Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The young man had suddenly taken to riotous living with a sort of frenzy. Not that he gambled or drank too much; there was only talk of savage recklessness, of running over people in the street with his horses, of brutal conduct to a lady of good society with whom he had a liaison and whom he afterwards publicly insulted. There was a callous nastiness about this affair. It was added, too, that he had developed into a regular bully, insulting people for the mere pleasure of insulting them.

I read this passage (omitting only the reference to horses) to a number of people and asked who they thought it described. Invariably, they answered, “Donald Trump?”