One of the men who knows Donald Trump as well as anyone, said on MSNBC on Saturday that Trump’s admiration for North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un is a tip-off that he would deeply enjoy being a murderous despot if given a chance.

Speaking with AM Joy host Joy Reid, who called Tony Schwartz’s description of Trump “scary,” the ghostwriter said Trump has mental issues.

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Addressing Trump’s comments that he wishes Americans revered him in the way he thinks North Koreans living in their totalitarian state revere Kim, Reid read from a Schwartz tweet stating Trump has a “severe personality disorder” that “reporters don’t know how to handle.”

“In Trump’s case, you cannot analyze his behaviors rationally because they’re not rational” he explained. “They’re a function of what’s going on, or what’s missing internally.”

With host Reid noting Trump’s praise for Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin – with Schwartz noting the Russian leader has had journalists “murdered” — the author said he was willing to go to an extreme to describe the president’s state of mind.

“I believe he would be murdering as many enemies as Kim Jong-un does,” he stated. “That his lack of conscience and his sociopathy is so extreme — and inner sense of emptiness — what he has is a blend of paranoia, which I said in the tweet, and grandiosity and cruelty.”

“Just take the immigrants, who are being — the kids separated from the parents,” he continued. “The cruelty is a way of punishing the people who he perceives as his enemies. So, that blend of qualities make me believe that Trump has cast his lot with authoritarians and dictators — and they behave in predictable ways.”

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