Incompetence of Malevolence?

 "Leadership is an art and a science"

That's what they taught us in ROTC. It's true, though. Leaders develop their own style, their own quirks... and they set the tone. They indicate what they expect, what their standards are, and each can have their own unique take on that.

For example, I've said before that "there are no stupid questions" is an important standard to set... not because there truly are no stupid questions. But because the minute you ridicule someone for asking a question, everyone else on your team sees that and thinks 'I don't want that to happen to me', and they decide not to speak up unless their confident they won't be ridiculed for it.

So maybe you don't deal with stupid questions any more, but you also don't deal with important questions that people are worried will seem stupid.

Learning how to understand how your people will respond to you is part of leadership. Which is part of why leaders learn to be more careful with what they say.

For example, I remember a high-ranking individual mentioning how surprised he was when people took a casual statement wishing for something as a command and went above and beyond in trying to get him what he wanted.

Or at least, what he hinted at wanting. They wanted to make a good impression and please the boss, of course. But when it really was a casual desire, it meant they spent way more time than he expected on something that wasn't actually that important to him.

Anyways, I've talked before about how Trump raising unsubstantiated questions about the results of the election undermined the legitimacy of Biden's government. We still, today, have people who trust that Trump was telling the truth and doubt the results... and all because that oathbreaker cared more about his need to deny a loss than he did about the country.

But that wasn't the point of this post. 

The point was this - either Trump is so incompetent that he didn't understand what he was doing, or he knew and did it anyway.

Incompetence or malevolence?

Is he really clueless about the impact of his own words? Or is he deliberately using the trust bestowed on him to lead his followers in this direction?

And now we hear him constantly talking about the 'Radical Left', constantly dividing us against each other, constantly claiming Democrats (and anyone who disagrees with him, really) as the enemy.

He talks about how the left has incited violence with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but he incites even further violence. Like the judge whose house was set on fire. (And all this was after those Minnesota legislators were murdered, too).

So I ask again - is he incompetent? Or is he one of those 'violence entrepreneurs' deliberately stirring the pot?