During the course of researching and writing my novel, I, Capone: the Memoirs of Al Capone, Donald Trump became a sort of muse. His bullying, lies, denials, refusals to take responsibility, exhortations to violence, and willingness to rationalize everything as something forced upon him by the cutthroat nature of his business, came straight out of Capone’s playbook.
Sure, Capone was a murderer, a racketeer, a whoremaster, bootlegger, and founder of what was, in its time, the most profitable and powerful criminal organization in the world. And yet, all in all, I prefer Capone’s company to Trump’s.
For one thing, Capone liked people and, by the standards of his time, was not a racist nor a xenophobe. He believed black people deserved consideration for overcoming hardships that he recognized greatly exceeded the travails of Italian immigrants like his parents. And he loved African-American music, providing employment for most of the great jazz musicians of the 1920s. Unlike many Irish and Sicilian bosses of his day, he recruited able men from all ethnicities. His men were loyal to him, and their loyalty was reciprocated. And he was famously generous with his money: overpaying contractors, handing out $100-dollar tips, opening soup kitchens when the Depression hit.
Much of that is distinctly untrue of our President. So to keep Capone and Trump from merging in my imagination, I decided to apply the Hayes Scale to both men, not only to differentiate them but to measure whether either of them qualify as a psychopath.
In order to indicate whether a subject is psychopathic, the scale employs 20 questions, each of which is ranked on a 3-point scale: 0 if it doesn’t apply, 1 if it somewhat applies, and 2 if it definitely applies. All twenty scores are then added, with a potential score of from 0 to 40. By the standards of the Hayes Scale, anyone who scores 30 or above is, at least potentially, a psychopath.
I am not a psychologist, but I feel a little less constrained about diagnosing the President when I consider the fact that Trump has seen fit to denounce just about anyone who disagrees with him as crazy. And after three years researching Capone, I think my estimation of his character is probably as sound as anyone’s. In any case, I have thought long and hard about both men, and if I’m wrong, I don’t think I’m wrong by much. So here goes:
1. Charm
Do they exhibit superficial charm?
Everyone who interviewed Capone was impressed by his charm, manners, and comportment. Though “charm” doesn’t come easily to my mind at Trump’s mention, he apparently has enough superficial charm to get banks to bail him out, women to marry him, and a little less than half the voting electorate to vote for him.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
2. Grandiosity
Do they have a grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of themselves?
They are about even in this department. Trump’s grandiosity has made him President of the United States, and Capone’s grandiosity was realized by his taking over the city of Chicago and corrupting much of the state of Illinois, but that doesn’t make their grandiosity any less boundless.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
3. Stimulation
Do they have a constant need for stimulation?
Reports of Trump’s dealings with fawning cronies, wrestlers, and prostitutes, and his sleepless nights watching TV and impatiently demanding affirmation from everybody, exceed, I think, Capone’s need for stimulation. Despite Capone’s appetite for the company of fawning cronies, boxers, prostitutes, and nights on the town, he was a family man who enjoyed fishing, cooking with his mother and quiet evenings at home with his wife and son.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
4. Lying
Are they pathological liars?
Capone was a gifted liar, but not necessarily a habitual one. In legal and illegal business circles he was known for keeping his word, providing the public with higher quality goods and services than his competitors, not to mention paying his bills: none of which, alas, can be said of Trump.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
5. Cunning & Manipulative
Are they cunning and manipulative?
I’d say Capone was more cunning, Trump more manipulative, so they come out about even.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
6. Guilt
Do they lack remorse or guilt?
Capone was plagued with dreams of visitations from his murder victims, but they apparently only frightened and angered him; he never showed contrition. Since Trump has yet to evince remorse or concede guilt, I think it’s a dead heat.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
7. Affect
Do they have shallow affects (superficial emotional responsiveness)?
Like Capone, Trump apparently has dramatic mood swings. Capone worked hard on his facial expressions, especially his famous malocchio, and you can see Trump doing much the same thing, jutting his chin like Mussolini as he prepares to address a crowd. They both adopt affects for effect.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
8. Empathy
Are they callous and lack empathy?
Capone liked people, even the reporters he couldn’t buy off, and some of the criminals he bumped off. He tried not to assassinate them unless he believed his business demanded it. As his tax trial revealed, he actually overpaid the contractors who came to work on his Palm Island estate in Florida, tipped waiters with $100 bills, took care of the families of the men who died in his service. Trump has not assassinated anyone, but neither has he exhibited any empathy, least of all for his detractors, and has engaged in character assassination in ways that can only be described as callous. He apparently took every opportunity to get out of paying the contractors he employed. Though he demands loyalty of everyone, he shows zero loyalty to anyone who is not a biological extension of himself.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
9. Parasitic Lifestyle
Do they have a parasitic lifestyle?
