Commentators trying to be journalistically neutral about Trump focus on things like his psychological make-up … why he went off-track with the convention speech and the debate performance. One recent story says, all he has to do to win is “cut the grievance crap,” but he simply can’t help himself. (“Behind the Curtain: Trump’s big, unfixable, glaring glitch,” Axios, 9-12-24)

However, Trump’s advisers are smarter than we think. They say if they just let Trump be Trump, things will work out well in the end. What are they talking about?

There is a different campaign going on here than just the election campaign. There is a campaign to change the political landscape in America forever, even if he loses the 2024 election.

Trump is a much more cold-blooded, calculating politician than even his hardened political enemies know. His emotional ravings are not the problem. They are the solution. The crazy talk is necessary to convince folks it is not necessary, or even helpful, for folks to be rational any longer.

Trump is asking MAGA supporters, undecideds, and even the opposition to put their trust in a new form of government for America, either right now in 2024, or down the road just a mile or two. It is a type of government that makes no rational sense, and that is why it was replaced by democracy when the scientific revolution came about in the 1600s.

Trump wants the government in his hands alone, or in the hands of one of his sons, or in the hands of any capable autocrat who believes that the rich and famous should be set apart as a separate aristocratic class having special economic and political privileges above everybody else. This is a very old, very venerable, and historically very successful playbook, folks. It is called monarchy.

Trump believes the wealthy class should be able to act however they want with their lives, with their money and with their power. He embodies this new class-based philosophy with every breath he takes and every word that comes out of his mouth. It’s about winning, alright. But not just winning the presidency. It’s about winning the hearts and minds of all the uneducated people over to the ancient and medieval system of servility to a superior class and a superior family of rulers.

Trump is trying to unhinge America from what few moorings it has left with democracy. Trust is vital, trust in the mindset, trust in the beauty, trust in the bliss, trust in the personal and community salvation of it all, trust in the godly man, the prophet of the nation. The most beautiful thing of all is that Americans will never again have to participate in government like their ancestors did. Trump and his friends will do all the participating. The rest merely need to do as they are told. How easy is that?

Trump has a two-part formula for victory. The first is the trust thing. People must trust that he is a very special person. He has special blood, special smarts, special skills. Because he is different and very special, all his words and deeds are gold. That’s easy enough to accept, isn’t it? The second part of the formula is this. If you don’t believe in the first part, he will make you a believer by conjuring up scary stuff like Jan. 6, and the Springfield, Ohio, bomb threats. You can have me the easy way or the hard way. But you will choose the Trump party, one way or the other.

Brand new MAGA Republicans have converted to the Trump gospel of elegance and intimidation by means of the second means of persuasion. Trump has threatened their careers, their millions, their families, their future if they don’t cotton to his personality and his ways. He has already won many or most of the rich and powerful to his cause. The others, the rabble of the nation, will express themselves on election day. But win or lose then, the politicians, the intimidation, and the crazy talk will convert the rest of the country soon enough.