President-elect Donald Trump is afraid his victory in the election was not actually legitimate, one of his biographers said in a new interview.
Politico spoke with three Trump biographers for a wide-ranging conversation that spanned several topics about the incoming president. Michael D'Antonio, who authored the 2015 book "Donald Trump & the Pursuit of Success," argued that Trump's insecurities have led to his attacks on the intelligence community and other efforts that try to delegitimize others.
"One thing I think that we have overlooked as we see Trump trying to delegitimize others is what I suspect is a feeling he has inside that nothing he's ever achieved himself has ever been legitimate," D'Antonio said. "This is a person who has never known whether anybody wants to be around him because he's a person they want to be around or they want to be around his money. And since he's promoted himself as this glamorous, incredibly wealthy person, that's the draw he's always given.
"He's always kind of gaming the system — not, in my view, winning on the merits. And even his election was with almost 3 million fewer votes than his opponent. So he has this deep fear that he himself is not a legitimate president, and I think that's why he goes to such great lengths to delegitimize even the intelligence community, which is the president's key resource in security, and he's going to do this demeaning and delegitimizing behavior rather than accept what they have to tell him."
Trump will be sworn in Friday at the Capitol building, to be followed by the customary inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. He has criticized the intelligence community for its belief that Russia tried to influence the election through computer hacks and fake news stories.
Trump attacked his opponents on the campaign trail and has continued his verbal assault now that he's the president-elect, which includes a spat with Rep. John Lewis — who will not attend the inauguration, along with more than 60 other House Democrats.
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