It is a little-known (except to everyone) fact that Donald J. Trump does not merely possess an ego. He is in a long-term, exclusive and extremely public relationship with it. It’s the most enduring relationship in his life.
It is not unusual. I handled the investments for wealthy individuals for 40 years — they all have egos. You fail without one. Some couch it by hiring public relations firms to promote themselves, and they sit back with an “aw-shucks” attitude. They do the classic “humble brag.”
Not Trump. He is in your face and right out there with his ego. Some find it refreshing. Some think he uses it to troll his opponents. Others think it might be his downfall.
I have always given him rope on it. Trump’s ego arrived first. It was already fully formed, tanned and wearing a red hat. He built a brand on it. Everything became “Trump”: towers, steaks, hotels, water, a university that taught advanced self-aggrandizement and condo flipping.
The man does not describe things. He inflates them until they require their own ZIP code. A crowd is never merely large. It is the largest crowd in the history of crowds. His hair is not hair. It has its own foreign policy. It leans forward like it is late for a meeting with destiny.