"The “reasons” people give are rationalizations of irrational decisions. That’s why you see so many reasons offered."

If even half of what Trump is doing is intentional, it's scary effective.  Of course, if he means half of what he's saying, that's just plain scary.  Calling the Clinton Top (Trump Persuasion Series) | Scott Adams Blog:  "Today Trump said that Hillary Clinton “Killed hundreds of thousands of people with her stupidity.” He was talking about the Middle East and Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. According to the Master Persuader filter, that statement will set off a week of media yapping about how many thousands of people Clinton “killed” with her policy contributions as Secretary of State. As always, Trump sets a high anchor of “hundreds of thousands” and makes everyone think some form of “Can’t be more than 50,000, tops.” As a bonus, the country and the media will also discuss Trump’s claim she was the worst Secretary of State of all time. That gets you thinking past the sale. The “sale” is convincing you that Clinton did a bad job. If you start wondering whether she was the worst, you have already accepted the premise that she is in contention for the title.  The secret sauce with Trump’s kill shots is that they are never random. This latest one, like the ones that came before, has enough maybe-truth to it (in your mind, if not in reality) that it will stick like sap. Clinton won’t be wiping this one off with a damp rag. It’s part of her now...

Bonus Thought 2: Every week that passes without a champion coming forward to offer an alternative to Trump’s temporary Muslim immigration ban is a week that Trump’s support rises. Trump’s opponents will call him names. They will say his plan is terrible. But they will stop short of explaining in detail an alternate plan. But not because such a plan doesn’t exist to be explained. Some form of whatever we are planning to do now is the plan. But I’ll bet you only hear vague support for treating people fairly, as opposed to detailed support for an alternative plan with strong screening. No one can own the alternative plan because someone might slip through. And if that happens, whoever is the name attached to that non-Trump plan owns it. No sane politician wants a 5% chance of owning a terror attack. Trump set a perfect trap.  But that’s just one interpretation. To be fair, I can’t rule out the Lucky Hitler explanation for Trump’s success. A lot of smart people are adamant about that one. Maybe...

The “reasons” people give are rationalizations of irrational decisions. That’s why you see so many reasons offered. The sheer quantity of rationalizations for why Trump is beating expectations is a tell for persuasion. That’s what I learned in hypnosis class years ago. To put it in simpler language, the Master Persuader filter says Trump would be equally popular no matter which issues he chose to champion, so long as those issues also lent themselves to fantastic statements that could draw all attention to him. "