My bold.
Yes, and it has been happening, and it will continue to happen, stopping short of death or physical disability. Mental disability? That’s another matter…
But every time he flies somewhere in his plane, the campaign has to pay him for the use of it. And that pay has to be for more than the cost of the fuel and maintenance. IOW, it is another way to transfer donated money from the campaign to Trump’s pocket.
Your model does not explain why so many businesses donate to charity.
Say what? Don’t see the connection. 
When he started, I doubted even he thought he was going to get nominated. He loves attention and he is very good at getting it, and what better way of getting free attention than running for president?
Do you think Trump is really stupid enough to think that insulting Gold Star parents is a good idea? He is either unhinged enough to not know, or this was one more attempt at saying something so over the edge that his numbers would go down - and this one finally worked. I have no idea if it was intentional or subconscious.
I doubt he’d want to quit - look at the crap Palin got for quitting. That is a loser move. He’d love to win if he didn’t have to do the job.
But he may not be together enough to know how out of his league he is. It is certainly possible. But that would be an extreme diagnosis.
Arguably, if he weren’t an idiot, he wouldn’t be enjoying his current success. 
The reports I’ve read are that he honestly didn’t even understand why people were upset by it, and that he’d still be attacking the Khan’s if he hadn’t been “intervened” with by the RNC bigwigs.
So yes I think he’s really that unhinged: Narcissistic Personality Disorder / Sociopath.
He certainly gives the impression of not knowing what he thinks till he opens his mouth and hears whatever comes out.
If you’re constantly improvising bullshit, you don’t stick to a script or a game plan, and you certainly don’t remain consistent with your previous positions.
Whatever is convenient for Trump to say in that moment that seals the deal is what he will say. It really does not matter what that thing is.
One main reason businesses often donate to charity is for public relations. The better they look to the community, the more customers they will get. It’s also a form of advertising. The donating business will be listed as a supporter of the charity in press releases, on T-shirts, on the website, etc.
Ever listen to NPR or your local public radio station? They run ads – pardon me; supporting statements – all the time from this or that business person who burbles cheerily about how they’ve supported Station Whatever and golly, it’s just wonderful how many customers come in to tell them how much they appreciate that support! Sales skyrocketed!
This part–
does not agree with empirical observation.
And it’s not advertising, either. A lot of big companies donate in ways that don’t make much in the way of news. Oh sure, once in a while you’ll hear about how Company X has donated water to a disaster area, but that’s about all you hear. For a lot of companies, look at the Press Release section of their website, and you’ll learn about a lot of stuff they do that the media won’t bother to cover.
How is Trump not like Hitler in that respect? This is where a Hitler-Trump comparison makes perfect sense. They are both preaching a populist message about bad deals with foreign government and “the other” in our culture damaging the success of everyone else. They both appeal to people suffering from an economic collapse. They both have an agenda that is essentially incoherent, but makes people think “He is strong and he echoes my ideas.” Both of them have similar levels of popular support (which is to say, something like 30%-40% - a sizable minority, but only a minority).
Even for the people who think a Trump Presidency would be a good thing, it should be obvious that he and Hitler campaign the same.
This is what I’ve been saying all along.
What’s horridly pathetic isn’t the Trump, but his supporters. No idiocy is too much for them. Betfair and Predictwise still show a 23% chance of GOP White House() and other prediction markets show even larger chance. Maybe Trump will need to literally shoot a man in broad daylight on 2nd Avenue if he doesn’t want to be Prez. :eek:
( - I’m careful to write “GOP White House” rather than Trump White House. There’s still a 1% chance some GOP “Sanity trumps Trump” end-run will form.)
That just might do it. On 5th Avenue, he’s immune.
*Of course *Trump wants to win the Presidency. He wants it totally and completely–no subconscious doubts at all.
How else is he going to “Show” Obama? How else is he going to prove himself to Putin? How else is he going to be a Winner instead of a Loser?
Trump can’t abide being labelled a loser. He wants to win. (And not incidentally, his kids want the White House for the family, too. What else have they got? The minute Trump dies, the value of his name dies. No more “Apprentice” dollars coming in; no more naming rights cash coming in. They need that hereditary Presidency.* What else are they going to do? Try to live off the revenues of those golf courses? Please.)
All the head-scratchers Trump commits–attacking the Gold Star family, displaying puppy-love for Putin, revealing he’s eager to give nukes to several nations that don’t yet have them–ALL of it–prove not that he’s trying to self-sabotage. What they prove is that he really thinks these are good ideas. He really thinks they’ll increase the applause levels at his rallies and the chances that he’ll win in November.
Because he wants to win.
*It will become hereditary only after the massive terrorist attacks that make permanent martial law a ‘sad’ necessity, of course. My guesses for the cities to be taken out, by cooperative ISIS sympathizers: Salt Lake City at a time when Mitt is in residence and Chicago during an Obama visit. Maybe throw in Coral Gables, Florida, at a time when Jeb is there but George Prescott Bush is away–after all, George P. just recently gave Trump his endorsement, despite his father’s opposition.
And the thing is… Trump will absolutely believe what he says in that moment. It does not matter if it contradicts what he said yesterday. At THAT MOMENT, he thinks he is saying God’s Own Truth.
And he is puzzled, and yes, INSULTED if someone contradicts him.
Or even questions him.
You do realize, even if they don’t publicize it, corporations get lots of tax breaks for donating things to Tibbs like charities, PBS, NPR, foundations, etc…