Content Warning: This section of the guide describes alcohol addiction and emotional neglect, as well as discussions of sociopathy, narcissism, and other personality disorders.

“When Donald announced his run for the presidency on June 16, 2015, I didn’t take it seriously. I don’t think Donald took it seriously. He simply wanted the free publicity for his brand. He’s done that sore of thing before. When his poll numbers started to rise and he may have received tacit assurances from Russian president Vladimir Putin that Russia would do everything it could to swing the election in his favor, the appeal of winning grew.”

Trump is echoing a belief that many political observers had, that Donald Trump was truly never serious about winning the Republican nomination and becoming president, but that began to change when Republican voters became enamored with his divisive message. She also alludes to the role that Russia played in disseminating online disinformation on social media platforms, which swayed voters’ opinions during the 2016 election.

“Though nothing Donald did surprised me, the speed and volume with which he started inflicting his worst impulses on the country—from lying about the crowd size at the inauguration and whining about how poorly he was treated to rolling back environmental protections, targeting the Affordable Care Act in order to take affordable health care away from millions of people, and enacting his racist Muslim ban—overwhelmed me.”

Trump addresses some of the most controversial policies her uncle enacted as president and admits that they did not surprise her. She also brings up one of the most earliest incidents of dishonesty in Donald’s presidency, which took place on the very day he took office. He claimed that media representations of how many people attended his inauguration were incorrect. Even though videos of the crowd proved his accusations to be false, he continued to obsess about the size of the crowd. While the author establishes that the reason for such behavior is due to psychological issues stemming from his upbringing, this is what the author is referring to when she writes that he started inflicting his worst impulses on the country.