'Serious damage': How Trump’s 'bumbling' leadership style can be 'exploited' by 'miscreants'

Critics of President-elect Donald Trump often attack him as an "authoritarian" who isn't shy about praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and other far-right extremists. Yet Trump also draws criticism for being "chaotic" and self-indulgent.

In an article published on November 26, The New Republic's Timothy Noah stresses that for Trump, being a "bumbler" and being an "authoritarian" are not mutually exclusive.

"Whatever practical knowledge Trump picked up in the first term is outweighed by the accelerating cognitive decline he displayed over the past year," Noah warns. "He was a weak president before, and he may be an even weaker one this time. In saying this, I don't dispute that Trump's instincts are dangerously authoritarian."

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Noah adds, "Nor would I argue that a bumbling maximum leader is harmless — quite the opposite, in fact. Trump's last presidency did serious damage."

Many Trump critics, Noah notes, don't consider him an "evil mastermind," but rather, regard him as "vain, foolish, petty, mercurial, and easy prey for con artists and crackpots of every stripe" —a personality that is a recipe for "bedlam."

"Trump's second presidency hasn’t even started," Noah observes, "and already, the members of his inner circle are at one another's throats…. It's seldom wise to ascribe shrewdness to anything that Trump does. That said, Trump's second term won't be short on terrible political appointments, and Trump's inherent weakness as president will create a power vacuum for many of these miscreants to exploit. That's where the danger of his presidency lies."

Noah adds, "For example, no president in his right mind — not even a very conservative one —would ever hand power to Stephen Miller. But Miller enjoyed quite a lot of influence in Trump's first term, and he'll have even more in his second. Trump is anti-immigrant because it plays well politically. Miller is anti-immigrant because he's an angry fanatic."

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Read Timothy Noah's full article for The New Republic at this link.