I want to hit on this a bit. The problem with Trump's self-interest isn't that he has it. What "narrow" really means here is.... https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1345146475500724225

Trump usually acts on what I've called private self-interest, as opposed to the healthy public self-interest that Madison talks about in Fed 51. That is, Trump appears to be concerned not just with himself, but with himself as a private citizen - usually his pocketbook.

It's a complicated question, and one that we're not really used to dealing with. Normally, I'd say that the *content* of ambition - why a given politician seeks office and authority - is interesting and might tell us something about his or her actions, but....

...is ultimately neither good nor bad. It's not necessarily better or worse to seek office in order to advance a specific policy, or to fulfill a family legacy, or out of love of power. All of those push politicians in the direction that a healthy system can make good use of.

But what is different about Trump is that his ambition doesn't seem political at all. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1345157517094100997

The thing is that it's not an easy distinction at all - I'm very convinced there's a big difference between the unhealthy Trump and what I see as the healthy Plunkitt, but it's not one that's easy to tease out. /end

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-11-30/how-trump-is-like-woodrow-wilson?sref=rMMJuv3g https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-09-21/trump-s-presidency-puts-private-gain-above-the-public-good?sref=rMMJuv3g