Presidential Transition Why Trump can’t stop counterpunching ‘Sometimes, you think, you’re the president now, why do you care about that person or insult?’ one transition aide said.

In between interviews with potential nominees and calls with foreign leaders, Donald Trump has found the time to attack a Manhattan magazine publisher, an Indiana union leader, the casts of "Saturday Night Live" and "Hamilton," multinationals, China, flag-burners and others who have challenged or annoyed him.

Even though he's now the president-elect and even though the stakes are so much higher, Trump has shown repeatedly that he won’t change his ways.


"In his mind, he's an outsider, he's an outer-borough brawler,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been friendly with him for decades, in an interview. "He always felt like people were looking down on him and attacking him. People don't understand that and don’t see him that way anymore, but he still sees himself like an outsider.”

After a recent TV appearance in which Sharpton described him as a Queens boy who made it on the big stage by clawing his way to the top and fighting those who took him on, the civil-rights pastor and TV star was surprised to get a call from Trump.

"I saw you on television this morning," Sharpton said Trump told him. "You got me. You got this outer-borough thing."

Trump romped through the presidential campaign as a counterpuncher, upsetting more than a dozen other Republicans and Hillary Clinton, who many predicted would easily beat him. Now that he's president-elect and controls trillions of dollars and the country's workforce, military and nuclear weapons, his continued obsession with perceived slights raises questions about whether he has the self-restraint and focus that the Oval Office requires.

The idea of delegitimizing his victory has especially appeared to get under Trump’s skin. Trailing by almost 3 million in the popular vote, he has repeatedly criticized Jill Stein, a third-party candidate who scored few votes, for pushing a recount effort in three states he narrowly won over Clinton. He has asked aides and advisers about the status of the recount, which seemed doomed to fail, a transition aide said. And he has sent staffers to states where the recounts are happening to fight it off, the aide said.

But his strongest public reaction came in response to allegations that it may have been Vladimir Putin — and not his own rousing populist message — that helped him clinch the White House.

Last week, Trump unnerved Democrats and Republicans alike when he went on the attack after a Washington Post report revealed that the CIA believed Russia had not only hacked Democratic targets to disrupt the U.S. election, but also with the purpose of electing Trump.

"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," his transition office wrote in an unsigned statement last Friday night that also made false claims about the size of his victory.

Trump's reaction, within two hours of the news emerging, struck many foreign policy experts as unprecedented. There was little time between the report and the statement, leading experts and even some of his allies to question whether Trump or his aides knew all the facts before criticizing the agency. A transition spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment on whether Trump spoke with top intelligence officials before criticizing the CIA.

The CIA feud left even some of his allies and friends puzzled. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said he believed Congress should investigate the matter, unlike Trump, even though he said the CIA should provide more answers.

Trump’s attacks can send stock market prices soaring and plunging, as shown in recent weeks when the president-elect went after Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the price tag of their defense contracts. They can send international ripples around the world, like when he went after China. Chuck Jones, the Indiana union leader, recently reported death threats and hundreds of attacks after Trump criticized him. He’s not alone.

“You see an uptick in nasty messages when he goes after you. I have gotten some death threats when he has attacked me,” said Evan McMullin, a third-party presidential candidate whom Trump has continued to mention during his victory tour. “You just have to get desensitized to it."

Trump seems unlikely to change his tactics, say aides, advisers and people who have observed him for years and watched over the past five weeks as he has attacked important and unimportant foes alike who cross him. "He's always going to respond if someone attacks him," said Roger Stone, a longtime confidant. "It's his nature."

And that has annoyed some close to him. “Sometimes, you think, you’re the president now, why do you care about that person or insult?” one transition aide said. “No one is really paying attention until he tweets about it. And then you have a whole day of controversy."

Some of Trump's supporters and even begrudging critics say the concerns of Trump’s volatile reactions are overblown. And it remains unclear if he will have access to Twitter, one of his favorite attack tools, in the Oval Office.

On the trail, supporters said they appreciated his candor and saw him not like other politicians. Many of his supporters liked that he didn’t take guff from others. And he beat a crowded field of Republicans and Clinton, even as political commentators repeatedly said an errant attack would doom him.

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to George W. Bush, said Trump's tone is often "jarring" and that "sometimes he counterpunches too hard, and he hits himself." But he said he appreciated Trump resetting the table.

"People are sick and tired of people who know how to pucker their lips and get nothing done. Trump speaks in a way that like that, and a lot of people find it refreshing. We're all missing something,” he said.

"Every time he says one of these things, people overinterpret it," Fleischer added. "He reminds me of a throwback to the LBJ era. You wonder what LBJ would have been like with a Twitter.

"On more instances than not, people like that he is blunt, he tells it like he sees it and he's not particularly polished. It won't surprise me if he gets a lot more done than some other presidents have because he's willing to upset the status quo, and I think it's a healthy thing."

There is also some strategy to it. He can often dominate news cycles when others criticize him, knowing his supporters will often take his word and see him in a position of strength. Wayne Barrett, a Trump biographer, said "there's some genius to it" and that his "very planned" gestures send a message to others who might attack him.

People who know Trump say he often becomes obsessed with grudges, particularly if someone questions his credibility or the legitimacy of his victory or personal characteristics. He stews over insults, sometimes mentioning them days later.

But he can also prove conciliatory, which will keep foreign leaders and others on their toes, Fleischer says. Critics are scared he will change his tune on international affairs based on emotions.

Aides say he won't insult people who praise him or show him respect. Angry at The New York Times on a recent morning, he called it “failing.” After a cordial meeting with its editors and reporters that afternoon, he called it “a "great, great American jewel.”

Trump, who frequently berated Barack Obama, especially after the president roasted him at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, has since changed his tune, calling the president "great." He has vowed to listen to some of his advice and has even consulted him on some of his Cabinet picks.

The same has been the case with Sharpton. The reverend said Trump called him angry over criticisms the civil rights leader made on TV several years ago. They later made up at a "Saturday Night Live" reunion. They hadn’t talked until recently, when Sharpton made nice comments on TV. Trump said he imagined they’d fight again one day, Sharpton said, recounting the call. The two laughed, and Sharpton said he admired that Trump had tapped into blue-collar voters across the country because they liked his brawling style.

“He's got to be careful because he has power far beyond ramifications of a real-estate deal. We're not talking about a deal here, we're talking about the nation, the world,” he said. “When you’re in the lounge in Vegas, you better show you can perform. He can’t do his best lounge act from Queens fighting the Manhattan real estate aristocracy when he’s on the biggest stage in the world,” he said.

“I hope for the country’s sake that he changes, but I wouldn’t bet much on it,” Sharpton said.