A friend encouraged me to view the 2024 movie, The Apprentice, a story about what shaped the life of Trump. I initially resisted as it is hard for me to even watch the news when he is on or read print media when his picture is attached to an article. My friend responded, “No, you should watch it.” Two actors in the movie won Oscars, Donald Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn.
It is the story of young Donald Trump, eager to make a name for himself as the hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York. The story details how he comes under the influence of Roy Cohn, an immoral and cutthroat lawyer. Cohn sees Trump as the perfect protégé, someone hungry for power and a willingness to get there any way that he can.
Trump is almost innocent at the beginning as he goes to the various apartment buildings to get the money from tenants who are behind in their rent. It is a time when Trump and his father are being sued for racist practices in their business refusing to rent to black people. It is easy to see the racism
of father and son.
The father, Fred, as we have heard from other sources belittles his sons and communicates that they can do nothing right. In one scene Fred Trump addresses his oldest son who is an airline pilot. He indicates to him that he is an embarrassment to the family because how can he tell others what his son does as he views it as inconsequential work. Trump’s older brother died of alcoholism. Fred Trump is direct and the prototype of a terrible parent. The mother is not. Trump meets Cohn and that changes the direction of his life. I always thought that Cohn was Fred Trump’s attorney, but the reverse is true as Donald introduced him to his father.
Cohn takes Trump under his wing. He gives him a three-step process that never fails: “Attack, attack, attack! Admit nothing, deny everything! Always claim victory and never admit defeat.” Look and sound familiar?
In the film part of what gets Trump in trouble, in my opinion, is that he is manic in his proposals for the best hotels, the best this and that to the point that one realizes that his life is filled with unreality. This is highlighted by the seven bankruptcies that are his record in business. He built two casinos a block from each other in Atlantic City against everyone’s counsel not to do it, but he thought he knew better. Both failed!
The frightening thing about the movie is how his character disorder is revealed. He is cold and heartless. He divorces Ivana, his first wife, because she no longer moves him in any way, including sexually and in one scene he attacks her sexually. Trump is approached toward the end of the movie by Cohn who has asked Trump to house someone in one of his apartments and he has learned that Trump has thrown this person out. There is a scene at the end of Cohn’s life when Cohn confronts Trump about this and asks Trump why he has done that. Trump’s callous response was, “He failed to pay the rent. How much longer do you want me to keep him?” The power has shifted. It is frightening to see Trump with power dealing with someone with who he once did not hold the power. He had no power after January 6 but regained it in the recent election. Watch out when any power dynamic shifts in his favor.
Everything becomes more and more about him. All relationships become transactional.
Tony Schwartz who wrote (with Trump) The Art of the Deal characterizes Trump as someone whose early character formation becomes fixed much later in life. What psychologists know is that often early tendencies become fixed later. I have a friend who knows Schwartz. It is no surprise that Trump wrote little of the book. His ideas, yes, but the rest was up to Schwartz. Today he still reads very little of the written word.
The movie is better than a documentary as it makes even more real the comments from Trump like, “You must fight back! What is truth? What I say is truth.” This powers his propensity to lie!
The Democrats missed an opportunity in their efforts to have Kamala Harris elected. All they would have had to do was show this movie as it is more frightening than even the testimonials against Trump. I am surprised the producers of the movie have not been sued.
Two things that happened recently sent shivers up my spine. One is a video of him walking through the halls of the Justice Department accompanied by Pam Bondi. As they pass through an archway, she asks him to stop as she is holding his arm and looking at him with adoration. As Trump turns, there is a picture of Trump above the archway. Only a few presidents have addressed the Department of Justice usually with accolades of the importance of their work. Trump’s address is a testament of the revenge he will now act on those he perceives as enemies from government officials to law firms. He will get them all!
The second frightening thing was a post on Truth Social of a man with an upside-down pink star with a cancelation line through it. It was how the Nazis identified those in the gay community.
What we know about people with Trump’s character disorder is that the only thing that will stop them is significant consequences. They become worse and worse as time goes on if there are no consequences. Prisons are filled with them.
My former student in ethics, John Yoo, Professor of Law at Berkeley, California, defends Trump’s actions as energizing the Executive Branch. He and others may know the law or understand that a threat to Trump is a threat to his and their power but what they don ‘t understand are the depths of his troubled human behavior. They are whistling in a dark room hoping to keep the monster from attacking them.
There is one psychological issue that I have not seen addressed which is indicative of Trump’s pathology. Once he gets what he wants, Ivana, et al, he loses interest in that thing except for golf. Hence the 3-million-dollar weekend trips to his Forida home. Nothing will fill the void of acceptance that is at his core which is why he falls for anyone who tells him he is great. DOGE should look into this!
Right now, the courts are the only thing that passes for a guardrail. If consequences of note don’t come soon, we will experience the downfall of our Democracy. This is going to be difficult as he has stacked all the areas of government that could represent consequences for him.
When his term is over, I would suggest that we have a team of psychologists/psychiatrists to be available to others. However, the faculty were the key helpers. This is one of the first things I did when I started at EA. Another option would be a mentoring group like what my good friend, Dr. John Crosby, established called the Uncommon Individual Foundation. It mentors fortune five hundred corporations and other organizations. Think about it! It’s important for companies to have that resource. Our government is the most important entity that we have and there are no resources such as advisory or mental health advocates for people who would be red flagged in other organizations.
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