Donald Trump's election campaign has played out much like his business career, driven by his gift for self-promotion and, perhaps, doomed by his lack of discipline, his former biographer says.
That lack of discipline has likely set Trump up for a loss on Nov. 8, according to Timothy L. O'Brien, author of the 2005 biography "Trump Nation: The Art of Being The Donald."
O'Brien says Trump has run his campaign much like his business career, capitalizing on his talent as a "gifted and able self-promoter," but squandering some of his opportunities because he "never lays low."
"He's never been a focused businessman," O'Brien told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday, suggesting that, despite Trump's achievements in business, he's also experienced some major failures. He dealt with corporate bankruptcy four times and nearly went personally bankrupt as well, O'Brien says.
He added that Trump has "a real lack of emotional, intellectual and strategic discipline," and that those flaws would carry over into his presidency, if he were to win the election.
"He would probably repeat longstanding patterns that appeared during his years as a businessman," O'Brien said.
However, O'Brien predicts Trump will lose the election, as many voters are unlikely to be swayed one way or another at this late stage of the campaign. "I think a lot of the voting patterns that we're going to see play out next week were set back in August," he said.
Nevertheless, O'Brien believes Trump will run a scorched earth campaign in the final week, as he attacks Clinton over the FBI investigation into her emails.
He also expects few surprises from Trump in the last week. "We've gotten to peak Trump," he said. "At this point, Donald Trump is pretty much an open book."
