The architecture of Trump's soul

The press and the President might be at war, but in at least one very important way it doesn't matter: we already know what's uppermost in Donald Trump's mind.

Because of his tweets, Trump is the most transparent President the US has ever had. They are a virtually daily diary of the things in his mind that he can't let go of. It is really quite remarkable. What other US President has even come close to this kind of directness?

That doesn't translate into a transparent PresidenCY of course--besides the most obvious, piledriver positions like The Wall, he has nothing thought out, nor anything in the way of mature policy development; thus the need for persistent journalism--but still it is quite something.

Some people think the tweets are just a tactic, a kind of dodge to deflect attention from the important issues. If it were Steve Bannon that might be the case. But the tweets are Trump communicating directly with his constituency as he perceives it: the American people. It has been this way from the beginning, Before Bannon. Trump is no managed executive. He is the top dog, and he wants everyone to hear his bark.

This being the case, there's much to be learned from this recent tweet, about an edged-weapon attack by a terrorist in France that killed no one:

Now, compare this with his series of tweets about assault-weapon attack by a terrorist in Canada that killed six people.

That's right: nothing. Because the terrorist wasn't "radical Islamic." In Trump's mind the only kind of terrorism is "radical Islamic."

If you're a McVeigh or a Roof or a Bissonnette, you aren't a terrorist. And if any of these killers have Muslim victims? Too bad! You don't exist! The only Muslims that exist in Trump-mind are terrorists or potential terrorists.

No, Trump might not have banned all Muslims from entering the US. Yet. But he sure wants to.

According to his own revelations, Donald Trump does not believe in the rights that are the foundation of American Exceptionalism.

Thank you, Mr. Trump, for your tweets. They are probative of the architecture of your soul. Or as we used to have to say in geometry class: Q.E.D.