Donald Trump Does Not Have a Plan

He has dictatorial desires. But not everything is a brilliant distraction or part of a cunning masterplan. Let’s not turn incompetent agents of malice into omnipotent supervillains.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

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steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/70c12168-9b07-44a1-aadc-a4ced5a2d5aa

April 11, 2026 - 13:02 UTC

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Writ large, SAME thing that happens in a family (or workplace) dealing w/ an individual w/ power who is alcoholic, mentally disordered, and/or sliding into dementia.

Humans are HARD-WIRED to assume the seeming incoherence or illogicality isn't really & TRY HARDER to u/stand. The crazy metastatizes.
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I read the thread - Trump’s “plan” is to glorify and enrich himself. Tactically he uses distraction, bluster and aggression to keep the opposition off balance.

But we s/n neglect the RRRs who do have a more coherent plan. For them Trump and MAGA are useful tools to accomplish a larger objective.
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“Tactically he uses distraction, bluster and aggression to keep the opposition off balance” - that is just not plausible at all. Trump the master manipulator - it’s nonsense. Exactly the coherence fallacy we need to avoid.
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They do the same thing with bumbling FSB agent Putin. They assume he’s got superpowers and is a master of evil. The aspiring diva dictators live for this.
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Pope Leo XIV said,"[Jesus] does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
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So much of the Trump Administration is explained by Always Sunny.
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Trump's fans praise him to the skies ... but l don't recall any of them saying he has a sunny disposition.
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I like it! 👍
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Basically, Trump impulsively grabs what he wants and moves on to the next chaotic thing while others scramble to coherently explain his non-existent strategy and still others must clean up his mess.
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True! And what he wants is either for his personal economic gain and/or for his intention to wrap himself in glory, with no caring, respect, or benefit to the people he's sworn to serve.
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Also he’s not a pupil of Orban.
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I think the people who have great influence over him for various reasons (bribery, blackmail, flattery, etc) have plans. It's not a coincidence that everything Trump does hurts America and the rest of the free world.
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So Project 2025 isn't a "plan?" Or he's not following it? (He is.)
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Explicitly and extensively tackled in the piece.

I have been writing about Project 2025 for years. It’s not out of ignorance that I am telling you: The idea that the actions of this regime are best understood as a systematic effort to implement P2025 is just not plausible at all.
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Trump doesn't have a plan, but I bet Mossad, the KGB and CIA do . . .
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Even now, prominent people suggest there is method to whatever Trump is doing – that it’s either all a cunning distraction from matters Trump wants to obscure or perhaps all part of a devious long-term scheme to erect a Trump dictatorship. I strongly disagree.
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This regime is not systematically implementing a masterplan. We are dealing with chaotic destruction wrought by an increasingly delusional wannabe-dictator who leads a comically incompetent government and a movement drowning in its own conspiratorial hyperreality.
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