P s y c h o h i s t o r i c a l P e r s p e c t i v e on

C u rre n t Events and Issues

KEN FUCHSMAN

The Presidential Campaign

That Astounded the
World: A Psychohistory of
Donald Trump and the
2016 American Election
emocracy can be diminished by demagogues. Historian Henry
D Adams (1838-1918), who wrote The Degradation o f the Democratic
Dogma and other works, worried that American political culture was in
decline. "The progress of evolution from President Washington to Presi
dent Grant, was alone evidence to upset Darwin" (Adams, 1918, 410).
And now we have President Trump, a man who has tapped into things
unsettled, unsettling and dangerous in himself and his supporters. How
would Henry Adams compare Trump to Grant, let alone Washington?
Candidate Donald J. Trump appealed to prejudices and stereotypes, was
uninformed on the details of policy, had a wild disregard for facts, and
made dreadful tweets and statements about most anyone who criticized
him, including that his Democratic opponent should be jailed, called her
the devil, and alluded that others might assassinate her.
Given the uniqueness of the 2016 Presidential election, it is important
to place the campaign in historical and psychological context. As Trump
displayed the excesses of his personality for all to see, how these were over
looked by so many voters, raises the question of what in our politics, his
tory, and culture allows such a candidate to be elected President. This paper
examines Trump's fitness for the nation's highest office and what enabled
him to become politically prominent and win in the Electoral College.

DONALD T R U M P
First, are Trump's actions that raised questions as to whether he was qual
ified to be President.

The Journal of Psychohistory 44 (4) Spring 2017

A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 293

He is the first President in American history without prior government

experience. During the campaign, he was not interested in obtaining the
requisite knowledge a President needs. When a CEO of a major company
offered to present a report of over a hundred pages on China to him,
Trump said send either three pages or do it orally for, "I have a lot of com
mon sense and I have a lot of business ability." He claimed to be so busy
he had no time to read books, though others who had more demands
than he did manage to stay well informed (Kranish and Fisher, 2016, 347).
He gave few speeches with detailed proposals; nor were many policy
statements displayed on his website. His focus was on political rallies, slo
gans, branding and demeaning his opponents, speaking off the cuff, and
tweeting at all hours. At campaign appearances and in Presidential
debates he made provocative and false statements, which pleased his sup
porters but led many former senior foreign policy and intelligence offi
cials to state Trump was unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.
His claims were often not factually accurate. According to The New
Yorker's Amy Davidson, "Trump spreads lies the way terrorists plant
bombs: one goes off, and when the first responders rush in, there's a sec
ond, or even a third" (Davidson, 9/20/2016). Pulitzer Prize winning Poli-
tifact kept a scorecard of Donald Trump's statements. They found that
over 29% were true, mostly true, or half true, while, over 70% were
mostly false, false or "pants on fire" (Politifact, 2016). In September,
Trump spoke one untruth every 3.25 minutes, according to tracking of
his remarks by Politico, and in the 33 days following September 15, 2016
journalist Daniel Dale counted 253 false statements by Trump (Cheney,
et al, 9/25/2016, Dale, 10/19/2016). Times reporters Maggie Haberman
and Alexander Burns examining the same week as did Politico found that
Tmmp's various remarks were peppered "with untruths so frequent that
they can seem flighty or randomeven compulsive." There was a reason
behind these falsehoods. "Virtually all of Mr. Trump's falsehoods directly
bolstered a powerful and self-aggrandizing narrative depicting him as a
heroic savior for a nation menaced from every direction" (Haberman and
Burns, 9/24/2016). He also specialized in denying what he had distinctly
said. As when he claimed to have been against the Iraq war from the
beginning, or his assertion that he had not tweeted about an Alicia
Machado sex tape when it is in black and white that he did. His cavalier
attitude towards accuracy is worrisome, as it is crucial that the President
can discern what is true from what is false.
As well as his many inaccurate statements, Trump often changed his
mind. Between June 2015 and July 2016, NBC News tracked Trump's
294 Ken Fuchsm an

