Firework politics

Trump seems to have invented a new way of being president - firework politics.

At irregular intervals, Trump lights a roman candle, which shoots out an explosion of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

A good example of this, was the tweet about trans people serving in the military. It isn't going to happen, all the generals seem to agree on this, except that of course it has led to an explosion of sound and fury from people reacting to the tweet. It's like Trump lights the blue touchpaper, then waits for the light show.

And he keeps doing this.

His whole campaign was like this, starting with the statements about Mexicans.

You might think that he's doing this on purpose, to get media attention and distract from more important things. The traditional way for a leader to distract from something embarrassing, is to start a war. This is vastly safer, of course, and much preferable. But I don't think it's deliberate policy.

When offered a choice of explanation between "malevolence" and "incompetence", Hanlon's Razor says "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". I agree. It's incompetence.

In Britain, we've coined a great word for this. Omnishambles.