Chaos (that he instigates) is Trump's happy place. Like every other Republican tactic, he turned it up to 11 and uses it for his own reasons and ends alone. As you note, his analysis of the Reiners' murders makes no sense narratively, but he had to insert himself into the narritive because he has to be the center of all attention, and his base doesn't care about narrative, its feelings that matter.
And when its feelings that matter you're gonna get chaos, stochastic everything. Tariffs are based on Trump's feeling that America (meaning him) is getting "ripped off" by trade "imbalance". Hence the changing random numbers for random reasons. The unanswered important question is why the Republican party has embraced chzos.
Well, people have feelings, but institutions supposedly don't. When I refer to Republicans I usually mean the party bureaucracy, the fundraising, organization, strategists, the people who manipulate the voters' feelings. Conventional wisdom is the people staffing the party are a generation raised in Gingrich's Total War conceot of politics, but not all of them are under 30. The party has been fundamentally transformed by Trump into something that quacks like a death cult. It make no rational sense, which is why the first wave forced out or retired after Trump's win in 2024 were never-Trumpers. Now a 2nd wave is quitting/retiring, and they are/were Trump supporters. The logical end of these cycles is the implosion of the party, but they are acting as if the road goes on forever and the party never ends (RIP Joe Ely). The Iron Law of Institutions says this should be a concern to the party but they're treating it like another norm.
Yeah treating any institution like another norm to be broken at will isn't rational, but anyone over there with longer-term institutional views will still have to work with a base that might hate expertise itself (that is aside from any degrees someone has). This probably won't work out for anyone, but they will try it anyway.
Chaos (that he instigates) is Trump's happy place. Like every other Republican tactic, he turned it up to 11 and uses it for his own reasons and ends alone. As you note, his analysis of the Reiners' murders makes no sense narratively, but he had to insert himself into the narritive because he has to be the center of all attention, and his base doesn't care about narrative, its feelings that matter.
And when its feelings that matter you're gonna get chaos, stochastic everything. Tariffs are based on Trump's feeling that America (meaning him) is getting "ripped off" by trade "imbalance". Hence the changing random numbers for random reasons. The unanswered important question is why the Republican party has embraced chzos.
I am not sure that they are thinking deeply enough to get to a "why".
Well, people have feelings, but institutions supposedly don't. When I refer to Republicans I usually mean the party bureaucracy, the fundraising, organization, strategists, the people who manipulate the voters' feelings. Conventional wisdom is the people staffing the party are a generation raised in Gingrich's Total War conceot of politics, but not all of them are under 30. The party has been fundamentally transformed by Trump into something that quacks like a death cult. It make no rational sense, which is why the first wave forced out or retired after Trump's win in 2024 were never-Trumpers. Now a 2nd wave is quitting/retiring, and they are/were Trump supporters. The logical end of these cycles is the implosion of the party, but they are acting as if the road goes on forever and the party never ends (RIP Joe Ely). The Iron Law of Institutions says this should be a concern to the party but they're treating it like another norm.
Yeah treating any institution like another norm to be broken at will isn't rational, but anyone over there with longer-term institutional views will still have to work with a base that might hate expertise itself (that is aside from any degrees someone has). This probably won't work out for anyone, but they will try it anyway.