Comment by Havoc
7 days ago
Given everything recent I’d say competence in the WH is a stretch
The prez is literally holding up placards where half the numbers on it are mislabelled and they rest of the numbers are that mislabelled/misunderstood number divided by half
That sounds like garden variety incompetence to me not 5D chess
There is a low cunning at work though - Trump now runs the largest military in the world and the largest economy and if the only way he can impress other people is to use that power he will use it to try to beat them into submission. Chaos at this point is his friend as he attempts to stay in power as long as possible, so expect trade wars, war, domestic chaos and forcing others to show loyalty to him personally and pay him off as the biggest bully in the room. He sees this in very simple terms. So no there is not a high intelligence at work but he is not without agency and cunning. He has operated this way all his life due to inherited money and got away with it.
And damn the consequences for everyone else, including the people who elected him, he doesn’t consider that in his calculations, which is what makes them so confusing for those who think he is playing by normal rules of politics or business.