[ethbr1]

Trump's Reaganesque in Reagan's weaknesses, without any of his strengths. Except maybe charisma to some people.

At this point in his second administration, I'm firmly convinced that the bulk of the details aren't communicated to him and/or he forgets them.

Big decisions? Sure, he makes yes/no. But "Let me hear the plan for day x+1?" In what universe would the Trump we've seen ask that question? We're talking about the McDonald's guy.

[vel0city]

So you've said:

> I'm firmly convinced that the bulk of the details aren't communicated to him and/or he forgets them.

But at the same time:

> time no one wanted to risk contradicting his fancies on recorded television.

So they're making plans, but they won't actually commit to any of the plans because in the end the plans are meaningless and Trump is going to push for whatever he wants at the moment. Doesn't that make the actual plans practically worthless?

[ethbr1]

That seems like an accurate appraisal of the last year.

Sometimes Trump doesn't decide to veer off-script and scupper plans. But it happens more than never!

And rarely, when he does, more informed heads are able to turn him back around. E.g. the bullshit 'Ukraine tried to assassinate Putin' scheme

[estearum]

Under the hood here you're assuming Trump is (largely) incompetent to lead but surrounded by people who 1) know that and 2) are competent themselves.

A scarier possibility, which I think is actually far better evidenced, is that he's surrounded by people who largely believe he's competent (because it's a cult) and who are themselves not competent at all.

[ethbr1]

I think the people around him believe (1) he's competent to win the popularity contest that is an election & (2) he's vengeful against any perceived disloyalty.

There are probably some true-believers among his cabinet, but most of those are evidenced by their paper-thin CVs and lack of their own power-bases (Hegseth, Bondi, Rollins, Chavez-DeRemer, Turner, McMahon, Noem, Zeldin, Loeffler).