michael d'antonio is the author of the new book , "the truth about trump." the opinions expressed in this commentary are his.









(cnn) america seems to be catching onto the flaws of "trumpspeak" -- the gop candidate's method, perfected over decades in the public eye, of winning attention and creating an illusion of unbounded success.









polls in key swing states and nationally now show him well behind hillary clinton and some of his rhetorical tricks, like the use of "people are saying" to spread falsehoods while avoiding responsibility for them, have become popular memes









still, anything can happen with nearly three months left to go in the election. so it's instructive to look at the five elements of trumpspeak:









the media record is littered with moments when donald trump appeared to set a new mark for outrageousness that even he couldn't surpass. then came another day and a new bizarre performance. the current example of the presidential candidate at his trumpiest is the argument that president barack obama and hillary clinton are the "founder" and "co-founder" of isis.









2) the art of the false claim









although trump routinely attacks the press for its supposed bias, he consistently promotes arguments with little basis in fact and no specific sources. with phrases like "many people are saying" and "i'm hearing," trump manages to insert unsubstantiated notions into the electoral discourse without taking responsibility for the messages he's sending.









trump's innuendo had no basis in fact. when he spoke, the president's short form birth record had been released by officials in hawaii, and there was no mystery about his college years. nevertheless, trump built a following with this method and continues to use it.









4) i'm a winner (even when i'm not)









how is it that someone who cares so much about numbers as represented in his business record and ratings comes to declare himself a winner in ways that can be so readily refuted? it's possible that the template was established so long ago that it's an ingrained habit.









when i interviewed trump, he told me more than once that in his youth he had been the best high school baseball player in new york state. in those years, the empire state was home to several future major leaguers and at least one future hall of famer. the players who competed in big city leagues played against the toughest opponents. trump played for a tiny school that squared-off against other small schools in upstate new york. the chance that he was "the best" is practically zero.









why does he do it?









gingrich cited the comments about obama and isis as an example. "i know what trump has in his mind, but that's not what people hear," said gingrich. in a rare case of self-correction, trump explained that he was practicing "sarcasm" when he linked obama to the founding of isis. he offered the same explanation when he mused about how russian hackers should muck around in clinton's email accounts.









trump's excuses, like his behavior, resemble what one might expect from a bullying child who is caught tormenting a sibling. any adult who has ever interceded in this kind of conflict knows to expect to hear "i was only kidding" and "can't you take a joke?" from the kid who is doing the harm. in trump's case, of course, the childishness does harm to the country as a whole and, as the case of tur suggests, poses a real threat to specific individuals.









trump is the same person he was as a boy. "when i look at myself in the first grade and i look at myself now, i'm basically the same," trump once told me. "the temperament is not that different."









having studied trump intently over the last three years, i would agree that he's the same person he was as a child, but i would peg the exact date to the summer between seventh and eighth grade. it was then that his parents, exasperated over his behavior, sent him away to a military academy because they couldn't handle him. there he was plunged into a cruel and often violent environment where grown men trained young men by smacking them around. in the meantime, his four siblings were comforted in the luxury of the trump mansion, peacefully attended by domestic help and educated at posh private schools.









trump was, by his own admission, an out-of-control child, and he says that he needed the discipline he got at the military academy. i agree, but i don't think the discipline took. this is what the more sober minded elders of the gop, gingrich included, are discovering now. trump is still the unruly child who will not be tamed. the chances of him accepting discipline now, at age 70, after a lifetime of accumulating wealth, power and attention, are slim to none.
opinion: the flaws of trumpspeak
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