The fog of Trump

Donald Trump has at least a dozen profound character flaws, including his pathological mendacity, his instability, his narcissism and his nastiness. We focus here on a less appreciated but equally debilitating preexisting condition of his presidency: his utter incomprehensibility on many policy goals.

Sure, there are many matters on which the Trump brand is clear: building that wall (which hasn’t been built), slashing taxes and environmental regulations, trying to shred the Affordable Care Act, launching self-defeating trade wars. But just as defining are the many areas where Trump shouts at the top of his lungs, excoriating ally and foe alike despite having no clue what he believes or seeks to accomplish beyond “winning.”

Two recent examples on policy critical to millions of Americans make the point.

Trump wanted to slash the payroll tax to goose economic growth, an idea that many in his administration said would deliver minimal bang for the buck. He backed down. Then signed a rickety executive order giving companies the opportunity to defer the taxes while saying he would completely “terminate the tax” — which funds all Social Security and Medicare — next year. Meantime, Trump insists on the need to foot the bill for those programs. How? The obvious answer is he doesn’t know.

Witness the same spaghetti-against-the-wall tendency on COVID-19 stimulus. Earlier this month, hours after he “instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election,” he began loudly demanding Congress act on specific priorities. Thursday, he urged House Democrats to “approve needed STIMULUS now” while laying into his own treasury secretary for failing to “come home with the bacon.”

Trump offered himself as a master bipartisan dealmaker. He should start by negotiating with himself.