OK, I admit it. I chose a terrible picture of Donald Trump. It suggests he could fly off the handle anytime. My point is simple: You have as good an idea what will happen with Donald as anyone. I am convinced Trump is unique. He is a true mirror person, who baffles everyone he knows and everyone else as well, including himself. When you look into Trump's eyes, you see yourself. Only you are likely to do an instant switch and tell yourself he isn't really you. Let me explain.
Trump as a spectrum
Trump is a Spectrum. He can go from seraphic to demonic in a nanosecond.
We are all a spectrum. We all have the full gamut of emotions and the qualities that go with them. But we also have more or less control. That enables us to do a double-take when we look at Trump. But from childhood, perhaps from the womb, Donald Trump never had that control. He emotes constantly up and down the spectrum. He is entirely unpredictable. Some observers witness this phenomenon and recoil. Others are enthralled. Donald just keeps rolling along, like Old Man River.
Now someone like Trump who is a spectrum might find a good home in a theater. Good actors rule the roost when it comes to swapping emotions. But actors can do little damage to anyone but themselves. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is President of the United States.
He can and does damage anyone he doesn't like anywhere on earth. And this leads to another problem.
Trump can fly off the handle
In addition to being a spectrum who reveals everything, Trump is a sponge who takes in everything. This means his life depends entirely on whatever is around him. This does not mean Donald accepts everything.
He long ago realized that smoking and drinking are killers. He doesn't touch booze or cigarettes as far as I know. But Trump is influenced by things he is drawn to. He is a sponge. When he is in his element, he literally absorbs everything.
What is Donald's element? Well, the Tower for one thing, where there's a phone and a TV.
In fact, Trump's element is almost that of a hermit., Everything is severely limited. There's not much there, and when he goes to other places, the story is the same. If he came to where I live, he might tweet about the virtues of a simple life. If he visited the poorest of the poor, he might be the very picture of empathy and concern. But in his confined areas, he is surrounded by oligarchs and right-wing pundits. They are the privileged occupants of his spongelike brain.
How might Trump fly off the handle? A truly great gotcha from the Ayatollah or almost anyone else would do the trick. I am serious. I do not think Trump is always without cause. He is being told daily by his oligarch cabinet and right-wing advisors that Iran is an enemy.
He is bosom buddies with big oil. This creates a prospect of conflict and carnage as potentially disastrous as the annual toll of injury and death that driving the cars produces. We are in a war. It has to do precisely with whether we will peacefully move forward as one world or back into the stone age. Our fate may rest with a man who is a spectrum and a sponge.