Fred didn’t need to read The Power of Positive Thinking in order to co-opt, for his own purposes, the most superficial and self-serving aspects of Peale’s message.
Anticipating the prosperity gospel, Peale’s doctrine proclaimed that you
need only self-confidence in order to prosper in the way God wants you to.
“[O]bstacles are simply not permitted to destroy your happiness and wellbeing.
You need be defeated only if you are willing to be,” Peale wrote.
That view neatly confirmed what Fred already thought: he was rich
because he deserved to be. “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your
abilities!… A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the
attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and
successful achievement.” Self-doubt wasn’t part of Fred’s makeup, and he
never considered the possibility of his own defeat. As Peale also wrote, “It
is appalling to realize the number of pathetic people who are hampered
and made miserable by the malady popularly called the inferiority
complex.”
Peale’s proto–prosperity gospel actually complemented the scarcity
mentality Fred continued to cling to. For him, it was not “the more you
have, the more you can give.” It was “the more you have, the more you
have.” Financial worth was the same as self-worth, monetary value was
human value. The more Fred Trump had, the better he was. If he gave
something to someone else, that person would be worth more and he less.
He would pass that attitude on to Donald in spades.
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