The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump

A Psychological Reckoning

By: Dan P. McAdams

Narrated by: Matthew Josdal

The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump provides a coherent and nuanced psychological portrait of Donald Trump, drawing upon biographical events in the subject's life and contemporary scientific research and theory in personality, developmental, and social psychology.

Renowned psychologist Dan P. McAdams examines the central personality traits, personal values and motives, and the interpersonal and cultural factors that together have shaped Trump's psychological makeup, with an emphasis on the strangeness of the case - that is, how Trump again and again defies psychological expectations regarding what it means to be a human being. The book's central thesis is that Donald Trump is the episodic man. The chapters, structured as stand-alone essays each riffing on a single psychological theme, build on each other to present a portrait of a person who compulsively lives in the moment, without an internal story to integrate his life in time.

With an emphasis on scientific personality research, rather than political rhetoric, McAdams shows that Trump's utter lack of an inner life story is truly exceptional. This book is a remarkable case study which should be of as much interest to psychologists as it is to listeners trying to reckon with the often confounding behavior and temperament of the 45th President of the United States.

©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Kalorama

McAdams at His Best

This was brilliant, a must read or listen for anyone and everyone. Very thorough and intriguing.

Important in 2025

Wish I had read this years ago. I would have saved myself a lot of trouble.

This book is not only about Trump but also about his unique appeal to his followers and exactly why they are impervious to reason. It’s one thing to call them a cult and another to break down the specific aspects of the cult that make it peculiar. This book does that.

It also fulfills its primary purpose masterfully, breaking down Trump’s singular characteristics as a human being in a methodical and painstaking fashion. He’s done a lot of research and given his subjects a lot of thought.

You won’t look at Trump or MAGA in the same way after reading this.

The ideas in this book will last.

This book has helped me understand Mr. Trump and made him more predictable for me.

Great book, but definitely could be shorter

The topic is engaging & the author offers a thoroughly explored opinion on Trump but I also was annoyed at times as the author has a habit of exhaustingly repeating the same point 50 different ways

good book

it goes pretty expansively into don ts history and up-bringing and how that effects who he is today. honestly, i think it could be a few hours shorter but still an interesting and insightful book.