For Trump, the debasement of Romney was just another hit of dopamine — the neurotransmitter once called the Kim Kardashian of molecules. He needs a jolt several times a day.
.. But look again at the Trump Tower stage — it’s Kanye! Who cares about Aleppo, or a foreign adversary deliberately trying to undermine an American election, when you’ve got a troubled rapper stopping by for his hit of Trump. The Orange One recognizes him — on CNN, now cutting away from Syria.
.. And so we see the clear design that Trump will use to rule: He will give us showmanship and cheap drama, put-downs and promises — the stagecraft of the world’s most powerful narcissist. And meanwhile, the nation will be governed by oil oligarchs, climate change deniers and Goldman Sachs tycoons brought in to do the real work.
.. But locking Hillary Clinton up for careless management of her email could be problematic when it seems that Trump’s future national security adviser, the fake news enthusiast Michael Flynn, was himself investigated for wrongly sharing classified information with foreign leaders.
.. Just like that daily intelligence briefing, which Trump says he doesn’t need because “I’m, like, a smart person.” But more to the point: for Trump, there’s no thrill in basic information. He’ll certainly feel something if there’s a catastrophic terrorist attack and, as with George W. Bush, there was an intelligence community warning of a looming threat.