What shaped a president

At a time when many of our vital, relied upon institutions are threatened, I am deeply grateful that the leaders of The Philadelphia Inquirer have refused to be intimidated. Although today understanding root causes of behaviors and decisions that threaten all we hold is devalued, the Inquirer printed my letter about how important this approach is in protecting our survival:

To the editor:

Many Americans who aren’t in the MAGA camp often ask why our 47th president is attracted to despots, has contempt for our allies, and withdraws government resources from our fellow citizens in times of crisis and need.

I believe that addressing the “why” can be effectively answered by viewing Donald Trump’s childhood through a psychosocial lens — how someone’s psychological state is shaped by their environment and experiences - which is an area I’ve worked in for nearly six decades.

We have enough information about the Trump family’s history to know that unaddressed trauma dominated our president’s youth, dramatically impacting his leadership capacities today.

From his earliest years, Trump watched his older brother, Fred Jr., eight years his senior, assailed with shame and humiliation from his father and namesake, a ruthless real estate developer who demeaned his son’s ideas relentlessly. To buffer the pain of a sadistic father, Fred turned to alcohol, destroying himself, dying at age 42.

Engrained in the future president was a written-in-stone awareness: If he ever dared to question his father’s mindset, he, too, would be destroyed.

To survive, he became his father’s bullying, corrupt clone, believing that only those with the capacity for cruelty, disregard for ethical behavior, and contempt for law were real men.

Withheld respect for individual ideas and direction, a vital confidence-building aspect of our formative years, sheds light on our president’s continuous attempts to prove his strength and virility through what is, in essence, denied self-hate displaced on others — “acting out” by ridiculing those seen as weak, demonizing those with opposing views, tasteless references to his virility, compulsive womanizing, outlandish “endless gold” materialism, and incessant demands for praise and stroking.

And importantly, Trump — in an echo of his relationship with his father — reveres Vladimir Putin and other dictators, longs to emulate them, and is deathly afraid to oppose them.

As he continues trying to prove to himself, his country, and the world that he is not a coward, our president’s “acting out” could lead to disaster.

SaraKay Smullens
Philadelphia

Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sptember 22, 2025