Incentives everywhere to overstate Trump's power

President Trump's political style is classic populist strongman. As such, he is going to explain politics as a set of illegitimate institutions setup by corrupt elites, which require nothing more than a strong leader with the will to rein-in the institutions, throw out the elites, and replace it all with obvious, virtuous policies. Such a leader isn't common but, luckily, he alone can do it. He can never deviate from the maximal power sales pitch; to do so would be to admit the impossible, and shatter the entire persona. He's always right, and he always wins. Partisan allies of the president have strong incentives to promote this view of power and the presidents ability to be the unbeatable transformative champion, even if they don't actually believe it. Some of this is wider than Trump; co-partisans are never interested in embarrassing the administration, and presidents are usually given some latitude as party leaders to set agendas and shape party messaging and style. So you get a…