Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is often mocked for his regular declarations that he’s a “winner” in virtually all aspects of life, as if to say he’s genetically superior than the average man.
Michael D’Antonio, author of a new Trump biography, thinks there might be some truth to it.
“He is, undoubtedly, hormonally blessed, which would account for his competitive nature,” writes D’Antonio in Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success.
The book chronicles Trump’s ascendance in wealth and fame as a media sensation through more than three decades, and contains original interviews with the candidate.
“I believe in hard work,” Trump says in the book. “I believe in being prepared and all that stuff. But in many respects, the most important thing is an innate ability.”
Asked if he knew he had an “innate ability” to achieve success as a child, Trump says he didn’t think about it then, but that he’s always had it.
“I had it. I always had it,” he says.
Trump says he was sent to New York Military Academy for five years, beginning in eighth grade, because he was a “rebellious” child.
“I loved to fight. I always loved to fight,” he says. “All types of fights. Any kind of fight, I loved it, including physical, and I was always the best athlete — something that nobody knew about me.”
Since launching his campaign in June, Trump has shown a predisposition toward conflict, especially with the press and his GOP rivals. He has repeatedly called Jeb Bush “low energy.”
He has lashed out at several media personalities and reporters, perhaps most memorably Megyn Kelly, a Fox News anchor who challenged Trump to answer for past disparaging comments he has made publicly about women.
Trump warned Kelly that he may stop being “nice” to her. After the debate, he attacked her on Twitter and in other interviews, saying she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever.”
Never Enough publishes Sep. 22.
