Back in January I wrote ‘how Trump could make the ultimate deal and get liberals to like him’, a pre-inauguration olive branch in the spirit of open mindedness.

It was essentially an Aaron Sorkin inspired fantasy in which I entertained the notion that the President could somehow heal the country after an ugly, divisive campaign by shunning ideology and making an unprecedented dual liberal-conservative appointment to the Supreme Court.

Needless to say, Trump had other plans for his first few months in office and obviously never got around to reading my article. In the mean time, his approval rating has hovered around the low forties and his disapproval rating has consistently remained above fifty percent.

Apparently he’s getting tired of the criticism, because the President seems desperate to shake things up lately. In the past two weeks Trump has distanced himself from his senior advisor Steve Bannon and pulled a succession of 180-degree policy about-faces on a few issues:

While each of those decisions would qualify as an embarrassing flip-flop in its own right for most politicians who would be left struggling to explain how their thinking evolved, that doesn’t seem to be a problem Trump.

As NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben laid out in a thoughtful reflection of why Trump’s flip-flops likely won’t hurt him, the reality is that those who support the President don’t like him for his ideology.

The concept that was so difficult for politicos and talking heads to wrap their minds around throughout the election as they pored over inconsistencies, lies, and factual errors in his rhetoric has finally become abundantly clear — Trump’s base is nothing more than a cult-of-personality.

As Kurtzleben put it, “it’s quite possible that Trump’s approval rating won’t inch down much as a result of a half-dozen 180s.” This creates an unusual political opportunity for the President.

In fact, Trump himself used to be a Democrat (before he was on finasteride) and it appears obvious by now that his primary concern lies with improving his popularity rather than maintaining consistency or pursuing any specific policies.