Michael D'Antonio is author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" (St. Martin's Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) When I interviewed Donald Trump in 2014, he told me that one of his big beefs with President Obama was that after he took office, he had stopped being a good "cheerleader." The man who would succeed Obama in the White House thinks rallying the country is one of a president's main responsibilities and he was disappointed that, in his view, someone with such obvious oratorical gifts neglected to apply them.

The president-as-cheerleader model helps explain why Trump went ahead with a campaign-style rally as Hurricane Michael ripped into Florida and then tore into neighboring states. Few things matter more to him than performing before a chanting crowd and he believes he's very good at it.

Who could argue that Trump knows how to draw the aggressive energy out of an audience until a room crackles with the energy of a high school gym on basketball night in Indiana? "Lock her up" isn't so different from "Defense! Defense!" except that it is scarier to hear emanating from a crowd gathered to listen to the supposed leader of the free world.

The trouble with the cheerleader model as employed by Trump is threefold.

First, he does it too much. Many occasions -- like, say, the moment when a storm is blowing apart coastal communities -- are not suitable for pep rallies. Second, his cheers aren't for all Americans but, rather, for his partisans. Third, he's mean-spirited. The tone Trump creates at his rallies is worse than what you'll experience at Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox are on the field.

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