See, the key to understanding what Trump does – or doesn’t do – is this: it’s all purely transactional.

Trump is not working on the morals scale. He is fully motivated in making his daily decisions with what he sees as best for him. People – and relationships – are only a means to an end.

Which brings us back to McCarthy—and to Trump’s ruling that the House Republican leader is more politically worthy of him than politically dead.

Trump knows that if he unleashes his wrath on McCarthy for saying one thing in public and another in private, he could almost certainly end the California Republican’s aspiration to become Speaker of the House.

That fact will ensure, according to Trump’s way of thinking, that McCarthy never crosses him – in public or in private – again. McCarthy owes his political future – or even the possibility that he will have one – to Trump. Trump will ensure that McCarthy never forgets that.

the point: Always remember that Trump sees everyone – everyone – as a pawn to be played in his favour. McCarthy has just handed him an invitation to do so.