He’s also not Lord Voldemort, Chairman Mao, Hans Gruber, Joseph Stalin, or Benito Mussolini. Sometimes he sounds like them, and more than a few of his more strident supporters are rather fond of Hitler, but he lacks something those other leaders possessed, and it’s time to settle down and acknowledge that.

Whereas these men were true believers in their respective causes, Donald Trump believes in only one thing, and that one thing is Donald Trump. He is exceedingly fond of wealth, possession of which supports his belief in himself and his own greatness. So maybe there are a few similarities to Hans Gruber, but his presidential aspirations are certainly not about cash. It’s much harder to take advantage of eminent domain laws when you’re in the White House than in Trump Towers.

So when he talks about walls and possible impartiality of judges of Hispanic decent or suggests banning Muslims or gets to Hillary’s left on trade issues, it’s stream of conscious deal-making. It’s slam poetry. It’s pandering of the highest order, not pandering moored in any particular ideology. People respond to it and Trump keeps going because that furthers his aforementioned principal cause, which is himself.