Jamel Bouie

And that inability to...

deal with what to me are very obvious moves to make if you are on the other side.

That's an opportunity.

Just make these moves because you have a pretty decent chance of encountering an opponent that has not thought one lick about

what you might do just of your own accord.

Because they don't imagine that you can do anything of your own accord.

It's very strange.

I've never really seen anything like it in American politics.

Just an administration set of people who have no real ability to just conceptualize what their political opponents or their

foreign enemies might want to do of their own accord it's like they really do not believe that other people have independent action then all action is simply a reaction to them and as per david this might just be a function of the fact that everyone's they're so used to sort of like stunting on republicans that like mike johnson doesn't seem like he does anything independently of the president so yeah sure i get it if that's if that's how you your mental model for everyone um

But it's – I don't know.

If I sound sort of baffled, it's because I am.

As much as I can sort of like describe this analytically, I cannot get in the headspace of someone who just like does not – or a group of people who do not appear to think that other people actually exist.

My hunch is that he'll just, at some point, at some arbitrary point, just say, yeah, we won, and end it there.

Right.

And if everything isn't complete and abject chaos, I think Trump's view is, well, not my problem anymore.

I'm going to answer that in reverse.

It's a big deal that Trump said this show just because presidents don't do this.

It's clear that he was there to intimidate the justices.

I don't think it works, but I'm sure that was his thinking.