statements on 20 major issues, and found 117 policy shifts, including

three contradictory statements in eight hours on abortion (Timm,
9/7/2016, New York Times Editorial Board, 9/25/2016). How can Donald
Trump make America great again if he cannot make up his own mind?
His alterations in course were often accompanied by grandiose declara
tions. One of Trump's heroic predictions in spring 2016 was that he could
get rid of the $19 trillion national debt in eight years (Kapur, 4/22/2016).
This was one of the few instances where Trump actually followed up a
fantastic claim with a policy proposal. It got him in hot water. This first
attempt about the economy would raise the debt by $11.5 trillion over a
10-year period according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget (Nussbaum and Weyl, 7/11/2016). Recognizing that this
increase would not do, Tmmp made another attempt at getting rid of our
indebtedness. In September 2016, he again presented a tax and fiscal ini
tiative. This time, the same Committee said Trump's proposals would raise
the debt by $5.3 trillion in the first decade, while Hillary Clinton's pro
posals would show a $200 billion increase for the same period of time.
(Shahidi, 9/22/2016,). His proposals were not equitable. The Tax Founda
tion found Trump's plan raised the after-tax income of the richest one per
cent between 10 and 16 percent, while middle-income households would
have gained between 0.8 to 1.9 percent (Surowlecki, 10/17. 2016). There
was clearly a wide disparity between Trump's extravagant promise on
making America great and what his tax policies would deliver.
Over the last century, the U. S. has not had a major party Presidential
nominee with such a disregard for truth, who reversed his positions as
frequently, who was so uninformed on issues, and whose few detailed
policy papers were so mixed up as Donald Trump. His popularity,
though, was not based on competency or the viability of his proposals.
Still, his temperament raised additional questions as to whether he
should be President. Trump is notoriously thin skinned. When criticized,
he tries to discredit the critic rather than deal with the substance of the
matter. From time to time, he became so preoccupied that he seemed
obsessive and immature. "Part of growing up is developing self-control.
Trump never has," asserts columnist Ruth Marcus. (Marcus, 9/30/2016).
She was referring to the numerous times Trump interrupted Clinton in
the first Presidential debate on Monday, September 26th and to his
response to a topic discussed there. Hillary Clinton brought up 1996 Miss
Universe, Alicia Machado, who Trump disparaged, particularly about her
weight. Ms. Machado seemed to stick in his craw. Instead of moving on,
he dumped on her the next day. Then that Friday morning between 3:00
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 295

