(CNN) The most important thing to understand about Donald Trump is that, well, he's always been like this. From the time he became a major player in New York real estate until this very second, he's always been the exact same guy: Obsessed with winning, certain of his own greatness, unapologetic about those he steps on to achieve his goals and hyper-aware of what people are saying about him.

"He hasn't changed at all," Jack O'Donnell, who ran a casino for Trump in the 1980s, told The New York Times in an exquisite piece that gets at Trump's remarkable consistency at being Trump. "And it's only people who have been around him through the years who realize that."

The Times piece, written by Russ Buettner and Maggie Haberman , delves into a series of anecdotes from Trump's life as a developer -- my favorite of which is this, about the construction of a Trump casino:

"Mr. Trump liked very high ceilings, according to the account. He screamed and cursed when he was told some ceilings had to be low to allow for pipes. He begrudgingly acquiesced. But he had forgotten by the time he next visited the construction site. He cursed again. Was reminded again. To the bewilderment of his executives, that cycle repeated itself several times.

"Finally, toward the end of construction, Mr. Trump reamed an executive with vulgarities, leapt up and punched a hole in one of the low ceilings."