No strategery
by digby
He's not a thinker. He's a reactor:
Tim O’Brien, who authored the 2005 book “Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald,” said on CNN’s "New Day" that Trump’s use of social media isn’t "strategically driven" and largely comes from a sense of self-preservation.
“I think there’s usually two ways of understanding what motivates what he does: Either self-preservation or self-aggrandizement,” O’Brien said. "I think in this case a lot of this is coming out of self-preservation."
O'Brien said on Monday that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is hanging over Trump and is likely driving a lot of his decisions, saying it “cuts to core issues in Trumplandia.”
“I don’t think it’s necessarily even collusion or obstruction that preoccupies him,” O’Brien said. “It’s the money trail and what it might say about his business relationships and his past financial dealings.”
I think that's true. He's petrified at what the full power of the federal government to look at anything and look anywhere is going to turn up about his shady financial dealings. He doesn't seem to have realized that being president might bring that sort of scrutiny on him. His juvenile, comic book view of the presidency has hurt him there. He thought it was a performance.
It may also be true, however, that some Republican operatives and members of his entourage decided to help the Russian government meddle in the election when they realized that it was trying to take down Hillary Clinton. They don't think too much beyond their immediate need to destroy their political enemies. It's their raison d'etre. Republican operatives that is. I assume that the Russian government had a more sophisticated plan in mind.
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