Stanley Renshon on The Thought Project Part 2 - Episode 89

Stanley Renshon is a professor of political science at Lehman College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is also a trained psychoanalyst who has used these skills in his examination of four U.S. presidents: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald J. Trump, whom Renshon examines in his latest book: The Real Psychology of the Trump Presidency. In his first podcast, Renshon explained how a presidential scholar also trained in clinical psychology and who is a certified psychoanalyst “psychoanalyzes" a president like Mr. Trump from a distance. In this second podcast, he explains what his research found. He notes, about the 45th president: “There literally are two presidencies going on. You could call the first one, president bombast, and that's the way to attempt to traduce tradition … his demeanor is not what it should be and we think it ought to be for a president. But, on the other side, in a sense, hidden in plain sight, is the relentless serious presidency of Trump. He is really trying to get things done.” In this second podcast Dr. Renshon explains what his research found. He notes, about the 45th president: “...there literally are two presidencies going on. You could call the first one, “President Bombast,” given his tendencies to traduce presidential. Yet, there is another equally real side to his presidency, in a sense, hidden in plain sight. That is “the relentless serious presidency of Trump. He is really trying to get things done. "