In the Character of The Trump

"Beyond Trump’s extraordinary talent as a salesman, his singular dubious achievement has been to remain fully in character at all times. He has deliberately chosen to exist only as a persona, never as a person.

The essential Trumpian conundrum: he seems the most legible of men, yet, for all the fine work of his many biographers, none has figured out what truly goes on inside his head. When Trump tells a lie—to paraphrase William Maxwell, he tends to 'lie with every breath he draws'—it never feels premeditated. The lie is a reflex. And no persona, no matter how artfully devised, can stifle a reflex."

--by Mark Singer, "In Character," The New Yorker