am and 5:30 am he posted a flurry of seething tweets on the former Miss

Universe. He is "the impulse-control-deficient-Republican nominee," said
Politicos Louis Nelson (Nelson, 9/30/2016). If Trump can be so thrown off
by this less than earth shattering subject, how as President will he
respond to more serious issues?
He was also the pot who calls the kettle black. He regularly castigated
others for what he himself has done. First, some examples, then analysis.
During the primaries, over and over again Trump criticized his oppo
nents for being beholden to large money interests. He said both Ted Cmz
and Hillary Clinton were totally controlled by Goldman Sachs. Speaking
about the big banks, he proudly proclaimed: "They have no control over
Donald Trump. I don't want their money. I don't need their money," Then
it was revealed that he is indebted to large financial institutions for $650
million, including Goldman Sachs and the Bank of China (Flores,
8/20/2016). It turns out Trump has needed, wanted and taken their money.
He repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton because she voted for the Iraq
War resolution, acquiesced in the later withdrawal of most American
forces from Iraq, and advocated intervention in Libya. But he took the
same positions. Trump is on record as supporting invading Iraq, then
later saying we should pull out all our troops, and also advocated over
throwing Libyan leader Gadaffi.
Then there is Trump on others' sexual lives. After he falsely claimed
there was a sex tape of Alicia Machado, it soon turned out that Trump
himself had been featured in several soft-core Playboy videos.
Discussing Bill Clinton's numerous infidelities was a Trump pre-occu
pation. Being faithful to one's spouse is not an area where the thrice-mar
ried Trump's record is stellar. During his first marriage, he carried on an
extended affair with Marla Maples, shamelessly bringing her to public
events where his wife was present. When asked by reporters if like Bill
Clinton he had ever been unfaithful to any of his wives, Trump
responded, "NoI never discuss it, I never discuss it. It was never a prob
lem." A follow-up question specifically asked about committing adultery
with Ms. Maples; he repeated, "I don't talk about it (Healy and Haber-
man, 9/30/2016). Trump had to know that his discussing Bill Clinton's
sexual escapades would inevitably lead to his own. Given his history,
why would he venture into territory where he was so vulnerable himself?
A recording of Trump describing his sexually assaulting women came
out on October 7th. He tried to divert attention from himself by showing
how Bill Clinton was much worse. As if Clinton's actions meant we
should ignore his. This is the defense of a man who commits manslaughter
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and claims he should not be prosecuted because this other guy committed
murder. Trump lives in a glass house and cannot stop throwing stones.
Some say he is projecting his faults onto others. In psychoanalysis, pro
jection and projective identification are phenomena that are largely
unconscious. In these pot and kettle examples, Trump's motivation may
be unconscious, but he is not unaware of his own actions, even though he
denies, evades or tries to divert attention from what he has done. As his
own conduct is so often uncovered, it is peculiar that time and time again
he goes on the offensive to harshly criticize someone, and time and time
again it comes out that he is criticizing others for what he himself does.
Michael Bloomberg says of Trump: "I'm a New Yorker and I know a
con when I see one." It seems that by criticizing others for what he does,
Trump is either a shameless hypocrite, or is setting himself up, or he does
not feel he will be held accountable, or some combination of them all.
Trump does sometimes think he is immune from being held responsible.
As he said in 2005 in a different context, "when you're a star....You can
do anything" (Revesz, 10/8/2016). In the same vein, in January 2016, he
proclaimed, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot some
body and I wouldn't lose voters" (Diamond, 1/24/2016).
Trump often acts as if he will not suffer negative consequences, but
not always. At the same time as he feels above it all, he is almost begging
to be discovered. Trump is like a mischievous boy who telegraphs his
misconduct so he can be caught and punished. Once discovered, he then
denies he is guilty, or says what others have done is worse, or that the
system is rigged against him. Trump seems unaware that he both wants
to get away with things and to be punished for his transgressions. This
preoccupation with blaming others for what he does and his response
once caught was one of the more bizarre phenomenon in an election
overloaded with absurdity.
Trump's melodramatic psychodramas include the way he jumps to
conclusions and slanders others. Here are just a few examples. In early
May 2016, Trump forwarded a false National Enquirer story linking Ted
Cruz's father to Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK assassination. He also
went on Fox News to link Rafael Cruz and Oswald. Accusing any one of
being involved with Lee Harvey Oswald is serious, and involves fact
checking. Again, Trump was not interested in verifying the quickly
debunked Enquirer claim. Right after the Republican Convention,
Trump defended the aforementioned supermarket paper (Farley,
7/23/2016). He said that "in many respects" the National Enquirer
"should be well respected" (Spinelli, 7/22/2016). To find this publica-
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 297

