- Title: Who is Donald Trump?
- Date: 25th February 2016
- Summary: ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** DONALD TRUMP GOING UP ESCALATOR
- Embargoed: 11th March 2016 21:13
- Keywords: Donald Trump election Republican presidency nomination Marla Maples Ivana Trump Melania Knauss April Masini Bart Rossi Bradford Cohen
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK + WASHINGTON, D.C + SALEM, NEW HAMPSHIRE + MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE + SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES / MOSCOW, RUSSIA / PARIS, FRANCE
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK + WASHINGTON, D.C + SALEM, NEW HAMPSHIRE + MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE + SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES / MOSCOW, RUSSIA / PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA00445ZK37R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
When Donald Trump announced in June he was running for U.S. President, not many would have considered him a serious contender for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
Yet the billionaire real estate developer and reality show host soared to victory in early nominating contests in Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, effectively serving notice to those who didn't take his 2016 White House campaign seriously.
Now, Trump's chances of clinching the U.S. Republican presidential nomination look good. Long viewed as a political outsider, he won his first endorsement from a member of Congress and has put significant pressure on Republican rivals to try and stop him.
Political psychologist, Dr. Bart Rossi, explained that Trump's bluster and boasting is true to his personality and stems from his childhood upbringing.
"His father was very authoritarian, very demanding, the boss and of course Donald picked up these traits and characteristics and presented himself in Manhattan while his father worked in Brooklyn and Queens. And I think that Donald really decided that he would market himself and his very egocentric personality. It's who he is. He doesn't care if he's egotistical. He has actually in my view made arrogant into an art form," said Rossi.
Trump's meteoric surge to the top of the 2016 Republican presidential field is filled with his style of Trump Talk - a mix of bullish optimism and hyperbole. Some may recognize his knack for what has been described as telling it like it is, from his days as a reality television show host on "The Apprentice."
Trump hosted and served as an executive producer of the wildly popular NBC show from January 2004 until 2015.
On the show contestants competed to work for Trump. Each week he would whittle down the group by firing someone, and he became known for the catch phrase: "You're Fired!"
Former contestant Bradford Cohen, who was on the show in 2004, respects Trump for his honesty and for being the same man on the campaign trail as he was back then.
"When he fired me from 'The Apprentice,' he fired me because he believed that I gave up an immunity, this little ticket I had, I gave that up for free, that I wasn't gaining anything by giving that up. And if you listen to his speeches today, he will continually say, 'America is giving up things and getting nothing in return. We're going to war, we're getting nothing in return. We're doing these things, these deals and we're getting nothing back for these deals that we're doing.' And it just shows he does not change his opinion, he does not change his core beliefs. He always believes that if you're giving something up, you should be getting something in return," Cohen said.
What makes Trump's candidacy so surprising to many is that he has rewritten the rules of campaigning with breathtaking speed. He pulled out of a Republican debate, has taken on Republican elders and even the Pope. And he says things nobody else would dare say - from maligning Senator John McCain's military record to calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.
How is he able to do it and still be ahead in the polls?
"He's projecting himself to those folks who are angry," explained Rossi.
"Authoritarian figures, we know as psychologists, relate well to people who are disenfranchised. They feel that they're angry, they're really not part of society anymore or they're not part of the country in this case. And so he resonates with those folks. He may be narcissistic, but these folks feel that he can smack down or put down anybody and they like that."
Rossi added that with issues such as gay rights, race and immigration being at the forefront of American politics, many feel left out and that Trump could be the right authoritarian figure to bring them back into the fold.
As for those who know the man, they believe that he really will fight for the average American's rights.
April Masini was a producer on Trump's 1998 Miss Universe Pageant. She remembers Trump fondly as a magnetic and inspiring person to be around.
"When he walked in, it was like he sucked the oxygen out of the room. He's larger than life, that's probably the biggest thing that I remember and I also remember him going around and saying hello to everybody, so even though he had this presence, it wasn't like he was above other people," Masini said.
And while some have wondered how he will react on women's issues, the women behind him say there's no one better to champion them.
His eldest daughter designer Ivanka Trump has been out on the campaign trail canvassing for her dad.
Current wife Milania, stands beside Trump and says simply that Trump would "be the best president."
Trump could very well be the first president to have been married three times. He was married to Ivana Zelnickova from 1977 to 1991, Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999 and he has been married to Melania Knauss since 2005.
Former wives Ivana Trump and Marla Maples have both said they think Trump would make a great President too.
But before taking on the race for the White House, Trump has to win the Republican nomination. And one thing is sure, his rivals are under pressure to come up with a way to stop the candidate, who just last year was not thought to have a real chance in the Nov. 8th presidential election. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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