Does Donald Trump Hate Himself? Seattle Author Tries To Find Out

SEATTLE, WA - Two years into his presidency, the 30th-odd year of him being some kind of celebrity, it might feel like there's nothing left to learn about Donald Trump. But a new book about Trump by Seattle author David Shields has something new to say, largely because the book doesn't follow a traditional narrative.

Shields' book, "Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention," is written as a "literary collage." A big collection of anecdotes and interviews arranged into a portrait of Trump and the culture that loves him.

If other books about Trump take the freeway tour of Trump's life, Shields' book takes the back roads, stopping in at the fast food joints, strip clubs, and abandoned factories along the way. The approach is similar to his 2006 book "Black Planet," which follows a Seattle SuperSonics season in an exploration of race in America.

"The whole book is an attempt to articulate very tragic elements in human nature and a love affair with the apocalypse," Shields said.

One particularly interesting anecdote describes how Trump's father, Fred, forced his son to go to a New York Mets game with two older men who were supposed to show Trump how to be a real man. Moments like that show how Trump became the person we see today bit-by-bit.

Shields is not a Trump fan, but the book isn't about bashing Trump. In fact, Shields laughs at how powerless the Democrats and the #Resistance have been trying to fight back. All they offer, he says, is a polite "excuse me!" whenever Trump does something outrageous or tasteless.

The book also examines how messed up America is. It's a place for the rich with an enormous population of poor people; where people escape mundane lives by living through celebrities; where people no longer have friends, they have Twitter followers. So why wouldn't Americans gravitate toward something crazy like a Trump presidency?

"American life has become almost unlivable: the disparity between the rich and the poor, the Twitterverse, living through celebrities, this simulacrum of a life. Trump is just getting revenge on that whole world," he said.

But by the end of the book, there's still one question left: does Trump do everything on purpose, or is he just getting lucky? Shields highlights Trump's famous line, "Trust me, I'm, like, a really smart person" as an example of the president having it both ways. It's just dumb enough be believable, he says, but it's unclear if Trump planned it that way.

"Trump has a weird primitive appeal, you can never quite tell where he's going. It begs that question: is he the stupidest person or the most devious, Machiavellian person in the world?" Shields said.

Images courtesy Thought Catalog