t:on reputable is to live in a tabloid world, which is not infrequently

the case with Donald Trump.
He often acts like a gossip columnist spreading dirt about people; he
relishes demeaning those who offend him. This practice long precedes
his presidential bid. The Donald spreads inflated figures about his actual
wealth, and resists documenting his claims. On May 14, 1990, a Forbes
article said that Trump was not worth the 1.7 billion the magazine had
previously claimed, but $500 million. He was furious, and blamed the
piece on Malcolm Forbes, though Forbes died three months before the
article was in print. Trump was in no position to know if the decision to
investigate him occurred before or after Forbes passed away. Still, without
looking into things, he retaliated. Trump added a section to a forthcoming
book revealing that Forbes was homosexual (Kranish and Fisher, 2016,
112-113). Trump made no effort to check his assumption on Forbes as
inspiring the article, and went below the belt to get even.
To Trump, those who criticize him must have ulterior, even conspira
torial motives. He will expose them, though without looking before he
leaps. As he does not need to read long reports because he has common
sense and ability, he does not need to investigate what is true and not
true. He just needs to strike out at those who in his mind are out to get
him. "Man is the most vicious of all animals," Trump said in 1981, "and
life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat. You just can't let peo
ple make a sucker of you." Trump has learned "to keep my guard up one
hundred percent" (Kranish and Fisher, 94).
There is at minimum a tinge of paranoia in Trump's view of this dog
eat dog world of winners and losers. When faced with opposition, he
quickly strikes out in any way he can. Trump has initiated over 1,900
lawsuits (Kranish and Fisher, 300). This figure does not include all the
times he has merely threatened to sue reporters or authors who are look
ing into his actions.
Of course, when upset Trump goes on tweet rampages against what
ever has thrown him off. Some people play in the rough and tumble
worlds of business or politics and usually maintain their equanimity, and
some do not. Without a doubt, the thin-skinned Trump falls into the lat
ter group. To many, Trumps lack of steadiness and willingness to fly off
the handle make him unsuited for the Presidency.
Another aspect of Trump's paranoia is his belief that the political sys
tem is rigged, and, of course, rigged against him. This belief that things
are stacked against him is the other side of his grandiose belief in his
being immune from harm. When things do not go his way, falls back on
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things being fixed. As Secretary Clinton pointed out Trump claimed that
the federal judge of Mexican descent was biased against him. His cam
paign claimed that the Wisconsin Republican primary was basically fixed
against him, and when his TV show lost the Emmy's three years in a row,
he tweeted that these awards were rigged. As Clinton said, "this is a
mindset. This is how Donald thinks" (Clinton, 10/19/2016).
On September 24, 2012, he did tweet, "The Emmy?? are all politics,
that's why...The Apprentice never won" (Gajanan, 10/19/2016). After
losing big in the aforementioned Wisconsin contest, his campaign
declared there was a conspiracy of Ted Cruz, the party bosses, and con
servative talk show hosts suspiciously "attempting to steal the nomina
tion from Mr. Trump," (Smith, 4/5/2016). On September 19th' he claimed
that the Presidential debate moderators "are all Democrats," including
that NBCs Lester Holt "is a Democrat." To Trump, "It's a very unfair sys
tem." Lester Holt is a registered Republican, and the only actual Democrat
among the moderators is Fox News' Chris Wallace, (Haberman and
Burns, 9/24/2016).
Of course, for Trump there is no reason for facts to invalidate his nar
rative, or for him to investigate what is true before he asserts something.
Trump has created his own world in which he is both besieged on all
sides and yet triumphant. To himself, he is a heroic leader who will res
cue himself and the rest of the unfairly treated silent majority from these
unfair betrayals, this corruption from within by the likes of Lyin' Ted and
Crooked Hillary. This grandiosity, living in the political gutter, and self-
deception characterized him and his campaign. He went farther into the
depths than any candidate in our already squalid history of campaigning,
even calling Hillary Clinton the devil, and promising to jail her if he is
President (Murphy, 10/10/2016). Trump successfully played out this psy
chological melodrama to cheering crowds, a number of whom often
appear to share the same paranoid style, resentful anger, viciousness, and
no interest in factual accuracy.
Is it not a coincidence that the man who brought birther racism main
stream is a nativist stoking prejudice against darker skinned Muslims and
Mexicans, and also has a lengthy history of saying and acting as a sexual
assaulter. To cap off this playing to the darkest impulses, he presents the
first woman to be a major party Presidential nominee as the devil who
should be imprisoned. Racism and sexism are central to Donald Trump's
presentation of self in everyday life. These prejudices are, of course,
accompanied by paranoia in Trump and others. Some deep anxiety and
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 299

anger in the American soul is embodied in the Republican Presidential

nominee. We are living through a frightening time in American politics.

W H A T IN O U R P O L I T I C S , H IS T O R Y ,
A N D C U L T U R E E N A B L E D T R U M P ' S R IS E ?
These characteristics lead back to the question of what in our politics,
history, and culture makes it possible that Donald Trump is now Amer
ica's Commander-in-Chief?

