Trump a solitary workaholic, biographer says

Washington DC - At the event, Fisher noted that his final impression of Trump is "of a solitary figure alone in Trump Tower

 Donald Trump is in many ways a "lonely and solitary" workaholic whose life has been driven by a need to build his own brand, according to one of the authors of a recent biography of the New York billionaire.
The book, entitled "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power", was penned by Washington Post investigative reporter Michael Kranish and senior editor Marc Fisher. To write the book - which was written with the support of a team of other Washington Post journalists - the authors spent nearly 20 hours with Trump for interviews, and spoke to his friends, family members and business associates.  
On Saturday, the authors held an event at Politics and Prose, a popular Washington DC bookstore that has long been a favourite of political insiders.
At the event, Fisher noted that his final impression of Trump is "of a solitary figure alone in Trump Tower."
"He's an incredible workaholic. Work is his life," he said. "What we found is that even socializing for him was solely for the publicity to build his brand. In many ways he's a lonely and solitary figure."
Both authors noted that Trump's real skill is in his showmanship and ability to give an audience what it wants.
"His great skill is to read a crowd and repeat their passions back to them," Fisher said.
Kranish, for his part, said that many of Trump's more controversial statements are, in fact, a calculated ploy to gain support among a certain segment of American voters.
"In reality, that has an appeal in various places," he said. "He has looked at the situation and saw it appeals to certain people."
In the event that Trump is elected, Fisher said that Trump would likely function as he has in his business ventures - through a small number of trusted advisors.
"He has always worked with a tiny circle of trusted executives. That would continue to be the way he operates," he said. "It's hard to imagine him breaking that pattern in the way a president has to."
Kranish said that Trump might - out of necessity - have to change the way he operates if he were in the White House.
"Even Republicans have been concerned by his temperament. As President, you need to be willing to listen to people who have a different opinion and challenge you," he said. "He'd have to be a different kind of president than executive."
In the event that Trump loses the elections, Fisher believes that after an initial period of bluster Trump would eventually accept defeat.
"He tends to last out, blame others and say the system is rigged," he noted. "Then he tends to move on."
Regarding Trump's controversial statements regarding women, Fisher said that he considers Trump as someone who has been "arrested in the period of his youth."
"He has an enormous drive to prove himself to other men as a guy's guy," he said. "A lot of this behavior is linked to that."
"He's not someone who has had a lot of exposure to the way conversations have changed," he added. "He's also just trying to get a rise out of people."
When asked for predictions about the coming elections, both authors declined to give any.
"I predict that the country will remain divided and (that there will be) a lot of dysfunction in Washington," Kranish concluded. 
bernd@khaleejtimes.com 
 

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