Consider:

1. Trump l-o-v-e-s unpredictability. "I want to be unpredictable," Trump told Bill O'Reilly earlier this year. "The voters want unpredictability." Time and again, he has repeated that unpredictability mantra; he uses it as a way to condemn the political establishment — of both parties — for their lack of intelligence and strategy when dealing with our enemies.

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This hastily announced Mexico trip — not only was it announced less than 24 hours ago, but it also comes just before Trump makes a much-hyped speech on Arizona later tonight — is Trump's Platonic ideal of unpredictability. No one saw it coming! No one can believe he is doing it! Everyone is shocked!

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You get the idea. Trump clearly believes in unpredictability for the sake of unpredictability. (Remember that he said that he arrives at work as a real estate developer with no set plan, preferring to let the day simply come to him.) This Mexico trip is the uber-example.

2. Trump is a reality star. It's remarkably easy to forget that the main job Trump had before running for president was as a reality TV star. That's his frame of reference; it's the world he inhabits. And it's how he has run his presidential campaign — zigging when others zagged. The best example? Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States in the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris. That move was condemned by everyone within the GOP establishment as unconstitutional and dangerous. His voters loved it.

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Seen through the reality TV lens, Trump's surprise visit to Mexico today is the equivalent of bringing back a contestant on "Survivor" or "Big Brother" who had been kicked off the island or out of the house. Or watching as a beloved baby face in professional wrestling turns heel — the most famous example being Hulk Hogan in the mid-1990s.

Those swerves are meant to throw the viewer for a loop and, in so doing, re-stoke interest in the show or, in this case, the candidate. It's meant as a shot in the arm to a flagging enterprise.

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3. Trump is living out "Art of the Deal." The only thing that Trump loves more than attacking one of his opponents is making nice with them afterward. Remember how he suggested Ben Carson shared the same mindset as a child molester? When Carson endorsed Trump's campaign, Trump made sure to remind everyone that he had "hit Carson hard" but they had made up.

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Ditto his long-running feud with Megyn Kelly. Trump clearly relished savaging the Fox News star. But he also loved it when he sat down with her for an interview in May after he had wrapped up the Republican nomination.

That's the blueprint for what Trump is doing today with the Mexican president. He began his presidential bid by bashing Mexico for sending "rapists" and "criminals" to the United States. He built an entire primary campaign on the idea of building a wall along the country's southern border and making Mexico pay for it.

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But now, Trump is meeting with the president of Mexico! At Enrique Peña Nieto's request! It's the ultimate sign, in Trump's mind, that he can get anyone to the table with him, that he can cut a deal with anyone.