P o lit ic s a n d C u l t u r e
First, we should look at our governmental structure. The United States
has a system of separation of powers, where someone who wins a major
ity of the Electoral College is elevated to the Presidency. A candidate can
have a plurality in the popular vote, but not triumph in the Electoral
College. This has now happened five times. In the British government, a
Prime Minister has to be a Member of Parliament, who has shown his or
her competence and character, and has been selected as the leader of a
political party or coalition that wins a majority of seats in the House of
Commons. Trump would not be eligible to be the nation's political leader
in Great Britain; nor would he be President in a system where the candi
date with the most actual votes is victorious.
Second, the United States is stuck in a cultural pattern of endless polit
ical campaigns. No other industrial nation has as lengthy election sea
sons as we do, The British elections last four weeks, the official French
campaign is either two or three weeks, and the Germans about a month
(Library of Congress). With these much shorter campaigns, the focus for
the public and politicians is more on governing than running for office.
Not so in the U.S. where perpetual campaigning is a way of life. The first
Republican Presidential debate was a full fifteen months before votes
were tabulated, the Iowa caucus nine months before the general election,
and the period from the political party conventions until the final ballot
ing was over three months.
The ritualistic contest then becomes a center of our national life.
Much of the news media coverage of governmental issues focuses on
how it plays politically more than policy details. The talk of who is going
to be running for President in the next election is frequently front and
center long before any primaries are on the horizon. As political strategist
David Axelrod quips, "in Washington, every day is election day" (Dionne
Jr., 2016, 119). Our competitive culture is perpetually drawn to the great
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contest for the Presidency. Donald Trump as the unpredictable candidate

who says dreadful things about his opponents, kept the public interested
throughout the long campaign season.
For some the pursuit of a romantic partner may be more energizing
than the actual relationship. American culture tends to focus more on
the perpetual contest than the complex process of governing. We cham
pion our nation as a democracy, but often equate being democratic with
popular elections rather than majority rule. Many follow the ups and
downs of political campaigns as if it was a sporting contest. This in a
nation where the nation's other most unifying regularly scheduled ritual is
the Super Bowl.
Third, campaigning and governing can be quite different. A viable candi
date must have a distinct persona, develop a campaign theme such as "Yes,
We Can," "Make America Great Again," "Feel the Bern," etc. The aspirant
should know how to get media attention, and hold spirited rallies. To gov
ern effectively as President, a person needs to have knowledge of the issues,
develop detailed policy proposals, work together with Congress, implement
foreign policy, provide for the common defense, be a party leader, and be a
good public spokesperson. The competencies required for governing effec
tively differ substantially from those needed to win elections.
American political campaigns are rituals with religious overtones.
Many successful candidates running against the status quo have been
adept at pointing out the nation's problems, and then making grand
promises that will supposedly solve our difficulties and bring a better day.
It is not only Donald Trump's rallies that are long on promises and short
on specifics. I attended a Bernie Sanders rally and found he articulately
enumerated our nation's defects and corruptions. He promised change,
gave few specific proposals, and did not mention the obstacles to bring
ing about his revolution. In 2008, I watched a detached Barack Obama
brilliantly make the large crowd enthusiastic, thus fulfilling the function
of these campaign events to arouse the audience's emotions. Obama's
oratory was derived from the African-American church traditions and he
applied religiously derived rhetoric to political campaigning.
Political rallies sometimes resemble revival meetings. Supporters get
their hopes high as the candidate is there to convert the crowd. Even
though the Presidency can be a bully pulpit, once in office not all the
grandiose promises are fulfilled. Some remain faithful to the nation's
leader. Others in the body politic become disappointed and/or disillu
sioned, and may either search for another high promising candidate in
the next election, or may just stop voting.
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 301

