The art of the deal, with him as dealer

Together, these two techniques — big demonstrations of discretionary power to reward or punish, and wild uncertainty about when or how he’ll do so — expand Trump’s power beyond the point any president has ever pushed power.

Which brings us to the obvious question: Why is Trump so obsessed with enlarging his power?

Hint: It’s not about improving the well-being of average Americans and certainly not about making America great again (whatever that means).

The bigger his demonstrable power and the more unpredictably he wields it, the greater his ability to trade some of that power with people with huge amounts of wealth, both in the United States and elsewhere.