This depends on what’s meant by “parasitic”. You could say that depending for your livelihood on the vices of your fellow man makes Capone a parasite, and yet he delivered on his goods and services. Trump’s relationships with his bankers and his workers and the creditors he left high and dry by repeatedly declaring bankruptcy gives him the edge in this department.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
10. Control
Do they have poor behavioral controls?
They both do. Capone was famous for his rages, especially when he was intoxicated, and toward the end of his life when he was apparently suffering from the neurological effects of tertiary syphilis. Trump is reported to rage at his underlings, and his tweets and improvisations on the stump suggest to me that in this department they are about even.
Capone 1 • Trump 1
11. Promiscuity
Are they sexually promiscuous?
In addition to sleeping with prostitutes in his numerous bordellos, we know of at least three mistresses Capone frequented while married to his faithful wife Mae. Trump’s sex life is more obscure, but he did sleep with Marla Maples while still married to Ivana, and boasted in his famous bus interview of his attempts to grope and seduce other women.
Capone 2 • Trump 2
12. Misbehavior
Did they display early behavior problems?
(See question 18 re. Juvenile Delinquency.)
Capone 2 • Trump 2
13. Goals
Do they lack realistic long-term goals?
Toward the end of his life, Capone entertained addled notions of opening factories with mob money and putting tens of thousands of Americans back to work. He also believed that if the government had only left him alone he could have remade himself into a legitimate and hugely successful businessman. Trump’s goals — the wall, mass deportations, the elimination of national health care — may or may not be realistic, but he doesn’t seem all that interested in attaining them.
Capone 1 • Trump 1
14. Impulsivity
Are they overly impulsive?
Capone was remarkably disciplined for a gangster, and rarely stuck his neck out unless he was drunk. Trump’s tweets and improvised outbursts are enough to give him the edge.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
15. Responsibility
Are they irresponsible?
Capone had a strong sense of responsibility for his Organization. Trump? Not so much.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
16. Owning Up
Do they fail to accept responsibility for their own actions?
I would say a failure to take responsibility applies to both men, although Trump appears to take no responsibility for any of his or his corporations’ missteps, whereas by what passed for a code in the criminal world, Capone the “Boss” had to accept responsibility when things went wrong. The goal for Capone was not necessarily to deny mistakes, but to keep from making the same mistake twice.
Capone 1 • Trump 2
17. Marriage
Have they had many short term marital relationships?
Despite his philandering, Capone remained married to the same woman from the age of 19 until his death, whereas Trump has been married to three women: Ivana from 1977 to 1992, Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999, and now Melania whom he married in 2005. That’s three and, perhaps, counting.
Capone 0 • Trump 2
18. Juvenile Deliquency
Do they have a history of juvenile delinquency?
Capone was certainly a juvenile delinquent in the West Side Story sense of the word: a gang member, petty thief, enforcer. But here’s where context rears its ugly head. Trump has said that he has not changed since elementary school, when, as he has also said, he struck teachers when they told him to do something he didn’t want to do. In his Art of the Deal he recounts how he once “gave a teacher a black eye” because he didn’t think “he knew anything about music.” (He has this in common with Capone, who was expelled from the 7th grade for striking a teacher and never returned). Trump’s sister recalls him as obstreperous and overbearing. Sending him to a military academy at age 13 was his father’s last-ditch attempt to instill discipline in his favorite son. The contextual issue is whether, with his temperament and without his father’s riches, Trump would have been a juvenile delinquent. And whether Capone, with his temperament and Trump’s father’s riches would have been merely diagnosed as a problem child. I think they almost come out even on this score.
Capone 2 • Trump 1
19. Parole
Have they experienced revocations of conditional release?
Capone never violated his parole, and so far Trump has never been put on parole.
Capone 0 • Trump 0
20. Criminality
Do they display criminal versatility?
Capone was one of history’s most versatile criminals. As of yet, Trump’s outright criminality has gone untested. However he has done business with members of the Gambino Crime family and various shady Russian oligarchs, and made deals with the Mafiosi who dominate the cement industry in New York and New Jersey.
Close, but I don’t want to insult Capone by giving Trump the higher score.
Capone 2 • Trump 1
The Tally: Capone 27 • Trump 34
I truly did not see this coming: our greatest criminal comes in three points shy of the psychopath’s 30; whereas, at least by my reckoning, our current President exceeds it by four.
There is a school of thought that Trump is not a psychopath but a narcissist, but in layman’s terms I do not see why he can’t be both. I will understand if some object to my undertaking this tally, or dismiss the Hayes Scale itself as an inaccurate measure of a man’s psyche. But then that’s a hell of a lot easier than blaming those of us who, out of ignorance, fanaticism, partisanship, peevishness, posturing, or indifference, handed the White House over to a psychopath.
Andrew Ward is a historian and novelist, a former contributing editor at the Atlantic, commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered, and columnist for the Washington Post.