PSA: Trump is not "torn." He does not possess the psychological complexity, the capacity for self-reflection, necessary for that feeling. He is single-minded the way an amoeba is single-minded: lunge toward positive stimuli, away from negative. That's it.
To imagine Trump "torn," or capable of being torn, is to misunderstand him on the most fundamental level. And at this point, if you don't understand Trump, it is because your own personal or professional incentives push the other direction. Misunderstanding requires *effort*.
That Trump is a pathological narcissist who will do/say whatever makes him feel on top in the moment -- even if it's false, or nonsense, or contradicts what he did/said the day before -- is viscerally evident within 30 seconds of exposure to him.
99% of what elite commentators & journalists have gotten wrong in the Trump Era arises from the thought that, surely in THIS circumstance, faced with THIS world-historical threat, Trump won't act like an amoeba. Surely this will snap him out of it.
It's always wrong. Trump always acts the only way he's capable of acting. What about when he's faced with a pandemic, a historical recession, & an explosion of domestic unrest, putting his reelection in peril? Surely THIS will cause some self-reflection or moderation! Again: no.
