^This. I've been saying for a while that he's not really stupid or crazy. He's fucking with his opposition to keep us off balance. It's a variation on "if you can't dazzle them with facts, baffle them with bullshit." It's all meant as a distraction to hide his actions under the table.
BTW, I once thought that it would be best if he stayed in office because Pence is pretty much the same, except a competent politician as well. I've changed my mind. Trump has to go, and as soon as possible. He's doing damage (socially, economically, and politically) we may not be able to recover from.
I'm with you on this, sadly. I mean it's a "eating a plate of snot
or sliding down a razor blade into a pool of alcohol" kind of choice, but I'm leaning towards Trump the sociopath, psychopath willing to destroy the world to get his way being a touch more dangerous. Dunno.
I think dismissing Trump as crazy, stupid or senile only serves to diminish and detract from the impact of his cruelty. Of course it's not just about Trump. People in his "team" are there for different reasons and whether they egg him on, pretend they don't notice his "excesses" or try and justify what he's doing, they're all part of the regime, all contributing to the damage, all unforgiveable.
I was listening to a podcast or internet radio show, can't remember, the other night, where someone suggested he's running the country/world like a mobster. To be fair, it's the world he knows best. For the Trump regime, it's all about copious displays of wealth and power and trusting only "family" and an inner circle from which absolute loyalty is demanded. For anyone he thinks as "crossed" him, retribution is swift and brutal.
There's also the gratuitous cruelty. Thousands of people died in Puerto Rico because he deliberately chose to deny the island essential aid. There was no legal or security justification for separating asylum seeking children from their parents and keeping them in cages, but he implemented this as policy. I don't doubt he got off on the idea he could make thousands of brown people suffer and die with just the stroke of his Sharpie, but I also think these and other policies like withdrawing food aid and health care for poor children were also meant to send a message of, "Look what I can do. Don't fuck with me or you'll be next."
And the farm subsidies just announced? That's to keep his loyalists on side. It sends them the message that he's "their man" and reinforces their sense of superiority, racial and otherwise. He wants them loyal as he might need them in battle later.
I don't actually think he's even trying to hide anything and he doesn't feel shame. He doesn't seem to mind getting caught, whether its lying, paying hush money to a mistress, profiting from his position, sexual assault, flat out breaking the law, whatever. What he doesn't want is to be punished, so if it looks like that's on the cards, he'll insist he just misspoke, was misunderstood or blame someone else. Or, he'll dig his heels in and lash out at whoever he thinks is responsible, or someone else as a proxy.
It's fucked up. It's all fucked up. I'm not sure whether it can ever be unfucked tbh.
