Huffpost reports from the interview with Susi Wiles, Trump’s Chief of Staff, that appeared in Vanity Fair: “Wiles suggested she’s been adept at dealing with Trump because she grew up with an alcoholic father. Trump operates with ‘an alcoholic’s personality,’ she said, with ‘a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.'”

Because of Trump’s reputation as a teetotaler, I discounted my original perception of Trump as a “mean drunk.” But here is some corroboration for that view from one who works with him all the time.

Trump behaves like a “dry drunk,” i.e., one who has stopped drinking, but continues alcoholic behavior. This behavior could include: psychological and physical abuse, utter certitude about one’s own feelings and perceptions, raw hostility against anyone who disagrees, unquestioned self-confidence, an almost infinite capacity for resentment, and a lust for revenge.

So Trump eschews alcohol, but we’ve no idea of the extent of Trump’s intake of narcotics. What kind of a drug cocktail must Trump’s psychiatrists be putting together to keep him from going completely off-track? And, of course, like many alcoholics and addicts, he is propped up by a circle of enablers who know just how to “handle” him. 

We know too well how self-centered and self-serving are all Trump’s utterances, how, for him, nothing at all is not about Trump. I’m sure that when he contemplates the prospect of his death, he really doubts that the world will be able to get along without him.