The Next Trump

John Harris: “The notion of being a Trump-like leader with discipline, or without what the Times called Trump’s “baggage,” is a logical contradiction. That baggage — or more precisely the way Trump thrills his supporters with breezy indifference to what political opponents or the media, applying conventional standards, call baggage — is one essential source of Trump’s appeal. The lack of discipline — the breathtaking, moment-by-moment improvisation of a narcissist at large — is another.”

“A politician calculating how to mimic Trump’s appeal by definition is faking it. Trump of course utters falsehoods with ease. But on the subject that matters most to him he is not faking it. He is presenting his genuine self. The raucously self-confident, clinically self-involved performer who became president in 2017 had been practicing for this role for 71 years. Since then he’s had five more years of practice.”