Trump on Trump: ‘I Don’t Like to Analyse Myself Because I Might Not Like What I See’

This article was originally featured on VICE US

According to the New York Times, the last interviews Donald Trump did before announcing his bid may offer the best insight into his presidential neuroses. The newspaper has released previously recorded interviews from biographer Michael D’Antonio that shed light on Trump’s ultimate insecurity: a fear of failure.

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The more than five hours of recorded conversations between D’Antonio and Trump, later used for the biography The Truth About Trump, reveal a Republican presidential nominee who is wholly insecure, obsessed with being in the spotlight, and unable to reflect on his faults and past mistakes.

For example, the former real estate mogul—who has declared bankruptcy multiple times, is currently in his third marriage, and is projected to likely lose the presidential election—believes that he’s never failed before.

“I never had a failure, because I always turned a failure into a success,” he tells D’Antonio. He also simultaneously holds others to impossible standards, saying, “For the most part, you can’t respect people because most people aren’t worthy of respect.”

Perhaps one of the most jarring moments of the interviews, however, is when D’Antonio asks Trump to reflect on the meaning of life. Trump responds by saying, “No, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see.”

Two years and one disastrous presidential campaign later, most of the country doesn’t either.

Read: Trump’s Ghostwriter Thinks His Presidency Could Lead to the ‘End of Civilization’