An old adage about politicians is is to observe what they do, not what they say. This is more true with Trump as he follows, what is called the Mad Man strategy -
The madman theory posits that a leader who behaves as if he could do just about anything has a better chance of persuading other global actors to make concessions they otherwise would not make.
Everyone jumps to this every time a world leader does something crazy. I think it's a self-comforting mechanism. Convince yourself that they're just acting like an idiot but behind the scenes it's all under control. Thing is, sometimes world leaders actually are idiots.
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An old adage about politicians is is to observe what they do, not what they say. This is more true with Trump as he follows, what is called the Mad Man strategy -
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/07/madman-theory-internati...Whether the leader of a superpower should be adopting such a strategy is a different debate ...
Except he acts like he is trying to extract something from Ukraine, not putin.
Everyone jumps to this every time a world leader does something crazy. I think it's a self-comforting mechanism. Convince yourself that they're just acting like an idiot but behind the scenes it's all under control. Thing is, sometimes world leaders actually are idiots.