Politico interviews Trump's biographers to understand his motivations

Long of the short of it, Trump knows he's a fraud.

Politico interviewed several biographers who have followed Trump for most of his garish, boorish life.

DAntonio: Those early influences are essential, and I also think its correct that he has been conducting his entire life as a vanity show, and hes been rewarded, most recently since his reality TV show, by ever-greater public interest in him. This is a guy who is a president-elect who describes himself as a ratings machine, which is an absolutely absurd thing for a president to be reflecting on, but that matters to him.

But one thing I think that we have overlooked as we see Trump trying to delegitimize others is what I suspect is a feeling he has inside that nothing hes ever achieved himself has ever been legitimate. This is a person who has never known whether anybody wants to be around him because hes a person they want to be around or they want to be around his money. And since hes promoted himself as this glamorous, incredibly wealthy person, thats the draw hes always given. So he doesnt know if he has any legitimate relationships outside of his family, and thats why he emphasizes family. Hes always kind of gaming the systemnot, in my view, winning on the merits. And even his election was with almost 3 million fewer votes than his opponent. So he has this deep fear that he is himself not a legitimate president, and I think thats why he goes to such great lengths to delegitimize even the intelligence community, which is the presidents key resource in security, and hes going to do this demeaning and delegitimizing behavior rather than accept what they have to tell him.