Not to sound ignorant

[Burney]

People aren't calling Trump mad for his actions on NK so far. They're expressing concern that if he is indeed mad, or more likely of a psychologically imbalanced personality type, then we have reason to fear that the racheting up of the rhetoric that we've heard from him is a harbinger of his inclinations to actually put his threats into practice, even if doing so was a terrible idea.

Of course, his willingness to put his threats into practice must be real, otherwise they are meaningless as a deterrent. But that benefit is predicated on the assumption that doing so would be the right and neccesary decision.

Well that presupposes an awful lot of things, though, doesn't it? First that Trump's idiosyncracies mean he's psychologically imbalanced. That's seems to be more about the prejudices of his critics than anything else.

The other supposition, of course, is that smashing NK would be a bad idea.

[Monty92]

Well that presupposes an awful lot of things, though, doesn't it? First that Trump's idiosyncracies mean he's psychologically imbalanced. That's seems to be more about the prejudices of his critics than anything else.

The other supposition, of course, is that smashing NK would be a bad idea.

There may well be scenarios in which smashing NK was a good idea. But the fears are based on a concern that he is also capable of smashing NK when it is a fundamentally bad idea. Clever types often talk about the risks of political/military miscalculations that can forge an unintended and irreversible path to war. Someone with Trump's manifest personality idiosyncracies strikes most of us as the clearest example of someone more likely to commit such an error than most others you may expect to find in such a position of power.

[Burney]

There may well be scenarios in which smashing NK was a good idea. But the fears are based on a concern that he is also capable of smashing NK when it is a fundamentally bad idea. Clever types often talk about the risks of political/military miscalculations that can forge an unintended and irreversible path to war. Someone with Trump's manifest personality idiosyncracies strikes most of us as the clearest example of someone more likely to commit such an error than most others you may expect to find in such a position of power.

If you're saying that personality often dictates action, well duh. However, I think the mistake with Trump is to let his presentational and rhetorical tics blind you to his actual actions. When it comes to actual executive action, there isn't actually much evidence of him being this hot-headed wildcard he's made out to be.