"It's like you're in a bar, and you just start talking to him..."

People who voted for Trump have famously said that they like him because he says what they are thinking. And as we approach the third full month of his tenure, foreign leaders and diplomats are trying to think on what to say about what he may or may not be thinking.

One ambassador who has met with State Department officials says, "I'm not sure there is a (foreign) policy. They will listen to me and tell me, 'We will get back to you when there is a policy.'" Another ambassador who has met with Trump says, "He doesn't have a paper in front of him... It's up to the visitor to declare the agenda. He just sits there. It's like you are in a bar, and you just start talking to him."

Trump's fledgling moves on the international stage are being met with derision by those diplomats who are not currently "diplomat-ing", such as Australia's former Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans:

According to State Department spokesperson R.C. Hammond, Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "are finding a new way of conducting international relations because the old one was not working. People are starting to learn the new language," he said of foreign diplomats and leaders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promised-an-unpredictable-foreign-policy-to-allies-it-looks-incoherent/2017/04/11/21acde5e-1a3d-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?utm_term=.6f7ba40b9989

It's not clear if this new language would benefit from visual aids, interpretative dance or even much hard liquor. All of this reminds us of what David Frum said about Trump: everything is random reactions to external stimuli. Also this: everything he says he believes to be true, or that it should be true.

It brings us back to the relationship our President has with his supporters. Gallons of ink and vast quantities of ether space have been devoted to the question of why his base sticks with him. Many are the theories...

“The rise of this blusterous man bewilders the educated among us, conjoins opposing politicians, agonizes our international allies, threatens minorities, spits on the disabled, and touches the hearts of those who just don’t know any better. Let us stop propounding how bad this all is, and instead, do something.”

(Liselotte Hubner, writing not about Trump but about the rise of Hitler in Germany, in 1929.)

And speaking of "he who should never be mentioned again by Sean Spicer," here is what a German reported as his prewar country drew closer to its insane destiny:

“Outside of Germany people often wonder at the palpable fraudulence of Nazi propaganda, the stupid incredible exaggerations, the ludicrous reticence concerning what is generally known. Who can be convinced by it? They ask. The answer is that it is not meant to convince but to impress. It addresses emotion and fantasy. Nazi propaganda seeks to create in our minds tenacious ideas and fantasies.”

-- Sebastian Haffner, “Germany: Jekyll and Hyde” (1940)

Yes, I hate to invoke Godwin's Law - I don't want to compare our current Leaders with You Know Who. But minds can be impressionable when there is only one source of information (hello, Fox). Fantasies can be developed when only one voice stirs the imagination (The Rush Limbaugh Story Hour). 

The Trump Base's sense of acrimonious resentment towards everyone who isn't suffering like them is powerful, yet often contradictory, much like many of the President's own counter-argumentative positions. Health Care repeals are encouraged despite people's health interests. Wall Street regulations are dumped, opening doors to stock fraud and abuse. Climate Change policies are axed, hastening economic disaster in the coming decades. Tax Reforms are popularly championed, with the proceeds flowing to the 1%.

There have even been Trump voters whose mixed American-Mexican families are being deported; they react saying, "I didn't think he'd do it to us." It's all a part of the Magical Thinking phenomena that defines so many people's perspectives. It's True, or it should be True, therefore it's all the same.  A belief system's form of logic defines a worldview and manages a mindset that adheres to that belief in the face of relentless reality:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_thinking

Perhaps even more to the point is Autistic Thinking (which is not Autism); it really gets into the type of thought process enjoyed by Trump and many in his base:

autistic thinking self-absorption; preoccupation with inner thoughts, daydreams, fantasies, delusions, drives, and personal logic. It is egocentric, subjective thinking lacking objectivity and preferring a narcissistic, inner, private reality to that with external validity.  (medical-free dictionary.com)

Combine a mindset of Magical or Autistic Thinking with an aggressive reticence to read and reflect, add a lack of exposure to social/economic spheres and ideas beyond one's own, and a template for Trumpism is formed. Yes, there is a whole bunch more to it... and I will attempt to get to more in future posts. But for now, let us remember the comforting words of the deranged Freddy Nietzsche, who stared too long into the Abyss, developing the idea of Man and Superman, which a group of ideologues took and ran with during the Weimar Republic days of Germany: