Sunday’s NYT included an article discussing Trump’s use of Twitter and how it creates dissonance in our foreign policy. I’ve posted on that subject before, and the article added little to my previous comments.
What the article missed was the element of deliberation that goes into Trump’s tweets. Unlike any of his predecessors, and based on his experience as a businessman responsible only to himself, Trump believes that unpredictability is a virtue, not a vice. If mixed signals leave everyone guessing what he’ll do next, that keeps his options open, and has the additional advantage of focusing the world’s attention on him, where it so obviously belongs.
Of course, Trump has responsibilities to the American public, and to the world as a whole, as president that he didn’t have as a self-employed businessman. He simply doesn’t accept them, and we are left in peril as a result.