This cycle of hope and disenchantment occurs so often, it can be char

acterized as a recurring American civic ritual. Much is achieved by our
government, yet we seem to be susceptible again and again to a cycle of
electing candidates who promise more than they deliver. Donald Trump is
part of this tradition of political candidates who make fantastic promises,
know how to rouse a crowd and present themselves as the only person
heroic enough to bring us out of the mire and make this nation great
cnce again. Over and over, many Americans have fallen for political
salesmen who cannot fulfill the campaign promises they make.
Another element in our campaign melodrama is extreme polarization.
The opponents are condemned and your side is presented as the pure
source of the good. This ritual of us versus them has been central to our
lengthy campaigns. Very few office seekers were as skilled at rallying sup
porters around a simple campaign theme and spreading dirt and slander
ing political opponents as Donald Trump. His campaign was superb on
awakening the animosity that is central to our political theater. He knows
that it is the making of great promises and denigrating one's opponents
that is more important than spelling out programs that can bring
promises to fruition.
Fourth, the media play a central role in the phenomenon of endless
campaigns. They often focus on the contest rather than policy, and on per
sonality rather than issues. Mainstream news itself has been transformed:
there is more soft news, more of a tabloid sensibility, while verifying claims
before publishing, broadcasting, or repeating them has frequently gone by
the wayside. As Adams worried about the undermining of democratic
dogma, we have certainly seen a degradation of journalistic standards.
"All The News That's Fit to Print" is the slogan of The New York Times
and appears daily on the paper's front page. One aspect of being a news
story should be accuracy. Of course, not all news publications [of the
past] adhered to verifying before publishing. Certainly the New York City
newspaper tabloid wars of 1898 that helped lead to the Spanish-Ameri-
can War focused on sensational headlines that were factually dubious.
Then half-a-century later in 1950 along came Senator Joseph
McCarthy. Newspapers across the nation printed his sensational claims
that card carrying Communists were influential in the U. S. State Depart
ment. Few if any papers factually checked McCarthy's figures before
printing them. The demagogic McCarthy never uncovered an actual State
Department Communist. Yet his accusations struck a chord in the early
days of the Cold War. By not verifying before publishing the news media
had a substantial part in his rise. Nowadays there is little reluctance, even
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among the nation's more esteemed news outlets, to publish wild unsub
stantiated claims when made by newsworthy individuals.
This reflects the tabloidization of the news. Tabloid dailies feature big
headlines on sensational incidents, human interest stories, scandals, and
gossip about celebrities, including their romantic lives and sexual
escapades; this is often called soft news. Between 1977 and 1997, such
soft items in the U. S. news media increased from 15% to 43% (Cash-
more. E., 2006, 26).
Strongly connected to the changes in the news business is that, along
with some other countries, the U.S. has become a celebrity culture hun
gry to be entertained. As historian Christopher Lasch wrote in 1978,
there is a "cult of celebrity" promoted by the "mass media" that encour
ages "the common man to identify himself with the stars" and their
"glamour and excitement" (Lasch, 1978, 21). For "we now live in an
amusement society," writes sociologist Lauren Langham, "in which
entertainment values displace all others." In this society of amusement,
the "difference between leaders and stars has become "blurred," and not
surprisingly "politics has become a moment of entertainment....In the
new era of telepolitics...self-presentations replace platforms and agendas
(Langham, Lauren, 2012, 513, 521). As Ellis Cashmore recognizes, "news
values have been subverted by entertainment values" (Cashmore, 32).
Columnist Leslie Gelb, "Truth is judged not by evidence, but by theatri
cal performances....Truth has become the acceptance of untruths" (Bern
stein, 2007, 224). We now have a President who has long been a celebrity
and who specializes in disregarding evidence before making pronounce
ments. Henry Adams is likely turning over in his grave.
It is easy to see how our political structure, our fascination with
lengthy political campaigns, the cult of personality and celebrity, the
degradation of hard news, a tabloid sensibility, featuring slogans over
policy, and elections as entertainment have all laid a foundation that
have enabled Trump to rise to the top.
No candidate in the history of the United States has been more effec
tive at grabbing media attention than Donald Trump. During the pri
mary season, his rallies were televised live on cable news channels, a priv
ilege rarely granted to his opponents. Trump said the reason this was
done is that he brought up their ratings. The Chairman of CBS, Les
Moonves, said Trump's candidacy "may not be good for America, but it's
damn good for CBS....The money's rolling in and this is fun....bring it
on, Donald Keep going" (Collins, 2/29/2016). By mid-March, Trump had
been given $1.9 billion in free media coverage, which was three times
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 303

more than the other leading Republican candidates (Tomasky, 2016). As

of March, 2016 during the primaries, CNN had devoted 55.4% of its cov
erage to Trump while the rest of his Republican opponents received
44.6%, Fox News gave 47.6% of its coverage to Trump, and MSNBC
50.4% (Miller, 3.16).
If there is a Trump phenomenon, the cable news networks certainly
contributed to it. While many running for office hardly vary from their
standard stump speech, Trump's off the cuff style included bringing up
something new regularly, which not only gained headlines, but kept inter
est in his shenanigans going. If you look at print, televised news and social
media coverage of Trump and Clinton, you will find that much more
attention was devoted to the Donald. Trump was the celebrity as candi
date, the leader in the carnival of political theater. He knew how to use the
tabloidization of the news to his advantage. When in doubt he went to the
gutter and the sensational. His exploitation of the rituals of American cam
paigns allowed him to become a mass political phenomenon despite his
false statements, lack of interest in knowing policy details, and abandon
ment of civility. He is the all-time American master of political publicity.

