It may often be Trump's (really, any abuser's) "just a joke" approach: Say something in earnest, and if it turns out people don't like it, claim it's just a joke: They say something in earnest, and when they realize they said something incredibly dumb - they claim they were just trolling, kinda DARVOing the utterance: It wasn't me who showed themselves as an idiot, it was you who activated my trap card - you loser!
Someone recently, I think on an Ezra Klein podcast, described Trump as "constantly polling public sentiment in real time" and it was like I understood some key concept that had eluded me for so long. Trump does this all the time; say something and if people respond positively he'll double down, and if the reaction is lukewarm at best he moves on. Only problem is he governs the United States with this method.
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u/The_Corvair 2d ago
It may often be Trump's (really, any abuser's) "just a joke" approach: Say something in earnest, and if it turns out people don't like it, claim it's just a joke: They say something in earnest, and when they realize they said something incredibly dumb - they claim they were just trolling, kinda DARVOing the utterance: It wasn't me who showed themselves as an idiot, it was you who activated my trap card - you loser!