Never Enough, by Michael D'Antonio: on Principles & Values

A germophobe: constantly washes hands; dislikes handshakes

Trump: Surviving at the Top was filled with firsthand reports on the bizarre behavior of fame-addled celebrities. Trump devoted a full page to Howard Hughes. Like Donald, Hughes was linked to many beautiful women and operated a gambling business. He was also famously germophobic, a trait that Trump confessed he too possessed. "I'm constantly washing my hands, and it wouldn't bother me if I never had to shake hands with a well- meaning stranger again."

Trump's seemingly frank statements about his contamination anxiety--gave the impression of a man who was willing to reveal himself. But all he copped to were a few missteps and quirks and forgivable sins such as working too hard.

2011: Obama's birth certificate is hiding something

Donald Trump followed his CPAC performance with a birther blitz on Fox News, telling the audience of Bill O' Reilly's nighttime program that he had once believed that Obama had been born in Hawaii but added, "I've seen too many things" and "come to have doubts." Under tough questioning from O' Reilly, who had dismissed the birther claims, Trump allowed that perhaps the president had a US birth certificate. But he added, "Now he may have one, but there is something on that birth certificate--maybe religion, maybe he says he's a Muslim, I don't know."

Birtherism: demanded that Obama produce birth certificate

OpEd: Obama's grandmother never said he was born in Kenya

Already public, the tape in question was a recorded telephone interview with Obama's stepmother, Sarah, who was in Kenya. Sarah spoke Swahili. The interviewer was an English-speaking preacher named Ron McRae.

The interview finds McRae saying "Was he born in Mombasa?" In response the translator says, "No. Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America." McRae pressed Sarah on the issue, and the translator, after asking the question and waiting for the answer, replied, "Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii."

OpEd: Obama doesn't have the psychology of a winner

In two instances when he spoke on the record, Trump veered from a general discussion of "success" to an evaluation of the president. In the first case he said Obama lacked the qualities of a winner and "has had so many losses and people don't even want to watch him on television." In the second he said the president was not psychologically tough. "It's all psychology. If Obama had that psychology, Russia's Vladimir Putin wouldn't be eating his lunch. He doesn't have that psychology and he never will because it's not in his DNA."

OpEd: Lifelong dance of mutual manipulation with the press

Considering his lifelong dance of mutual manipulation with the press, Trump's complaints are more than a little ironic. Few have profited more from the tide of celebrity news that has swamped the public discourse. His analysis is also entirely self-referential. When the writer Timothy O`Brien said Trump wasn't as wealthy as he claimed, Trump sued. He lost, but considering the costs incurred, O`Brien's publisher lost too.

Sent to military academy because of childhood rebelliousness

Q: "So eighth grade on?"

A: "Yes."

Q: "Whose idea was this?"

A: "Well, I was very rebellious and my parents thought it would be a good idea. I was very rebellious."

Q: "How did it evidence itself?"

A: "I was a very rebellious kind of person. I don't like to talk about it, actually. But I was a very rebellious person and very set in my ways."

Q: "In eighth grade?"

A: "I loved to fight. I always loved to fight."

Q: "Physical fights?"

A: "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."

People want positive inspiration

I've always been rebellious and very set in my ways