H is to r y
The joining together of the media and our preoccupation with endless
campaigns partially explains the political rise of Donald Trump. For how
he attracted so many ardent followers, we need to turn to political history.
There are many strands within the Republican party, one of which is
the paranoid style often displayed by this political party. In the Great
Depression, intervention by the state in the economy and social welfare
legislation led factions within the Republican Party to consider that Roo
sevelt and his fellow travelers were un-American and were violating
sacred principles of capitalism. After World War II and the emergence of
the Cold War, this led to a second Red Scare, like that of the one following
the first World War. When capitalism is in crisis or the nation's security is
threatened, many in the U. S. become unsettled, angry, and search for
scapegoats. The fault cannot be in ourselves, but in some threatening
force; paranoia then once again rears its ugly head.
Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican Presidential standard bearer,
and his supporters often equated themselves with Americanism, but the
Democrats had Congressional majorities for all but a handful of the years
between 1933 and 1980. Then came the Reagan revolution of 1980. In
the years since then Republicans have been the more dominant national
political party. Reagan said government was the problem rather than the
304 Ken Fuchsman

solution, revived the major Republican tax cuts favoring the wealthy
from the 1920s, and targeted so-called tax and spend liberals. The
Democrats were regularly portrayed as hostile to America's liberties by
imposing big government on the populace. Many Republicans felt the
disloyal Democratic Party had been routed, and true Americanism had
been restored.
Some in the Grand Old Party were dismayed when Democrat Bill Clin
ton won the 1992 election; there are factions within the party that think
that having a Democrat in the White House is contrary to American val
ues. Some conservatives did whatever they could to undermine the Presi
dent. Clinton's many foolish actions led to his impeachment, but not
conviction. Levels of animosity were directed at this Democratic chief
executive that had not been seen in decades.
When Obama became President, it was as if the Red Scare had turned
into the Black Scare. The intense fury that characterized the McCarthy
era returned with a vengeance. But there was an added element, the
night Obama was inaugurated, prominent Congressional Republicans
met and swore to oppose any thing Obama proposed, even if it had been
things they had long advocated. Partisanship took on new dimensions.
Adding to this was the hatred and paranoia directed at Obama.
In the age of the internet, social media, and conservative radio, the
demonized Obama was accused of being a Muslim, communist, fascist,
and everything else under the sun. Birthers even questioned if he was eli
gible to be President. The paranoid style was brought to new levels. Part
of this was due to the usual scapegoating that follows American eco
nomic crises. The Great Recession shook up many Republicans who can
not abide or understand how sacred capitalism can have major failures.
But there was another twist in this sense of betrayal. After the 2008
recession, many rebellious Republicans not only scapegoated and stereo
typed President Obama, they targeted stalwart Republicans in Congress.
The 2010 elections brought to the forefront a Tea Party movement that
saw the government as the enemy, and Congressional Republicans as
betraying their principles of decreasing the size of the government and
the federal debt.
Republicans slowly developed their own civil war. The Tea Partiers in
Congress became so obstreperous that the Republican Speaker of the
House resigned his position and his seat in Congress in September, 2015.
These deep Republican party divisions played themselves out in the
2015-2016 primaries. The mainstream Republican candidates fell by the
wayside in a party revolt. The two candidates who received the highest
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 305

