On Tuesday, I spoke on a panel about the 1965 Voting Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. During the reception after the event, someone asked me what I thought of President Trump’s recent actions at home and abroad. What did I make of his self-destructive decision to launch an unprovoked war in Iran? How did I understand the constant chaos and dysfunction coming out of the White House? In short, was there a method to the apparent madness?
My short answer to my interlocutor was “no,” although I of course said a bit more than that. And my slightly longer answer to you, reader, is “No — there isn’t.” I got at this somewhat in my column this week, but there is no available evidence to support the idea that Trump is capable of thinking beyond the short term. We see this with the war in Iran, where it is clear that Trump expected more or less instant success — a short conflict followed by regime change and another victory under his belt. The idea that there might be unintended consequences — and the fundamental reality that the Iranian government has both agency and the capacity to act — does not seem to have either troubled the president’s mind or figured much in the calculations of his closest advisers.
To this point, one of the fundamental realities of this administration is that the president has organized his White House in such a way as to prevent anything from ever troubling his precious mind. Having surrounded himself with sycophants — with men and women so eager to please that they’ll submit to practically any humiliation thrown their way — he has filtered out information that might challenge his preconceptions, his assumptions, or even simply his ego.
The presidency runs on information and that information, you might imagine, needs to be accurate. There is no way for a president to prioritize, decide and follow through if he does not have access to the facts and unvarnished intelligence needed to make cleareyed decisions. Naturally, Trump, who does not care to govern, has no interest in this kind of information, if he could even retain it in the first place. He prefers to act from his gut, which is to say, his most venal impulses.
What he wants from his aides and allies, by contrast, is the kind of praise, attention and constant affirmation that you might give to a child with low self-esteem. Consider the way he expects his cabinet members to shower him with praise during their public meetings, or a recent event with congressional Republicans where he received a standing ovation for his mere presence — and where no one clapping seemed to want to stop, for fear of being the first to sit down. (A dynamic common to cults of personality.)
It suffices to say that this is a problem for trying to manage and prosecute a war, especially one of your own choosing. Even in the absence of a sound and capable executive, it might be possible for the military bureaucracy to handle this conflict if it could count on competent leadership within its own sphere. But here again, the president is an obstacle. He is more concerned with promoting friendly faces than finding anyone equipped to handle the job in question. And so the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth — a former Fox News host who lobbied Trump, in his first term, to pardon an accused war criminal — is also ill-equipped, professionally and psychologically, to deal with the dangers, dilemmas and exigencies of conflict.
In “Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership,” the political scientist Richard Neustadt — whom I refer to in this week’s column as well — observed, bluntly, that “the presidency is no place for amateurs.” He added, that “The power-seeker whose self-confidence requires quick returns and sure success might make a mess of everything including his own power.”
Trump is an immensely self-confident man with a deep thirst for power. But he has none of the psychological qualities needed to harness and wield the power of the presidency effectively. It is not even clear, in the second year (and sixth total) of his time in office, that he even understands the nature of the job itself.
So, again, there is no method to this particular madness. There is no method at all. What there is, instead, is a man with a fourth-rate intellect and a fifth-rate temperament who treats reality as a television show for which he is the cloistered, pampered star. But the world actually exists. Real lives are at stake. And his actions have weight that cannot be easily moved.
There is no channel to change, and you can’t rewind the action. Trump made his foolhardy decision and now we must live with the consequences.
What I Wrote
My column this week was an examination of presidential standing and presidential power, and how one of the stories of Trump’s presidency so far is how he has squandered both to his detriment (but perhaps to our future benefit).
Presidential standing, in this paradigm, is the currency that makes presidential power work. A popular and well-liked president has more resources to deploy in pursuit of his agenda. He has the informal power he needs to bolster his more circumscribed formal authority. A distrusted, divisive and unpopular president, on the other hand, quickly finds that he is unable to work his will on political actors who are more worried about their own fates than the president’s interests and appetites.
Now Reading
Berny Belvedere on JD Vance for The UnPopulist.
Richard Yeselson and Trip Venturella on the Democratic Party’s search for a new policy on Israel for The New Republic.
Aryeh Neier on Trump’s war on free speech for The New York Review of Books.
Ruby Cramer on the case of Marimar Martinez for The New Yorker.
Adam Serwer on gullible, cynical America for The Atlantic.
Photo of the Week
From the U.S.S. Yorktown, which is permanently docked in Charleston, S.C.
Now Eating: Black Pepper Beef and Cabbage Stir-Fry
I made this a couple of times last week. The kids weren’t big fans of the cabbage, but I was, so I’m going to share it with y’all! You could go easy on the soy sauce in the preparation of the beef. You might want to use a little sesame oil as well. Otherwise, I think this works as is. Recipe from NYT Cooking.
Ingredients
-
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, coarsely crushed with the bottom of a cup or pan
-
3 garlic cloves, grated
-
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
-
1 teaspoon cornstarch
-
Kosher salt
-
¾ pound sirloin steak, thinly sliced crosswise
-
3 tablespoons sunflower oil or other neutral oil
-
2 tablespoons soy sauce
-
½ head small green cabbage (about 8 ounces), thinly sliced
-
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
-
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, crushed with your fingertips
-
2 scallions, thinly sliced
-
Cooked rice, for serving
Directions
Add peppercorns, garlic, brown sugar, cornstarch and a teaspoon of salt to a medium bowl and stir to combine. Add sliced steak and toss to coat.
Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high. Add steak and cook, stirring frequently, until some of the edges are lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Add soy sauce and toss beef to coat, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer beef to a bowl or plate.
Add cabbage to skillet, spread in an even layer and let cook, undisturbed, for 1 minute so that some pieces caramelize in the pan. Toss and cook cabbage, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in vinegar and season with salt.
Add steak and any juices back to the skillet, and stir until well combined with the cabbage and warmed through, about 1 minute. Top with toasted sesame seeds and scallions; serve with rice.
The post Is There Method to Trump’s Madness? appeared first on New York Times.
