Self-Sabotage

I’ve seen people do some crazy things.

When stressed, sometimes, people do things that are entirely not in their best interests. Or, so it seems.

With Donald Trump, there’s a great deal of consternation and/or glee as to why he keeps shooting himself in the foot. My theory: deep down, he doesn’t want to win.

My reasons:

If he wins, he will have to hand over his business to his children to run. To avoid any conflicts of interest, he will have to set up a blind trust structure. He is a control freak and will not like that.

This is a personality that loves attention, but it’s different when you’re campaigning. He must thrive on the adrenaline of being in the press and being adored by crowds. Campaigning is one very long business trip, jet setting from one venue to another, with the Secret Service in tow. I suspect you can feel very affirmed and validated from all of the attention.

Once an election ends, a candidate then has to shift from campaigning to something more complicated: governing. I’ve long believed that campaigning and governing are two different skill sets. I wonder if Trump will enjoy working with Congress, which will not jump at his every command. I wonder if he can deal with department bureaucracies that are known for undermining a politician, whom they know will be here today but gone tomorrow.

Just a theory. But, I think this candidate’s self-sabotage has a purpose. It may be his sub-conscious doing the driving, but the array of gaffes we’re seeing right now is too weird to explain.

And, he will save face after a loss by asserting that the election is rigged. Classic.

2 thoughts on “Self-Sabotage

  1. So why would he invest $50MM+ in his own campaign then? I know Mitt spent millions on his campaign in ’08 but only contributed personally $150k in ’12. If in fact “Trump didn’t want to win” he would have kept the $50MM in loans and not converted to a contribution. His brand is based on winning- just look at his book titles. There is no way he is throwing his own cash out and trying to lose.

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