vote totals were the most conservative and bold: Ted Cruz and Donald
Trump. Both played upon the anger in the Tea Party and others.
The recession has left deep scars, and was preceded by years of middle-
class decline. In 1970, the U. S. middle class had 62% of the nation's
aggregate household income. By 2014, it was 43%. Between 2001 and
2013, the median wealth of middle income Americans fell by 28%. The
American middle class made up 61% of the adult population in 1971, but
just under 50% in 2015. On the other side of the ledger, in 1970, 29% of
aggregate income went to upper income families, but by 2014, that had
risen to 49% (Pew Research Center, 12/9/2015). The Great Recession
brought slower economic growth. Obama will likely be the first President
since Herbert Hoover to not have at least one full calendar year of gross
domestic product growth of at least three percent (Gillin, 10/31/2016).
During the Obama years through 2015, real median household income
was down 2.3 percent, home ownership had declined 5.6%, and 3.5%
more Americans were in poverty now than before he assumed office
(Murdock, 5/6/2016).
The distribution of wealth and wages, has become less equitable. Pro
ductivity had risen 96.7 percent between 1948 and 1973, at the same
time real wages almost matched that, going up 91.3 percent. Then
between 1973 and 2013 while productivity rose 73.4 percent wages only
went up 11.1 percent (Johnson, 2016). Particularly hard hit were middle
aged males with less than a college education.
The world had turned and there was a dividing line between those
who had bachelor's degrees and those that did not. There were also sub
stantial educational differences between males and females. By the mid-
1990s women aged 25 to 29 began attaining at least a bachelor's degree
at a higher rate than men. The work place too was altering. In 1970,
about 16% of managers were female, by 2009 close to 40% were women
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Many less educated men felt displaced and
betrayed, and some became more conservative, nativist, resentful, sexist,
and furious. Many of them feel disenfranchised. In a poll before the elec
tion, 93% of Trump's supporters did not feel that their concerns were
being addressed in Washington (Wallace-Wells, 9/30/2016).
Donald Trump played to the hostility towards Washington, the preju
dices against immigrants, the economic woes, and the jealousy of high
achieving women. He exploited the Republican party, economic, and sex
ual divisions to his own advantage. The birther Trump knew how to
stereotype and brand Obama, Hillary Clinton, and his Republican pri
mary opponents. The political divisions, along with the political and cul-
306 Ken Fuchsm an

tural phenomenon have set the stage for this celebrity, with few qualifi
cations but many skills in gaining attention to himself, to forge an effec
tive political movement within the main currents of Republican party
ideology. Yet, he used that tradition to go beyond the mainstream. No
other major party presidential nominee in our history has so unleashed
the discontent and rage of the electorate as he has. As celebrity and dem
agogue, Donald Trump is a master of the paranoid style.
His slogan of making America great again played well in the rust belt
states which had seen industrial decline for decades. It is in those states
that the sense that America was no longer great economically was strong.
They were more receptive to his appeal than Clinton's that America is
already great. In the week before the election two polls showed that only
a little over 30% of Americans thought the nation was heading in the
right direction, while 60% or more thought we are going in the wrong
direction (Real Clear Politics, 12/1/2016).
The dissatisfaction with the current direction showed up on election
day in the old industrial heartland. Which states are in the rust belt is
open to disagreement, but some say they are Pennsylvania, West Vir
ginia, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Trump car
ried all these states, but Illinois. In winning in Pennsylvania, Michigan,
and Wisconsin he turned states that had been solidly Democratic for
decades. It is his triumph in the rust belt that brought him victory in the
electoral college. The lingering impact of the Great Recession helped give
Trump the margin that has brought him into the White House. He skill
fully played to racism and sexism in the South, and to economic worries in
states suffering from manufacturing decline. The most unqualified major
party candidate in American history was able to put together a winning
coalition, showing once again that running a successful campaign can be
quite different than the skills needed to actually govern competently.

CONCLUSION
In this dark carnival of an endless campaign, the familiar dysfunctions of
our electoral rituals, celebrity culture, tabloid sensationalism, and aban
donment of factual accuracy have gone to unprecedented extremes. Both
major party candidates had deep flaws, though Trump's were more on
public display. He has a quick-trigger temperament that looks on criti
cism as a vast conspiracy. While Hillary Clinton would have left many of
our pressing problems unresolved, she did not have an impulse control
problem. J. K. Rowling, after tweeting something critical of Trump, was
told by an American to stay out of our election. The British creator of
A Psychohistory of Donald Trump and the 2016 American Election 307

Harry Potter responded, "When a man this ignorant & easy to manipu
late gets within sniffing distance of the nuclear codes, it's everyone's
business" (Rowling, 1/15/2016). Now he is President.

Ken Fuchsman recently retired from the University o f Connecticut, where he

served as faulty and an administrator for many years. Dr. Fuchsman writes
about presidents and presidential campaigns, including a number o f articles on
President Obama and also on Presidents Kennedy and Nixon. He also writes on
trauma, the history of psychoanalysis, the nature of being human, and popular
culture. He is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Psychohistory and
Clio's Psyche, and currently serves as President o f the International Psychohis-
torical Association.

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