To say that Donald Trump's second term is more chaotic and volatile than his chaotic and volatile first term is, at this point, a cliché. There are no guardrailsto stop him from making destructive decisions. By "guardrails," most people generally mean serious, experienced hands who can advise him of a more sensible and judicious course in his decision-making, and who are perceptive enough about his psychology to understand how to handle him with misdirection and diversions to focus his attention on a safer path than he would otherwise choose on his own.

It's not the optimal way to run a presidential administration. But when dealing with Trump, a person who seems to possess a very limited understanding of the way the world actually works, and very little desire or capacity to learn about it, such a process is probably the only way to ensure that the country doesn't go completely off the rails. 

-Heather Digby Parton in Salon.com