I side with nurture, but plenty of people think otherwise these days. FWIW, I think trump has become a lot like his father - and Trump is, of course, an abusive man.

but his character just leads me to believe he is control freak and possessive abuser. Verbal abuse is probably his thing.

It's not just humiliating but painful. "But when you're a star they let you do it." No Donald you idjit, they're afraid of losing their jobs or being further humiliated by a loudmouthed braggart with no shame.

Ivana put some pretty shocking info in her first divorce filing, but removed it when it was finalized. I see no reason to disbelieve her first statement -- It's exhausting and expensive to keep fighting.

The rest of what you said is true though, I think.

His father had very little interaction and generally regarded him as a fuckup, shipping him off to military school most likely to keep him out of reform school, which was basically prison for wayward boys at the time.

At best.

hard he knocked him to the ground (for not wearing a suit and tie to attend a baseball game!):
____________________________________
"Donald Trump Jr.'s College Classmate Claims Trump Knocked Son to Ground in Front of Friends Once"

**********Scott Melker

November 3, 2016 · Miami Beach, FL

As many of you know, I attended the University of Pennsylvania with Donald Trump Jr. I feel compelled to share this story before the election, in the hopes that it will shed a bit of light on the kind of person that Donald Trump is, and the kind of son that he raised.

I was hanging out in a freshman dorm with some friends, next door to Donald Jr.'s room. I walked out of the room to find Donald Trump at his son's door, there to pick him up for a baseball game. There were quite a few students standing around watching, trying to catch a glimpse of the famed real estate magnate. Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey. Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates. He simply said "put on a suit and meet me outside," and closed the door.

Donald Jr. was a drunk in college. Every memory I have of him is of him stumbling around campus falling over or passing out in public, with his arm in a sling from injuring himself while drinking. He absolutely despised his father, and hated the attention that his last name afforded him. His nickname was "Diaper Don," because of his tendency to fall asleep drunk in other people's beds and urinate. I always felt terrible for him.

I am voting for Hillary Clinton for a number of reasons, her opponent notwithstanding. However, in light of what I saw that day, it is clear to me that Donald Trump lacks the temperament and basic social decency to run our country.**********
____________________________________

Just born that way

parent, especially mom, has been linked to narcissism. Have you seen his mom? She exudes coldness, unapproachable-ness (is that a word?) Her entire visage, aura and demeanor are of coldness, and sharpness. trump's brother died of alcoholism - manifested his damage in addiction, where donny went with narcissism.

The basis of narcissism is that it is a cover for a deep, deep insecurity about one's value. Narcissists build an outward appearance of "I am SO great!", work very hard to convince everyone of that, and then surround themselves with people who reflect that back to him - creating a supply of approval and "love". You will only ever find that a narcissist allows you into his inner circle if he needs something from you - mostly unquestioned attention and love and approval. Once you've caught on to this, and stop giving it to him, he dismisses you like so much garbage, because you are no longer useful to him. Having had a mother who was indifferent to his physical and emotional needs as a baby, he never learned about empathy.

The misperception is that narcissists have no feelings. It is more that they DID have feelings and never was taught what to do with them, how to express them. And then feelings became so uncomfortable they learned to suppress them. The only feelings the child of a cold, and authoritarian parent ever has that gets a reaction is anger - that ugly emotion is likely the only one that the parent ever reacts to - so the child learns that angry outbursts are the only emotions that result in interpersonal relations - even a bad parental reaction is better than indifference.

Now, add to that the story we heard about trump slapping (uday or qusay - don't remember which one) upside the head and ordering him to put on a suit when he knocked on his dormroom door, and it's likely he learned THAT behavior from his dad. So, he had an emotionally dead mother, and a physically abusive father, and probably BOTH parents verbally abused him - told him he was stupid, not worth a shit, etc.... this child grew up with zero positive reinforcement from either parent, and is deeply, deeply damaged.

So, the narcissist surrounds himself with adoring sycophants to bolster his fragile self-esteem AND he's been rich his whole life, attracting grifters who are willing to ACT as sycophants to suck money and prestige from him - and now you have a damaged, deeply narcissistic man who's never been told "no" in his whole life - for 70 years.

The result is donald j trump. Emotionally stunted, childish, churlish, deeply insecure about being ridiculed, and ill-equipped to deal with the rigors of diplomacy, when he's used to dictatorship.

Deep down, all Donny wants is approval. He craves it with every breath. His two greatest fears are that he is less-than, and that he will be revealed as such. He is deathly afraid of ridicule - being laughed at. And all of this has been used against him to turn him into Putin's puppet. They masterfully have played into his insecurities, and manipulated him into the position he's in today. Flattered him into thinking he was "one of them", fed his fragile ego, propped up his illusion that he is a master negotiator and one of the "masters of the universe" until he's right where his today. And he WILLINGLY does Putin's bidding, in order to maintain his illusions. His damaged ego demands it, because his psyche will not survive the realization that he's just a puppet.

I'm no psychiatrist. But I've done a llllllllllot of reading and studying about narcissism, having been drawn into a relationship with a malignant narcissist TWICE. They are master charmers, consummate actors, and I am a hopeless romantic. Both times I was utterly fooled until the cracks in their persona began to show. So I read up on it to learn how to spot that shit again in future. It's soul-crushing to be summarily discarded as no longer useful by someone to whom you have given your heart.

affluenza. And became a brat.

vile, malignant narcissists. It's no excuse. I was abused and I am exactly the opposite of him. I have suffered from depression and low self-esteem, but I am very kind and empathetic and never abusive toward anyone. I think that abuse is one factor that turns different personality types into very different adults. Some become evil abusers and take it out on others and some turn it inward toward themselves.

Even if he hadn't been abused, I am pretty sure that he would still be an asshole.

Very few people had perfect parents. And many people who are sociopaths or have other personality disorders didn't have abusive parents. Finally, most people who have mental issues are good people. Many of this country's finest presidents, as well as many artists, writers, and musicians, have suffered from depression or bipolar disorder.

Blaming the parent usually translates to blaming the mother, and it's rooted in our sexist culture's desire to blame women for all of society's ills. We have to stop blaming women for everything and start holding men accountable for their actions.

him away to military school. They allowed the other kids to remain at home. Wonder why we never see his sister? She is a top judge but never see her near him. She is probably embarrassed by her mentally unstable brother.

I seem to recall young Donald was a bully who couldn't be handled in a regular school, so they sent him away.

On edit: Here it is: He claimed he gave a 2nd grade music teacher a black eye, and was sent away as a 7th grader because he was uncontrollable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/has-donald-trump-ever-actually-punched-anyone-an-investigation/2016/02/26/430252e8-dca2-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html?utm_term=.a2a0fc0efaf9

Tough hard driving father and a mother tasked with raising five children with a likely absent dad. She was a social climber and immigrant. Not a good recipe for mentally healthy kids

who has a personality disorder was abused as a child. My mother has NPD, and she was brought up by the same people who brought me up: my maternal grandparents, who were loving and caring people. Sometimes mental illness is just genetic in origin. I suspect that my grandmother's mother and elder sister also had NPD.

So please, let's stop blaming the parents (which almost always means the mother) every time we learn that someone has a personality disorder.