I recently came across an Alternet article which includes quotes from Trump’s former bunkmate at the military school that Trump had been sent to. It shows, to me, that Trump’s deeply narcissistic personality dates back to at least his high school years, and probably to his early childhood. Reportedly, Trump was sent to this school at the age of 13 because he was a bully with impulse control problems, who thought he knew better than anyone else. (Sound familiar?)

Anymore, some of the more specific things that this classmate, Art Davie, said about Donald Trump are as follows:

Trump was upset and frustrated that he wasn’t promoted faster. He would constantly claim to be the best at everything. He claimed to be the best soccer player at the school although he wasn’t close to being that good at this sport. He was obsessed with the celebrity of, and media attention received by, the Kennedy family. Davie and Trump were separated after they got into an argument in which Davie noted that the guns they had didn’t have firing pins, which Trump thought was an irreverent comment.

After Trump’s 5 draft deferments, he was given the nickname “Cadet Bonespurs” by his former classmates. To quote Davie, “He was an egomaniac when he was 16. He was a great flag-waver for himself. He wanted everyone to recognize he was the GOAT in everything he did out there.” Davie later added “I think that Trump was always looking for something to glorify what he’s doing. Now they’re talking about maybe making it some sort of a permanent Lincoln Memorial type of structure, which I think is crazy.”

The context of this interview, in terms of military school, brings up another issue which I have not seen addressed in the media. People who go to military schools are supposed to have military careers, or at least be open to such. The fact that Trump actively sought excuses for military deferments, despite his training and claims of being the best at everything, show that he was a phony even then when it came to military service or following through on commitments. It’s one thing when a person with no interest in, or aptitude for, military service tries to avoid it, which is understandable and probably for the best, but it is problematic when a person with military training makes excuses to avoid making it a career.

Anyway, it is clear that Trump was deeply narcissistic dating back to the age of 13 or earlier. Yet, he slid by with this psychopathy throughout his life, avoiding any real examination of it, or consequences for it. Eventually, that led us to where we are now. Clearly, some kind of reckoning, intervention or adverse consequences for Trump’s narcissistic behavior should have happened long ago, but did not.

I think that much of the blame for the lack of safeguards against toxic narcissism goes to the corporate culture in which Trump immersed himself. That is a culture that not only accepts narcissistic behavior, but actually encourages it, as studies of the incidence of narcissism in this population suggest.

Eventually, Trump entered the political arena, which unfortunately, is highly attractive to narcissists, and which often rewards them. In short, society failed us in putting checks on the ambitions of a malignant narcissist such as Trump. If nothing else, Trump has shown us where many of the flaws in our culture, and political system, lie. However, that comes at a very steep cost – one that we may be paying for generations to come.

One final question, which I am sure has occurred to most of us, is whether our life experiences throughout adulthood, make narcissism worse, or more malignant in nature. I do think that Trump’s narcissism has worsened over the years, which is in part, a result of his “success” at gaining power and wealth, and in manipulating the gullible and greedy. However, I think that the worsening of his condition is also, in part, a result of natural processes, such as his cognitive decline.

Thus, the answer is complicated. Studies show that personality does modify over the years, but not drastically. For the most part, personality is relatively stable; otherwise, it would not be a “personality.” Nonetheless, time and circumstances have acted in synchrony to create the narcissistic orange monster that we see today.

While Trump would have been a narcissistic person regardless, if he had been held to account for it at an early age, he never would have had the opportunity to become the one-man societal wrecking crew and presidential megalomaniac that he has become today. Perhaps he might have even found a bit of humility if his flaws had been pointed out to him early enough.

[Trump’s ex-bunkmate reveals humiliating details about fellow cadets mocking him](https://www.msn.com/…/trump-s-ex-bunkmate…/ar-AA25jRo8)