United States | Lexington

What Donald Trump understands

He has a grim view of human nature, and he exploited it shrewdly—to a point

Donald Trump has always understood how the world works—or, at least, how it can be made to work—better than his opponents. Maybe because he has such qualities himself in abundance, his appreciation for human greed, cowardice, selfishness and other weaknesses has given him a granite confidence in human corruptibility. Across the decades, and throughout his term as president, that faith has been vindicated more often than it has been confounded.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “What Donald Trump understands”

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