According to the former Trump executives and the person Trump considers a friend, his drug use was widely discussed within the company as symptoms of possible abuse began to emerge. Trump had always been aggressive – sometime brutal – in business as well as loose with the truth, but in the late 1980s, things had become much worse. While former employees said he had often been thoughtful and caring to his staff, he suddenly exhibited abusive behavior that at times seemed irrational. His self-aggrandizement grew to delusions of grandeur, his thin skin thinned more, his decisions grew more reckless. While he had always been a liar when it was convenient, he sputtered greater numbers of falsehoods at an alarming rate and seemed to believe them. When previously he would speak in sexist ways that were fairly typical in businesses during the early 1980s, toward the end of the decade he seemed to have no filter and openly said far more inappropriate things about women.
