Thread by @SteB777

I am extremely worried, no alarmed, at the total failure of mainstream media analysts, to grasp the nature of the Trump administration.

They keep normalizing it in the most unrealistic way. The most important thing to grasp is that Trump is deranged.

1/🧵threadreaderapp.com/thread/1887140…

By deranged, I mean, Trump, and by extension, those around him, are totally detached from reality. Their attempt at radical policy and change, will not pan out like they expect.

This is gross incompetence on an unbelievable scale.
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Take this shutting down of USAid.

In the MAGA mindset, this is a good thing. To stop paying large amounts of money, to ungrateful non-Americans.

Until you realize the consequences, and that it is a gift horse to China.

3/theguardian.com/world/2025/feb…

Already, over the last 20 years, China has been steadily buying influence around the world by investing in developing countries. Essentially, cutting off overseas aid will just offer China a massive opportunity, for global dominance.
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Nearly everything Trump and his regime is doing, will have massive, adverse, unintended consequences for the US.

This is what happens when you give incompetent people, with no grasp of reality, free rein with their impulsive stupidity.
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Trying to compare Viktor Orban's, Hungary, to the US and the Trump regime, as many media analysts are doing, is just plain mistaken, as it is a totally false analogy.

Aside from being very right wing, the analogy ends there.

6/theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f…

The US is the predominant global superpower, and with all due respect to Hungary, even in the European context, Hungary has moderate influence at most. As it is nowhere near the biggest economy, or politically influential country in Europe, let alone the world.
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What Orban does, has little influence outside of Hungary. Whatever, Trump does, has massive global consequences.

There are other major differences. Orban seems to be politically unpleasant, but relatively rational.
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Whereas, as I say, Trump seems to be totally unhinged and detached from reality. Trump and those around him, are taking decisions, that they don't seem to have thought through at all, which will have massive global consequences.

9/threadreaderapp.com/thread/1887303…

There is no historical precedent for this, outside of maybe some deranged Roman Emperors. This is not that relevant today, outside a deranged person in a powerful system.

As I repeatedly explain, this is not an ideological attack on Trump, because I don't like his politics.
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I'm merely saying, Trump has got no idea what he is doing, and has no grasp of his own limitations.

This is not at all like his first term, when there were some adults of sorts left in the room. There are now no adults in the White House room.
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This is real Lord of the Flies stuff, where the those with the least grasp on reality, are making shit up as they go along.

Once again, I don't know of any historical precedent for this, outside Ancient Rome. We're in Caligula territory here.
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What is totally missing from mainstream political analysis, is we're not dealing with a rational person, and those around Trump, are nearly as bad.

Let me define, better what I mean, by irrational, deranged, and incompetent.
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If a fairly rational, non-psychopath does something which is rather stupid, and has bad consequences, they learn from experience, and re-evaluate what went wrong, and reconsider their thinking.

It's well recognized, that psychopaths can't, and never learn from mistakes.
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Where is the precedent for Trump saying, I got that one wrong, I'll have to rethink my approach? Not just in his political career, but his business career. Trump just leaves carnage behind him, from all his bankruptcies, and failures like Trump University.
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Trump just leaves the wreckage behind him, for others to sort out. You can't do this with a big country, especially a superpower, with massive international influence. Those wreckages, will have massive global implications, and need to be addressed, and dealt with.
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Let me give a simple, limited example. Many experts are saying Trump's tariff strategy, and other policy, such as his immigration strategy, is going to cause huge price rises, for the American public.
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The primary reason Trump got into power, was public anger over the rise in the cost of living. Being so insular, in the US, there was little grasp that this was part of a global phenomenon, not just a domestic problem. It was a global cost of living crisis, not a US one.
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What's Trump going to do when prices start to rise and get out of control?

On past performance, he'll just blame scapegoats, and anything, but admit he got it wrong. He'll just abandon it, and not tackle it, as that would mean taking responsibility for his mistakes.
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Is there any example, of Trump in his whole lifetime, admitting to an error or mistake, and re-evaluating what he was doing? I don't know of any such example, But it is essential to the leader of a huge power like the US to be able to do this.
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Remember, Trump is doing very radical things, no major leader has done before, making it almost certain, that things will go catastrophically wrong. He can't just cut them loose and leave them, as he has done in his business career.
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Actually, there is a historical analogy, although the context is slightly different. Hitler and the Nazis. If Hitler was acting rationally by around 1943, he should have been able to see he was going to lose the war.
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But because Hitler couldn't admit that his high risk strategy to invade the Soviet Union, had failed, Hitler and the Nazis were still in denial, until Soviet forces, entered Berlin. That's what happens, when a deranged leader, gets it wrong.
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I concede, that is not an exact analogy. The only similarity being Trump is as deranged as Hitler, and Hitler pursued a similar high stakes strategy, to make Germany great again. He remained in total denial to the bitter end.
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This is why ignoring Trump's abnormal personality, and his inability to admit mistakes and re-evaluate his position, is so dangerous and mistaken. Trump is playing a very high stakes radical strategy, that is bound to go catastrophically wrong.
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Overall, what I am saying is political analysts, she not be looking at countries like Viktor Orban's, Hungary to see how things will pan out. They should rather be looking at unhinged Roman Emperors, and other demagogues, then their high stakes gambles went wrong.
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The one thing we can absolutely guarantee, is that a lot of Trump's crazy ideas and high stakes gambles, will go badly wrong, and it is going very badly pear-shaped. The other thing we know for certain, is Trump never admits his mistakes, or clears up his mess.
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We have got a very rough ride ahead of us, and I am not talking about the massive damage done to our democratic system and the climate crisis. I am simply talking about Trump's main policy, which is bound to fail and cause chaos.
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