That VSG is a real piece of work

A number of fronts on which he's worked his unique brand of havoc in recent days.

There's the effect of his protectionist policy:

President Trump campaigned to get America a fair trade deal. Once in office, tariffs became his weapon of choice in a trade war aimed at negotiating better terms for the US.

The administration is still in the midst of that fight, but Americans have already felt its impact, according to paper in the Fall 2019 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. 

Authors Mary Amiti, Stephen Redding, and David Weinstein found that almost all of the 2018 tariffs were passed on to importers and consumers through higher prices.

By 2019, import tariffs were costing US consumers and firms that buy foreign goods $3.2 billion per month in added tax costs and another $1.4 billion per month in forgone trade.

The Trump administration raised tariffs in a series of six waves over the course of 2018. It started with relatively modest tariffs on solar panels and washing machines, and ended with a 10 percent tariff on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

There's the frenzy of vulgarity into which he whips his cult followers:

Trump on Americans' reaction to impeachment: “Everybody said that’s really bullshit.” Florida rally crowd now chanting "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!"

And speaking of the Florida rally, he perpetuated the idea of a vast and sinister "deep state," and claimed his pardoning of war criminals was a blow against it:

President Trump boasted at his Florida rally on Tuesday night of taking a stand against the “Deep State” by pardoning accused and convicted war criminals, apparently taking a thinly veiled jab at the military leadership he overruled to issue the pardons.
“Just this week, I stuck up for three great warriors against the Deep State,” the president exclaimed in Sunrise, Florida. “You know what I’m talking about. I had so many people say, ‘Sir, I don’t think you should do that.’”

Trump appeared to be referencing the backlash he faced from military leaders over the pardons he issued to Clint Lorance and Matthew Golsteyn and his reversal of the demotion of Eddie Gallagher, actions that eventually resulted in the termination of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.
“People have to fight,” the president continued. “They shouldn’t say, gee whiz. They wanted to put him in jail for 25 years. One young man was in jail for seven years. He had 16 years to go.”
After mentioning Lorance’s jail sentence for the murder of unarmed Afghan civilians, Trump told the audience that “when you look at what they did to that man, you would have been very proud at what we ended up doing.”
“He came out and he hugged his parents,” the president added. “It was a beautiful thing. I will always stick up for our great fighters.”

Trump concluded by taking another shot at military leadership, declaring that “people can sit in air-conditioned offices and complain, but it doesn’t matter to me.” 

So much for respecting the internal military chain of command and the morale, discipline and order that it makes possible.

Then there's the chasm between the way he saw Rudy Giuliani's activities in Ukraine in July and the way he sees them in November:

President Donald Trump has now denied that he directed his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to go to Ukraine and seek out investigations on his behalf, contradicting his own words to the Ukrainian President in the White House-released transcript of the July 25 call. 

Trump also contradicted sworn testimony from members of his administration and claims from his own White House acting chief of staff. 

Ahead of a Tuesday night rally in Florida, Trump was asked by conservative radio host Bill O'Reilly if the President directed Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine. 

"No," the President said, before launching into a tangent of flattering Giuliani's credentials, calling him "a great corruption fighter" and "the greatest mayor" of New York City.

O'Reilly asked once again: "Giuliani's your personal lawyer. So you didn't direct him to go to Ukraine to do anything or put any heat on them?" 

"No, I didn't direct him, but he's a warrior, Rudy's a warrior. Rudy went, he possibly saw something. But you have to understand, Rudy (has) other people that he represents," Trump said, adding that Giuliani has "done work in Ukraine for years." 

But according to the rough transcript of a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump repeatedly pressed for Giuliani's involvement.

Trump told Zelensky: "Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great." 

Trump later said: "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out."

A third time, Trump referenced Giuliani: "I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call." 

And there's this tweet / photo that I'm going to include, although, even though it comes from the @RealDonaldTrump account, is so outrageous that I'm leaving open the possibility that somehow some kind of hoax is being perpetrated. It's not as likely as the possibility that his narcissism has corroded what little character he's ever had this badly, and that he's truly losing his marbles. We'll see.