For the last ten years I have been saying that I didn’t understand Donald Trump. I don’t know why he does things. And I can’t simply trust that what he does will be the right thing. Those two reasons were sufficient for me never to vote for him. In his Wall Street Journal column Holman Jenkins presents his unified theory of Trump:
I find myself joking with die-hard Russiagate believers that their theory of Trump treason explains only half of Mr. Trump’s Russia actions. My theory explains 100%: Mr. Trump says and does whatever, in his cynical mind, he thinks will benefit Mr. Trump in the next five minutes. This is a universal theory of Trump behavior to which I have yet to find a significant exception.
That isn’t precisely “circular reasoning” but it’s close enough to it for government work. That sort of reasoning may be explanatory but I don’t believe it’s sufficient. It’s not predictive.
