My dad is like Trump. I mean, like how Trump seems to be, except my dad isn't rich/powerful.
That whole thing about his people saying stupid things publicly, not because they believe it or expect others to, but for Trump's approval....That's my family dynamic.
If he's anything like my dad, then he will simply not give up on his grudges and crusades against certain people. He'll easily change his thinking on a subject, even with the same sentence, but grudges? No way. The only way he'd back down on that is if someone seemed contrite and had appeared to fall into line. And even then he'd remain suspicious.
And he would require those around him to feed into his thinking, leading it to become more entrenched and extreme.
Even if you call someone like him on his behaviour, he will defend it, minimise it, gas light etc. Even if you showed all the proof in the world, he'd do the magical thinking thing and ignore anything that doesn't fit the story he tells himself.
The only way to handle someone like him is to ignore them. To do the grey rock thing. But there's real problems with that.
- Firstly, someone like that would tend to escalate and test boundaries for quite some time to try and get a reaction. The idea of the SCROTUS doing that is very scary.
- Secondly, unlike normal people, it's not like the whole world can do the grey rock thing, is it? He'll get attention from somewhere, and do what it takes to get that attention.
I find his appearances very triggering. And if his family life was anything like mine growing up, you either drink the Kool Aid (at least to his face) and never let him find you being disloyal, walk on eggshells waiting for the eruption, never know what you're supposed to believe today until he tells you...or you expect blazing rows, rage, and being scapegoated as the black sheep in the family, with nothing you do ever being good enough.