Art of the Deal Co-Author Tony Schwartz Says ‘White Hot Rage’ Driving Trump Behavior: ‘He’s Furious to the Point of Madness’

Tony Schwartz, Trump whisperer and co-author of The Art of the Deal, described how a “white hot rage” over losing the 2020 election is likely fueling the president’s increasingly chaotic and deranged behavior, from pushing insane election fraud conspiracies to rushing out pardons of his confidantes to abruptly blowing up critical legislation on Covid relief.

During an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 on Wednesday night, Schwartz explained how the tag of “loser” is haunting everything Donald Trump does in the final few weeks of his presidency.

“He’s determined that, the Trump modus operandi, particular under these circumstances is ‘Maintain dominance in my way I possibly can and make other people suffer more than I am suffering,'” Schwartz told guest host John Berman in reaction to the news of Trump’s controversial pardons of his former campaign officials Paul Manafort and Roger Stone as well as Jared Kushner’s father.

“I don’t think Donald Trump has any interest in $2,000 for Americans,” Schwartz added about Trump’s last-minute undermining of the bipartisan Covid relief bill that just passed Congress. “He’s doing it because he wants to show that he’s powerful and he wants to show that he can still step in and blow it all up.”

“Is there a plan? What is the plan do you think if such a thing exists?” Berman asked.

“No, I don’t think he has — first of all, he does not think clearly or rational or logical way. No, I don’t believe he has a plan,” Schwartz explained. “I do believe he has a bunch of ideas and they’re swirling in his head. What he’s feeling right now is rage. White hot rage, because he feels obliterated by this. Everywhere he looks even sometimes among his previous allies, he’s hearing ‘failure, failure, loser, loser.’ I think he’s besides himself. He’s like King Lear, he’s furious to the point of madness.”

Berman then asked a self-answering question: “Is there any part of him that accepts responsibility for being a loser?”

“No. There is no part of him that accepts that,” Schwartz said bluntly. “Anybody’s an enemy who won’t support the fantasy he’s bought into. The reason is, because to acknowledge he has lost and a loser and that’s obliterating, that really makes him feel like he does not exist. He’s almost dead when he calls himself a loser.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.