Here's a list of things Trump has said and done over the past six days:
1. Imitated challenger Ben Carson's story about stabbing someone in the belt buckle.
2. Asked Iowans who support Carson whether they are "stupid."
3. Sought volunteers from the Iowa crowd to try to stab him with a knife.
4. Claimed, repeatedly, to have predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden.
5. Said he has better hair than challenger Marco Rubio.
6. Suggested that the United States has "no choice" but to shut down mosques.
7. Refused to rule out the idea of creating a database to track all Muslims in this country.
8. Mocked a food-stamp protester at his Massachusetts rally, saying: "I mentioned food stamps, and that guy who is seriously overweight went crazy."
9. Offered this as his solution to dealing with the Islamic State: "We have to knock the s--- out of these people."
10. Said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is "exhausted" from running for president.
Yes, Trump has made his name in this campaign by saying lots and lots of things that other politicians can't or won't say. He likes his war heroes not captured. His comments about Fox New Channel host Megyn Kelly. His classification of Mexican immigrants. And so on and so forth.
But it seems as though Trump is being even more Trump-y of late. He appears to be willing to say and do almost anything, no matter how controversial — or maybe because it is controversial.
The question then is why? Why is Trump leaning into his Trumpness right now? There are two potential answers, which our own Janell Ross alluded to earlier this week:
a) Trump is becoming more Trump-y because that's what works for him. He has been far more low-key in recent debates, and hasn't fared all that well. It's easy to see how Trump might conclude that the way to win is to simply be himself — or even a slightly exaggerated version of himself (if that is even possible).
b) Trump is engaging in an elaborate self-sabotage, saying ever more outlandish things in hopes that he provokes such an angry reaction at some point that he is provided with an escape hatch from the race. Many of the adherents to this theory believe that Trump never imagined he would get as far as he has in the race, and now that his bluff has been called, he is desperately trying to find a way out. Of course, he hasn't been able to find one because it seems as though no matter what he says, his support grows.
I ascribe to the first theory of increased Trump-ism. He is a businessman and a showman — with a finely tuned ear for what people like and what they don't. I think he is refining his pitch, increasingly larding it with lines that work. Those lines tend to be the reddest of the red meat.
And, voilà! Donald Trump 2.0: Now with even more Trump!