ISN’T IT WEIRD, THOUGH? Trump and the troops: The president’s weird popularity with the military shows few signs of diminishing. “Enthusiasm for Trump among American servicemen, both active-duty and veteran, seems to be one of the more genuine things about this surreal phase of American politics. In polls, support for the president among veterans far outpaces that among Americans at large. Whenever Trump visits the troops, military leaders struggle to rein in the display of unauthorized MAGA paraphernalia. One former US Central Command planner described the support for Trump among much of the military as ‘downright cult-like’.”

Plus: “There is one additional key to Trump’s military popularity: America’s generals, though lionized as never before, are emperors without clothes. As with every institution of American life, the gatekeepers are on life-support. . . . Trump can ride roughshod over the institutional military because so many of its leaders symbolize professional and ethical failure.” Well, their record has not been exactly brilliant.

And I don’t find the troops’ enthusiasm for Trump as inexplicable as the author does. You see, they know that Trump listens.