Here’s an interesting take on Trump:

Trump is the only major American politician of the last forty years who was professionally formed in the long-form unstructured format before he ever entered politics. That is the entire answer. Everything else is downstream of that fact.

The standard explanations (charismatic, natural performer, good instincts) are descriptions of the result rather than explanations of the cause.

Well, sort of. He’s actually a natural at it, and then he also has honed his skills over time. It’s not either/or. But yes, he’s got more experience in the long-form interview, both hostile and friendly, than almost anyone on earth. That’s not an accident. He’s sought celebrity, and been comfortable with it, for pretty much his whole life.

I agree with a great deal of the article – for example, this:

Widely misunderstood. Trump does not actually have no filter. He has a very specific filter, calibrated over decades, that allows him to say things that sound spontaneous and unfiltered while actually being controlled performance. He says transgressive things on purpose, knowing they will land. He floats trial balloons, watches the reaction, and either commits to the position or walks it back depending on the response. The persona of being unfiltered is itself a filter.

Also this:

The credentialed class is the class of people who have internalized the institutional consequences of saying the wrong thing, and who have organized their public speech to avoid those consequences. Trump did not come up through any of those institutions. He came up in New York real estate and tabloid culture, both of which are environments where shame is a vulnerability rather than a discipline, and where the operators who succeed are the ones who have learned to act without it. He says things the credentialed class would be unable to say, not because the things are necessarily wrong, but because the credentialed class has been trained to feel an autonomic flinch before the words leave the mouth. Trump does not have the flinch.

The absence of the flinch is read by the audience as authenticity, and is read by the opposing class as proof of monstrousness.

Yes indeed. But the author follows it with this:

Both readings miss the structural fact: the flinch is a learned behavior of a specific institutional formation, and Trump did not undergo that formation.

Here’s where I have the same objection I had at the beginning: it’s not just a learned behavior, it’s in sync with Trump’s personality, although it’s also a behavior that’s been honed and refined through practice.

It occurs to me that Spencer Pratt has had some of this type of practice. Not as much as Trump but more than most, having been on reality TV a great deal. And he also didn’t come up through the normal political paths, so he didn’t learn the pussy-footing obfuscation and the art of talking while saying nothing. Here’s an example of Pratt’s skills:

The threaded NBC clip exemplifies exactly what Pratt said here about being honed for debate by constant battle with hostile media hacks —

Unlike his Democrat opponents:

“Every interview I do it's opposition. When Bass or Raman talk to the media, they can just lie." https://t.co/gcjgGjx08Z pic.twitter.com/WFCEavoJlb

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 29, 2026

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether people without X can access these tweets and videos. If you can’t see the second one, this might help:

Spencer Pratt schools NBC reporter who wants to know if he’s running for LA Mayor just to promote his “brand."

Reporter: “Man, your brand is hotter than ever!"

Pratt initially talks about getting in the race after losing everything in the fires.

But then he gets to the… pic.twitter.com/SrDMy7zyR0

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 29, 2026

It’s LA, and I doubt Pratt can win. But it would be astounding if he did.