'Art of the Deal' co-author offers terrifying psychological analysis of why Trump is 'falling apart'

On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," "Art of the Deal" co-author Tony Schwartz noted that President Donald Trump is "falling apart" more than at any other time in his presidency — and is psychologically "paralyzed" by the fear of being held accountable for the Ukraine whistleblower scandal.

"You have been waiting for this, you have been waiting to see Donald Trump on the run," said anchor Ari Melber. "Is he more on the run in this Ukraine scandal than any time we’ve seen him since he became president?"

"I think the objective evidence is obvious that he is," said Schwartz. "I think what’s really interesting is to observe a level falling apart that — melting down that is so far beyond what we’ve seen in his press conference yesterday to watch him, especially in that moment where he was going back and forth with the reporter and see that he actually moved from fight, which is his normal physiological place, to what I would call freeze, which is an extreme version of fight where he literally was paralyzed and finally said, ask that guy a question, ask him a question."

"I was wondering about this, I don’t know the answer," said Melber. "What does it mean to you that the Mueller probe, which he triggered with his own brash firing of the FBI director, comes to an end with Mueller’s testimony and the next day he does this, is that almost a political death wish?"

"I think Donald Trump is undeniably his own worst enemy," said Schwartz. "And I think that we see it play out over and over again. And psychiatrists talk about the notion that when you are defensive, the inevitable outcome of the defense is to pull upon yourself precisely what you were meant to be defending against. So he goes and doubles down on the very illegal act that he’s done, because he’s in such a state of defensiveness and lack of good cognition that all he can do is attack. And that is evidence of what he does to himself every day. Every day."

"And that will get worse," Schwartz added. "It’ll get worse for him. And it’ll get worse for us. We are a long way from over in watching this unfold."

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