There is a phenomenon called “self handicapping”. And everyone does it a little at least a few times but it’s typically a behavior that’s considered poor.

Here is an example of how it works.

Let’s say you have a big exam tomorrow. And you fucked around , didn’t study. You knew about it weeks ago. You know you are going to fail it. But. Instead of spending that last evening cramming as much as possible to make up for procrastinating to maybe have a small chance of passing it, you decide to go to a bar and get shit faced.

The next day you don’t even show up to class.

You blame failing the class on the alcohol. Instead of your inability to prioritize your education or your own intelligence.

It was the alcohol. Not your own ability to pass. You probably would have aced it actually. If you hadn’t been hungover.

So this is a way to save face and preserve a sense of self superiority.

People who are narcissistic do this almost constantly. They never fail. No , not them. It’s always some external cause that their plans didn’t work.

They intentionally set up multiple barriers so that they can always fall back on those.

Trump does the same,

For instance. Tarriffs. He can claim he has a plan to fix the economy with tarriffs but Congress won’t let him. So we won’t ever know how great of a plan it was. It totally would have worked. It just needed a little more time.

But. often the obstacle isn’t doing its job.

Example. Trump starts war. It’s going badly. He won’t pull out until Congress forces him. Then he can say "we were winning. My plan was great they just wouldn’t let me see it through.

He wants Congress to stop it. He has wanted Congress and the supreme Court to stop most of the b.s. So he can claim they were good plans but someone else fucked it up.

He did this all through his first term too. It’s how people like him function.