There is no way to make sense of Trump’s neo-imperialist acid-flashback proposal that the U.S. should take “a long-term ownership position” in Gaza, expel the people who live there and redevelop all that needlessly squandered beachfront real estate as a nightmarish hybrid of Dubai, Las Vegas and Monte Carlo. Trying to puzzle out what he “really” meant, as opposed to what he actually said, will get you nowhere.
World leaders and political commentators and elected officials face a genuine quandary here: This individual has once again become the actual president of the actual United States, and his words and deeds manifestly have real-world consequences. No one can entirely resist being trolled or seduced or buffaloed or bamboozled by Trump; those are not just his principal talents but the motivating forces of his existence. At best, we can strive for a few moments of Zen-like calm: Remain still as a stone, and allow the Trumpness to flow over you, one foul current in the stream of human consciousness. Name the powerful emotions you feel and set them aside, because unleashing your anger, outrage, disgust and so forth — as, again, with Cthulhu — only nourishes him.
