[Jac Wilder Versteeg] Trump’s three faces, maybe more

Having seen “The Three Faces of Eve” and “Sybil,” I imagine Donald J. Trump reclining comfortably in a state of mild hypnosis. “I’d like to speak with John Miller now,” the psychiatrist intones.

The patient rouses, looks momentarily confused, then his eyes brighten in awareness.

“Hello, John,” says the therapist. “Tell me about Donald Trump.”

“Have you met him?” the man who now calls himself “John” replies. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not going to hurt anybody.”

“Right,” says the psychiatrist. “Tell me, John, what is your relationship to Mr. Trump?”

John replies, “Well, I’m sort of handling PR because he gets so much of it.”

“I see. A lot of his PR is bad, don’t you think? Does that bother him?”

John says, “It doesn’t matter to him. He truly doesn’t care. I’ve never seen somebody that’s so immune to, you know, he actually thrived on bad press.”

“Thank you,” says the psychiatrist. “Now let me speak to John Barron.”

Trump’s eyes briefly close, then open again.

“Mr. Barron?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know Mr. Trump?”

“I’m a Trump organization vice president.”

Sure he is.

In fact, we now know that John Miller and John Barron are two of Donald Trump’s alter egos.

The Washington Post recently published a recording made in 1991 by a reporter for People magazine in which, according to the Post, Trump pretended to be John Miller. (I lifted parts of the imagined dialogue above from the transcript of that tape).

Other reporters working in the 1980s and 1990s encountered Trump using the alias “John Barron” to talk to the press.

Strange that a guy with so much ego would feel the need to add alter egos.

Stranger still that even though Trump previously has admitted -- even under oath -- that he used these little ruses, when confronted with the Washington Post piece, he has tried to deny it.

What the heck is going on here? It seems that Donald Trump, like Eve and Sybil before him, is exhibiting multiple personalities.

There is plenty of evidence from his shifting policy positions that there are many Trumps inside of him. Remember the Donald Trump who bragged to his audiences that he would be self-funding his campaign? Now we find ourselves “talking to” the Donald Trump who is launching a wide-ranging effort to raise money from the same big-money donors he previously equated with bought politicians.

Remember the Donald Trump who promised to release his tax returns, presumably so voters could firstly see what a very rich person he is and secondly, feel assured that he has not engaged in embarrassing financial shenanigans? Now, in his place, we are “talking to” the Donald Trump who doubts the returns will be released before the election and opines there is nothing interesting to be learned from his tax documents anyway.

And that’s not all. There appear to be many more Trump personalities attempting to emerge.

The Trump who used to call for a ban on Muslims entering the country is gone, and we’re now “talking to” the Trump who says the ban was “just a suggestion.”

Gone also is the Trump who called for a return to torture and waterboarding. Now we’re “talking to” the Trump who vows to abide by international law. Gone is the Trump who said there was no need to raise the minimum wage. Now we’re “talking to” the Trump who recognizes something must be done for low-wage earners. Remember the Trump who said women who have an abortion should be punished under the law? Now we’re “talking to” the Trump who disavows that position.

The presumptive candidate is not the only one displaying signs of multiple political personality disorder. Republicans who cringed at his candidacy and called him a dangerous “con man” are stepping forward to back him. The “Little Marco” of the campaign is silent. Now we’re “talking to” the “I-Signed-a-Little-Pledge” Marco.

If Rubio doesn’t care about the conflicts among Trump’s various personalities, it’s a cinch his hard-core supporters don’t mind being whipsawed between Jekyll and Hyde.

Eve had three faces. Sybil had 16. Trump is on his way to surpassing her total. But we’re still waiting for the emergence of a Trump personality qualified to be president.

Jac Wilder VerSteeg is a columnist for the Sun Sentinel. He can be reached at jwvcolumn@gmail.com. --Ed.

(Tribune Content Agency)