trump, pale in comparison to the similarities that matter to us as citizens. Trump has traversed the trajectory described countless times, with customers, business associates, lawyers and wives. Why shouldn’t he do the same with everyone in the political world as well? And if he actually does deviate from the pattern for some reason — which is always a possibility — understanding his behavioral baseline will still be crucial in making sense of that departure from it. The large mass of the 3,500 Trump-involved lawsuits uncovered by USA Todayexposes the reality of how Trump operates. He rips off everyone he works with, from hourly workers to the biggest banks. “No candidate of a major party has had anything approaching the number of Trump’s courtroom entanglements,” USA Todayreported. Nor did other entrepreneurs. “I think we have far less litigation of companies of our size,” Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, told them. But a comparison with five top real-estate executives found that “Trump has been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of the others — combined.” The fact that he even stiffs his own lawyers and has several times been sued by themis a prime indicator of his overall pattern. Attorneys are initially eager to work for such a high-profile client, and things go well for a while — until the checks stop coming. The Levine Staller law firm won $40 million in tax settlements for Trump, was promised $7.25 million but only got paid $6 million, and had to sue for the rest. On the low end, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer named Bill Scherer had to sue Trump in small claims court to collect less than $5,000. One who wasn’t stiffed was nonetheless sufficiently appalled to write 20 reasons not to vote for him. With this broad record in mind, let’s take a closer look at how “Snakes in Suits”describes the three phases. Regarding the assessment phase, the book says:
View the complete March 19 post from Salon on the AlterNet website here.