AMHERST, Mass. — The president of the United States is now certifiably our “hater in chief.” Lashing out at people is what he seems to do best and enjoy most. Twitter, we now know, is his weapon of choice. He uses it to target people and institutions in the news. Just Thursday, he used Twitter to criticize the Senate Intelligence Committee for investigating him instead of the media. Before that, he lashed out at the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, for her “weak leadership.” Days before, he was targeting football players and team owners. Before that, it was Stephen Colbert, and before that, Senator John McCain, and before that, Senator Mitch McConnell. The list goes on.

Bickering with people who are in the news has a political logic: It deepens the country’s polarization — and this can work to the president’s advantage. Spewing hate toward celebrities is part of his game plan.

The main objective of hating is to incense your critics so that they hate you back even more. Insults tend to provoke more extreme postures. A result is that Mr. Trump successfully transforms the targets of his hate, and those who come to their defense, into an even more extreme image of what the president’s base already despises.

The use of hatred as a provocation tactic may not be that common among American presidents, but it is common elsewhere. Marxist presidents are especially famous for it. When they embrace class warfare, Marxist presidents are in essence adopting a policy of hate toward one sector of society, the private sector. If the private sector responds by fighting back, Marxist presidents win politically because they can now offer proof of what they have been arguing all along, that capitalists are mean.