It's odd Justin, that nobody seems to get it. Trump is an instinctive political genius. By instinct, I mean he doesn't act on the basis of rationality. He doesn't think it out, that's not his way. He just does it, because he has a feel for it, and it works. It's a talent not many people have.
He doesn't see things Boltons way. He said as much in the campaign. Peace in the Mideast; withdraw from unnecessary Wars; get along with Russia,etc. So why then does he hire somebody like Bolton? Or Nikki Haley? Or Pompeo? "Rational thinkers" say either he was a liar to begin with, OR he's been beaten down and forced to surrender to the enemy. That's where thinking gets you -- the kind of "thinking" that has screwed things up for the American people since Viet Nam.
That's not where instinct to gets you.
"...some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward"
Try this instead, the instinctive approach: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Hire your enemies, so that their followers think they have won. Your enemies may think they are strengthened, when in fact they are weakened. Let them run their mouths off from "inside the citidel". Let them try to sabotage your plan. Then use their menace like it was good cop bad cop all from the start. Then be the good cop and slap those bad guys down. They're stuck, unable to counter effectively, because the good cop "owns" them. Because they don't want to risk losing their high-profile, super-important jobs. At the finish line, the Trumpinator comes out smelling like a rose; the Hero who beats the bad guys, and we all live happily ever after. Everyone wants the Hero to win in the end. And when he does, we all feel good about it. Make America Feel Good Again. Dramatic tension makes for fabulous political theater.
The hero doesn't think. He doesn't have to. Somewhere down deep, from a place "before" thought he knows, without even knowing he knows. He has always been that way. He is used to winning. He almost always wins. And when, on those rare occasions when he doesn't win, he doesn't much notice, just moves on fearlessly, because,... well,... he always wins,..... in the end.
Trump does not inhabit the world of ordinary men.
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