This is the tenth year in which I write about Donald Trump and his unorthodox, transgressive behavior.
And as we approach the height of this 2024 election cycle, his actions, words and attitudes have only become more extreme, verging on the bizarre, if not erratic.
Never before has a public figure, except perhaps one with a visible breakdown, displayed such an erratic, devilish, uninhibited personality.
From mid-sentence tossing off a recent event in Pennsylvania and waving to his own playlist for forty minutes, to his daily, ninety-minute and often incoherent speeches, or his unrestrained and expletive-ridden attacks on his various enemies, it’s a whole new style of WTF politics.
And it’s not just in public; there are also reports of poor private behavior, of anger unleashed on those closest to him, even major Republican donors.
Never before has a public figure, except perhaps one with a visible breakdown, displayed such an erratic, devilish, uninhibited personality.
Even those closest to him are now struggling to explain what certainly appears to be a deliberate determination to spit despite the restraint.
A golf buddy from Mar-a-Lago, who sees the former president often, recently suggested to me that this could be due to the stress of the tough final weeks of the campaign.
Several Trump aides, meanwhile, have speculated about the lasting impact of two assassination attempts. And then of course there is the age factor: Trump is 78 years old. But, on good terms, some around him note that his decline – if that is what we are witnessing – is at least colorful, unlike Joe Biden’s sad fade-out.
Another explanation is that Trump understands that he could lose—which is at least a 50/50 possibility in such a close race—and that he recognizes the dire consequences that could follow: disgrace, prison, bankruptcy.
Some insiders trace the escalation of his out-of-control behavior back to Biden’s exit from the race and Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise in July.
With Biden, Trump was confident of victory. But that was taken away from him. And his anger, his sense of being the victim of a vast Democratic plot, may have pushed him over the edge. In his mind, it’s already another stolen election.
Plus, this is all combined with the fact that he would lose to a woman – the ultimate insult.
But then there’s the possibility that what looks like a self-destructive spiral could actually be indicative of Trump’s own sense of intransigence — of total confidence in victory. And if so, this aberrant behavior is all the more consequential because it foreshadows the anger and impunity that could characterize a second Trump White House.
A White House in which he will feel free enough and confident enough to be as Trump as he wants to be.
Some insiders trace the escalation of his out-of-control behavior back to Biden’s exit from the race and Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise in July.
Despite universal disgust after January 6, Republican donors and party leaders rallying behind Ron DeSantis in the primaries, four indictments and a criminal conviction, Trump has persevered and prevailed. Now he’s on a victory lap.
Certainly, he has repeatedly said that his unbridled sensitivity is the key to his success. His foreign policy modus operandi – essentially the Trump Doctrine – is that the more unpredictable and volatile he appears, the more other countries fear him.
And the truth is that Trump being Trump, without holding back, often works.
One need only look at his historic triumph over what may be the most coordinated legal attack ever leveled against an American politician. Any reasonable legal advisor would have encouraged him to seek accommodation and settlement with his accusers. Instead, with Trumpian bluster and contempt, he has unleashed a cascade of false attempts to delay, distract and confront the system that tried so hard to derail him.
And as such, he fought his way to a draw. If he succeeds on November 5, that draw will be a total victory over his opponents.
Excessive behavior is usually punished. Society, and often the law, rebels against it. For Trump, strangeness breeds success. He’s an unruly man-child who seems to have inverted the most basic rule of parenting: his bad behavior is so often rewarded.
Which begs the question: how does he get away with it?
For Trump, strangeness breeds success. He’s an unruly man-child who seems to have inverted the most basic rule of parenting: his bad behavior is so often rewarded.
Part of the answer is that he provides such a clear contrast to other politicians, including Kamala Harris, whose behavior is controlled, strategic, but unrevealing and perhaps boring. Nowadays it increasingly seems that correct behavior can be punished better.
But another element is that Trump has created a bubble world for himself. He was a bankrupt businessman, a joke in his hometown of New York City, but on “The Apprentice” he cast himself as the unparalleled master.
Now he’s shape-shifting again, covering up his anomalies—his daily strange behavior, his criminal charges, the memory of January 6—with the consistent illusion that he’s still the president, more presidential even than the actual president.
If he wins, the hero of his victory will be his top aide, Justin Caporale – a key Trump architect, who has orchestrated every detail, look and feel of this campaign. From the wood-paneled private jet, to the podiums and fake presidential seals, to the floodlights and outsized sets at his rallies, it all sends the message that here is a real president. Here is the dominant, world-conquering master of time and place.
From the beginning of the Trump era, the question has always been whether he is as crazy as a fox, artfully gaming the system, or so in an alternate reality – which is to say, just plain crazy – that he has reversed the game.
If he wins again, we will be further and further away from the truth.
If he loses, we might return to a more recognizable standard of normality – although it is far from clear that this is actually what people want.