An old friend replied when I asked her ca. 2017 about her perception of Trump, “It’s hard to know where to begin.”
During Trump’s first term, however, his actions were far more benign than they are now. For example, no one could have predicted that he would try to overthrow the U.S. government following his loss in 2020, and then, in his second term, worked tirelessly to install himself as a lifelong autocrat along the lines of Putin, Xi, or Kim Jong-un.
Putting Kash Patel into place, so as to incarcerate Trump’s opponents or otherwise cut them off at the knees, might just get the job done.