He didn’t get the respect to which he thought he was entitled as he was growing up. An outsider by anyone’s standards, he was–unjustly, in his eyes–accused of serious ethical violations in the process of seeking office. As a result, he was angry at the liberal establishment, and wanted revenge. He made it clear that he had no interest in keeping the mainstream happy and would pursue a personal reactionary agenda in office. If the left didn’t like it, so much the better; in the end, there wasn’t much they could do about it.
Is it Trump or Clarence Thomas? You decide.