Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Trump, Madman theory, and the search for reason.

To explain Trump's apparent bumbling about on the foreign policy stage, that consistently seems to undermine his own objectives.

Those seeking to defend his actions on the international scene have latched on to an explanation

for his behavior. Madman theory. It's pretty clear that many of those offering this as an explanation are not really familiar

with it, nor familiar with the historical examples. If they were, they probably wouldn't be

suggesting it as a defense. So what is Madman theory? It's a foreign policy theory that suggests it is advisable to make the world

think you're a volatile, irrational, emotional, and belligerent person. And therefore, you're so

unpredictable, it's best to just leave you alone or give you concessions when the time comes.

The rhetoric says that Trump said all of that stuff about eliminating a civilization and so on,

because he's trying to be a madman.

He's not really so unbalanced that the 25th Amendment should be on the table.

Cool. Was it madman theory when he claimed to stop a war between two countries that haven't been at war? Or when he claimed to stop a war

that ended before he took office? Was it madman theory when he demanded unconditional surrender? Thus creating a situation where if

Iran survives the war, it wins and he loses. Was it madman theory to threaten our allies so much,

they caught off assistance and got ready to fight the U.S. No, this is just

incompetence. So Mad Man Theory is a ready mask for a leader who's actually inept, emotional,

or simply ignorant. And there's no real evidence of coordinated strategy here.

I don't actually believe madman theory is being applied,

or if he's trying, he's so bad at it that it's failing.

There's a historical piece of information, too, that's pretty important.

Nixon was actually a believer in madman theory. Nixon's chief of

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