"Blackhawk Down” author’s Vanity Fair article about Trump a must read.

In 1997 Mark Bowden interviewed Trump for Playboy.

I avoid writing diaries unless I have something (hopefully) original to say. When it comes to understanding Trump it is key to have the observations of those who manage to see him in his unguarded moments. I’m not going to cut and paste sections of this Vanity Fair article because I want you to read the entire article.

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 Trump’s hedonism adds a dimension to understanding his personality that makes him unlike most narcissists. What can you say about a man who has a Renoir on his airplane just so he can brag that it is worth $10 million, and think that the person he is showing off to will be impressed?

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Trump is a special kind of narcissist because he has no self-awareness. I don’t mean little self-awareness, I mean literally no self-awareness. No empathy, no-self awareness! He has no interest in understanding how his braggadocio is off-putting to many people. In fact, I don’t even think he’d think his self-congratulatory behavior would be called braggadocio. 

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For some reasons, perhaps because Trump let his guard down with him because that author was writing for Playboy and Trump made some false assumptions that he could impress him. 

Here are excerpts from the Playboy article. Here’s what appears to be the entire article.

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The writer of the excellent short article I’m recommending you read is Mark Bowden (author of “Black Hawk Down”). He wrote this for Vanity Fair back in December some five months before Trump nailed the nomination.  He describes his experience writing a profile of Trump for Playboy makes fascinating reading.

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He starts with  how he was "prepared to discover that his over-the-top public persona was a clever pose. That underneath was an ironic wit, an ordinary but clever guy.”

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He was disabused of that expectation almost immediately after meeting him.

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DONALD TRUMP REALLY DOESN’T WANT ME TO TELL YOU THIS, BUT …

Over a long weekend on assignment for Playboy magazine, Mark Bowden found that behind the garish Trump façade lies only more ugliness.

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Note: I found another revealing 1997 profile of Trump by Mark Singer in The New Yorker here. If you don’t have a subscription you may not be able to read it…..

apparently you can read it… thanks to those who checked this out (I was playing pickleball for the last two hours)… check the comments below.