Trump has no "worldview" there is only his personal survival

Trump has no "worldview" there is only his personal survival

by digby



Fareed Zakaria had an interesting program this week in which he discusses John Bolton's worldview and how it influences Trump's foreign policy:

Pres. Trump’s foreign-policy whisperer, John Bolton, has a dark and inaccurate worldview. My take: pic.twitter.com/5kQm2bzMgk

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 5, 2019


It's interesting and probably correct. But I don't think Trump agrees with Bolton (and Dick Cheney's) worldview. He believes that everyone in the world is a mark for one of his fraudulent real estate deals. He doesn't have a "dark" view of human nature. He doesn't think that way. He believes that his experience as a con man shows he can hustle world leaders with shallow flattery, ill-informed bombast and bribes. And he doesn't need to lrarn or even think. He relies totally on instinct:

He said it out loud at one of his rallies:

Trump said he would find a way to work with a divided Congress.

"My whole life, you know what I say? 'Don't worry about it, I'll just figure it out.'" he said. "Does that make sense? I'll figure it out."

There is no philosophy, there is no worldview, there is no strategy. He wakes up every morning and does whatever he thinks is necessary to survive another day. That's it.

In the case of foreign policy his only motivation is to prove that he is the world's greatest negotiator, although he is so far out of his depth that the one thing that can save him is confusion and chaos accidentally breaking in his favor.

The only good news is that Trump is such an egomaniac that he doesn't listen to anyone and that includes Bolton. It's not much, but it's all we've got.

There are two yuge dangers in this Trump presidency. The first is his blatant defiance of political norms and breaking of the constitution in service of malevolent conservatives, setting precedent for Republicans to hold power illegitimately for decades to come. The second is his cavalier treatment of national security and chaotic behavior on the world stage. He's made us a very unpredictable rogue superpower and that's dangerous for everyone on the planet. Trump and the GOP have fucked us six ways to Sunday and it's not going to be easy to fix it.


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