In a way, yes, he has this thing where he either plays dumb or speaks before really thinking but doesn't back off of it until he wears down everyone else to accept his view. And he says everything in the same tone with the same inflection so it's impossible to know if he's joking, which he actually doesn't do often outside of that everyone in the room enjoys humor that's not really funny but he's the boss and stuff. He's done this on twitter all the time for years now, just random off the cuff thoughts based on like what he just saw on TV or out his window, it's why I declared him Twitter Champion once before he ran for President. Because he'd just ignore all the shit fired back at him and sometimes even find the ONE person who backed him up and retweet them which would start a whole new round of people losing their shit.
He's a really weird guy though. Like not even when he wasn't in the position he is now it was never endearing, and on the show after the first couple seasons as he assumed more and more power over how it worked and how decisions were made it started to come out more and more that he operated in very strange ways. Early on, the first couple seasons probably, he looked at things like the results of the task, the views of the sponsors and his viceroys who were present and he took it more of a serious weighing of facts before deciding unless something happened like say, somebody waiving their immunity, which he would immediately jump on as a larger picture blunder beyond the task itself. He also was much lower key, not bombastic, listened, etc. But once he discovered that he got more attention for shit stirring it became more and more about that, to where the Celebrity version was entirely him attempting to start drama between the contestants and constantly baiting everyone.
Then when you had a wave who had watched the show in Adam Carolla, Penn, Dee Snyder, Arsenio Hall, Rodman, Tom Green, Lil Jon*, etc. that were refusing to play along because they could see exactly what Trump was trying to do it would piss him off even more. Whereas the womens teams would usually fight on the drop of a hat.
His weirdness came out increasingly as the show shifted to where he was the star and center of everything (like pushing out actual executives and NBC sponsors for his family and friends or his own brand stuff) and the contestants had to kiss his ass and praise him more and more. But because his opinion of someone could shift suddenly it drove some people crazy while others knew that either because they were Trump's friend or were ignoring him or knew how to direct him to someone else they'd move forward.
Jesse James who was married to Sandra Bullock at the time was trying to play the game on his own, doing the tasks, using his own contacts, etc. and finally Trump asked "why haven't you called up your wife and get her to call her friends and destroy everyone with a donation??? She's more famous than anyone on the show! She's super rich!" And James said he was trying to save that for the finale and Trump was like "well, you're not making it because of your stupidity in not tapping that resource before then." Of course, as should be obvious, Trump would then chastise others for calling in their big guns too early and not having money for further in the competition.
I have to imagine this is exactly how he was managing the White House, with Bannon encouraging it, until someone or a group exploited Trump's one weakness, the fact that he listens to military dudes almost without disagreement. In one of the Apprentice regular people seasons when he found out the one guy was an Army Ranger he suddenly stopped criticizing him and dude swept in to win the season. (Though he was probably the best anyway.) And John Kelly obviously fits that mold. Maybe it's Trump's time at military academy boarding school along with his having missed Vietnam, I dunno. (Amusingly, Trump's avoidance of Vietnam was more legitimate than Dick Cheney's for example. Not to mention plenty of other politicians. He got called and reported but was by all accounts legitimately injured in his foot at the time so he was sent back in the pile and lucked out by pulling a high number the next time. But he still hates people bringing it up.)
Plus like what hobbies does he have? Golf, which doesn't count because he's an old white guy with money, though apparently he's actually pretty good. He legitimately has enjoyed professional wrestling since he was a kid and before he ever met Vince McMahon was a fan of WWF. He's a longtime Howard Stern fan which is why he went on there all the time. He's been reported to actually be interested in pageants, he enjoys the whole routine, beyond trying to sleep with everyone. He doesn't drink alcohol, tea, coffee, etc. He actually loves all that fast food, it's not pandering. He likes the big sports. He's a germaphobe.
Now you take all those and they're not really weird until you put them in a billionaire. Then it seems really weird, and when he's also a politician now? When he's getting involved in WWF or Howard Stern and stuff it's because of who he is, Donald Trump, but he's really an elevated superfan and it's the same way with the politicos. He's going on Alex Jones and Hannity because those are the guys he likes, and that seems okay, but he's a billionaire running for President and it's weird again. Especially when he's trying to be the star and indulges them in their lunacy which he may or may not support outside of being SUPERFAN again.
On Celebrity Apprentice you could see him legitimately seem let down by some of the now washed up celebs not being how he imagined them. And it was believable when he said he was a big big fan of whoever because he'd give em a few extra passes often. And he probably when he started talking to GOPers in 2012 started to have the same impressions. Jeb!, Christie, etc. were all letting him down just like Romney.
So you've got the superfan who is bypassing all the normal paths to everything including Presidential politics because of who he is, so he never goes through taking all the lumps like Jeb! did for decades. He's not used to things getting in his way or slowing him down. And he has no use for any of the institutions constructed that existed before him. And he changes his mind constantly and makes shit up as he goes because he's rarely in positions where that hurts him.
His headspace is a very different place from most celebrity billionaires and now Presidents which makes everything he does and says come off even weirder. It's part of why I think some of the hysteria over his every statement is from people too used to looking for subtext or messaging, when we have a guy who fires and hires people because of how they appear on TV. And often creates a statement as he's saying it and has to be talked down into making a more standard political statement rather than his instinct to just plow ahead ignoring everyone else and do whatever's next.
Democrats in Congress have seemed to figure this out faster than the Congressional GOP leadership. (Pence seems to be doing okay inside the White House.) They played to his whole deal-maker fantasies and used stuff he doesn't care about.
*secret Apprentice All-Star, totally one of the smartest people I've ever seen in action on a reality show and would just dominate because he was underestimated (but mainly he never broke the lone Apprentice rule that's across all the versions, LISTEN TO THE CLIENT), and this was while Trump was apparently constantly calling him an Uncle Tom off camera
