Another method, of course, is to portray the inevitable "failures" of weaponized incompetence as "deep state" opposition, basically anything the administration can paint as enemies. Sometimes there is literal opposition, but sometimes it's just bumbling policy missteps.

Part of the methodology is to smash one side of the Overton window with the most outrageous things so you can slip the comparatively less outrageous things through. The perceived incompetence is thus weaponized, though in true Fascist form it's portrayed as genius. bsky.app/profile/thef...

So the tariff whiplash is both incompetence and grift. I'm pretty sure Trump himself doesn't understand the mechanism of tariffs per se, but he knows that he can use them to manipulate markets for the enrichment of himself and his loyalists. We can expect this to continue until it stops working.

Fascist regimes like the Trump administration stack themselves with incompetence, because they value loyalty above competence. Competence is a threat because by exposing incompetence, it appears disloyal. The result is a fetid swamp where grift thrives, masked by Hanlon's Razor.