A form of reasoning that consists of an incredibly lazy premise, a supremely ignorant premise, and a conclusion designed to comfort the comfortable.

One would think that after his declaration about a white man displaying obnoxious, attention-seeking behavior, he would shut up.

You cannot and do not win anything when your numbers look like Trump’s. I can’t say it any more clearly than that. There’s nothing you can say or do — not that Trump would ever even consider going on an image rehabilitation tour — to change how people feel about you. Republicans know Trump. And they really, really don’t like him. Trump, of course, knows this. His goal is attention, not winning. And in truth, even that would be fine if Trump had an issue (or issues) that he cared about and wanted to draw attention to via his presidential bid. He doesn’t. He just says stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. And it’s not clear that he’s spent more than the five seconds before he speaks thinking about what he’s going to say. Trump has every right to run. This is a democracy after all. But what he should not get is covered as though this is an even-close-to-serious attempt to either win the Republican nomination or influence the conversation in GOP circles in any significant way. It’s not.

But then one remembers this is Chris Cillizza.