Corporate CEOs, media pundits, Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, world leaders across continents, military officers, and neighbors around your town all admit to being equally confused by the volatile rhetoric and violent actions coming out of the White House. 

A mountain of literature has attempted to dissect President Donald Trump’s every move. One might wonder what else there is to say about the most polarizing, consequential figure in modern history, especially when, to the casual observer, Trump’s approach can look like pure chaos.

Many insightful observers have made the mistake of writing off Trump as either crazy, chaotic, or irrational. 

As a result, even though shelves of books have been written about Trump, neither supporters nor critics have seriously mapped the unique, dangerous, but methodical strategic playbook Trump repeatedly uses to gain, wield, and retain power. Regardless of what one thinks about Trump, this playbook is worth understanding.

Trump’s seemingly erratic behavior can be anchored by a discernible, repeating pattern of certain strategic maneuvers. These are Trump’s own 10 commandments. These are not guidelines for biblically ethical conduct, but rather, Trump’s own distinct set of power principles—a set of street-smart, norm-defying tactics that he deploys with often stunning effectiveness but also occasional backfires in predictable ways.

Trump’s reliance on these core strategies mirrors what philosopher Abraham Kaplan called “The Law of the Instrument”—give a boy a hammer, and everything becomes a nail. Whether the situation calls for a scalpel or a wrench, Trump swings his hammer, or in this case, one of 10 hammers.

To those who argue that the words "Trump" and "strategic leadership" should never go in the same sentence, I say, quite simply, you are mistaken. I hear your arguments and know you will say that Trump is so unpredictable, uninformed, impressionable, and impulsive that clearly he has no strategy. You're not entirely wrong. Sure, Trump is not a strategist in the classic sense of the word. Trump is not the second coming of Niccolo Machiavelli or Sun Tzu. Yet it is a mistake to underestimate Trump's strategic acumen and intentionality.

If Trump is dumb, he is dumb as a fox. While he rarely reads and might not pass some college exams were he to take them today, he has a shrewd instinct for survival, and a chameleon-like adaptability that guides his every........

© Time