Donald Trump's conversation last week with the Taiwanese president was neither accidental, initiated by her, nor was it a gaffe.

It was, instead, the product of right-wing extremists pulling Trump's puppet strings behind the scenes and had been planned for a very long time.

It was planned weeks ahead by staffers and Taiwan specialists on both sides, according to people familiar with the plans.

Immediately after Trump won the Nov. 8 election, his staffers compiled a list of foreign leaders with whom to arrange calls. “Very early on, Taiwan was on that list,” said Stephen Yates, a national security official during the presidency of George W. Bush and an expert on China and Taiwan. “Once the call was scheduled, I was told that there was a briefing for President-elect Trump. They knew that there would be reaction and potential blowback.”

Former Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner was also mentioned in that article as one of the "Taiwan experts" responsible for inserting little-noticed language in the Republican platform about Taiwan as well as harsher policies toward China.

For his part, Trump went right along, indulging himself in some tweets to put an exclamation point on things after lying about who initiated the phone call.

Well, except his folks initiated the call.

And here he is rattling sabers with China:

Meanwhile, there is no nominee for Secretary of State and he has a wingnut as his National Security Advisor.

If there's a purpose for the Electoral College, it should be to stop this man from ever taking the oath of office.