Why Donald Trump does what he doesDonald .

Donald Trump’s presidency unspools so fast that it often looks like a set of outbursts fueled by nothing more than his own random obsessions.

On Monday alone, the White House shattered scientific consensus on the causes of autism and designated a left-wing antifascist movement as a domestic terrorist group despite questions over whether it has the power to do so. Washington was reverberating with Trump’s demands for Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political opponents — despite an apparent lack of solid evidence. And Trump’s emerging effort to destroy media freedoms and to suppress freedom of speech suffered a rare hiccup, as ABC cleared Jimmy Kimmel for a return to air following a controversy over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer.

Any of these dramas might rank as the most intense political controversies in a conventional administration. In another time, several might have triggered impeachment proceedings. And they only darkened an already somber time peppered by warnings of encroaching autocracy.