Donald Trump, policy wonk?

Such incoherence is not the exception. It’s the rule—in many ways, it’s the defining characteristic of Trump’s attempts to talk about policy. It’s Trump being Trump. Hoping that Trump can be a policy wonk is like wishing your mule could become a thoroughbred.

So Trump says he’ll rebuild the U.S. military and in the next sentence says he will cut military spending. He opposes entitlement reform and promises not to raise taxes but says he can eliminate $19 trillion in U.S. debt in eight years. He’s been for and against amnesty, for and against changes to abortion law, for and against fighting ISIS, for and against outsourcing, for and against H-1B visas, for and against the Dream Act, for and against single-payer health care, for and against the Obamacare mandate, for and against gun control, and on and on.

Even if he delivers a series of well-written policy speeches, a turn toward substance will require Trump to spend more of his time in interviews trying to resolve these many differences and otherwise explain his newly developed positions. And he will be pressed for details. It won’t be enough simply to declare that he’d eliminate ISIS, for instance. He’ll have to explain how. And he’ll have to do so in a way that’s better than he’s done in the past.