On the issue of torture, Mr. Trump suggested he had changed his mind about the value of waterboarding after talking with James N. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, who headed the United States Central Command. “He said, ‘I’ve never found it to be useful,’” Mr. Trump said. He added that Mr. Mattis found more value in building trust and rewarding cooperation with terrorism suspects: “‘Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I’ll do better.’” “I was very impressed by that answer,” Mr. Trump said.

What gives? Donald Trump just won the White House thanks to his stubborn unwillingness to apologize for even the grossest of his proudly-stated positions. He's not going to capitulate suddenly and turn into the Woke President-Elect overnight. The more likely explanation is that Trump, just as he's always done, was simply playing to the crowd. To the liberal journalists at the New York Times, he wants to appear a respectable, pragmatic consensus-builder, and will say whatever he needs to say to project that image. When in the presence of his white nationalist fans who see him as an uncompromising zealot, he'll do the same thing. There is no audience to which Trump will not pander in an attempt to be liked.

It would be great if the president-elect suddenly demonstrated a working knowledge of things like prosecutorial discretion and scientific consensus, but unfortunately, Trump's comments today were not the product of thoughtful, reasoned decision-making. They were the words of a manipulable, unsure, rudderless leader who ascribes to no fixed set of beliefs, and remains as ready as ever to say whatever he thinks the people in front of him want to hear.