Boy, Trump's executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim countries (none of which have any history of terrorism on U.S. soil) and various other refugees sure caused a lot of chaos. Kevin Drum thinks it was deliberate; that they could have lessened the pain and discomfort by making clear it did not apply to holders of green cards but they wanted to slap those folks around a bit, too. Sadly, he may be right.
I dunno. I usually hold to the credo, "Never attribute to deviousness that which can be explained by incompetence." In politics especially, I think it's important to separate the two. No matter what your political beliefs are, somewhere out there there's an elected official (or wanna-be-elected official) who shares them exactly but is too inept to enact that agenda. He or she may even be such a bungler that they discredit your beliefs or empower the opposition. I'm wondering how many folks who love what Trump promised them are worried that he'll do just that, the same way the mission of the Affordable Care Act was undermined a great deal by bad website design.
As this country gets more and more polarized, competence seems to play less and less a role in our elections. I get the feeling that most people would vote for Gomer Pyle if he mouthed the right (to them) viewpoints and promised "the right things;" never mind that he lacked the skill and judgment to get those things done. It would be nice if we had leaders who knew what they were doing, not merely what they were supposed to accomplish.
In the meantime, I'm just sore that Dick Cheney said, of Trump's desire to ban Muslims, "It goes against everything we stand for and believe in." I hate it when I'm on the same side of an issue as Dick Cheney. If he ever came out against cole slaw, I'd probably start eating the stuff.