“…neither rhyme nor reason.”

We are currently in a situation where precedents and norms and laws and rules and theories offer no assistance.

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“…neither rhyme nor reason.”

- Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare

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What, if anything, is Trumpism?

There is not really any rhyme: there is no consistency or predictability in what he does. His actions in situation [A] will tell you little or nothing about what he may do in situation [B].

There are, at a general level, certain themes: he is indifferent to norms, he is cunning, he likes leverage, he will renege on deals, he has a sense for ratings, he will often back down. But these are tactics and improvisations: they say little or nothing about which subjects he will engage with next.

And nor is there is much reason: little or nothing he does makes sense, at least for the reasons he gives - or for the reasons his partisan supporters come up with to justify his actions and inactions.

It would be fair to say there is neither rhyme nor reason.

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From time to time, some opponents come up with a grand theory.

“Watch the money!” and “his billionaire pals!” for example - but often Trump and the super-wealthy would financially benefit more from other courses of action. His erratic antics with tariffs make no sense from the perspective of capitalistic self interest.

“Distraction from the Epstein Files!” is now falling flat while Trump and his circle are confident that they can simply ignore explicit legislation. Those documents are not easily going to be released against the will of Trump, whatever the huffing and puffing.

Perhaps his desire to keep out of courts and prison may be his primal motivating factor, but when he was out of office between his presidencies he was deftly able to avoid any incarceration even when he was found criminally liable.

The only thing really which he wants is that most basic of all political objects: power.

But other than that fundamental political desire, there is no underlying theory, still less an ideology.

As Anne Applebaum wrote yesterday (broken up into smaller paragraphs):

For the past year, American allies around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s behavior.

Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are all words that have been thrown around.

But in the end, the president himself defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.”

He is locked into a world of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis.

These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy.

And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.

We maybe need to look elsewhere than political theory to understand what is going on here: perhaps psychology or anthropology, perhaps proverbs and fables, perhaps cautionary fairy tales.

We maybe need to look at the various ways our species have dealt with understanding those situations where a ruler is mad and bad.

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“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

- Hamlet, William Shakespeare

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Law and constitutionalism has little chance in the face of this ongoing irrationalism.

Pointing to the articles of the constitution of the United States, or of the charter of the United Nations, is nothing more other than quaint.

One may as well hold up a blank piece of paper and announce that this will stop him.

There is no formal solution to this problem: no text, codified or otherwise.

This will only stop if - if - those individuals who have any residual power step in and impose their wills against his.

And that still seems unlikely.

Those around him appear to be in a trance that has affected the whole of his “court” - a spell as deadly as any devised by any fairy tale witch upon any group of courtiers.

A spell which seems to be absolutely unbreakable.

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And now Trump has destroyed - or at least seems to have destroyed - Atlanticism and the NATO alliance.

Perhaps both will recover: that this is only some severe but not permanent jolt.

But when overnight Trump posts things like the following:

Or sends official diplomatic letters such as:

…we are not in situation from which we can speedily recover.

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"We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell. Making an enemy of our own future.”

- Withnail and I

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One day, perhaps, all this will be in the past.

One day we may know how this story ends.

Indeed, what happens next will be deemed by a certain type of historian as somehow inevitable - even though nobody at this moment can predict it with any certainty.

But as it stands: we are currently in a situation where there is neither rhyme nor reason - where precedents and norms and laws and rules and theories offer no assistance.

We are trapped in a story where there is nothing to tell us how this story ends.

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“I have supped full with horrors.”

- Macbeth, William Shakespeare.

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