Trump's an asshole, but he's also an asshole who likes to please (or think he is pleasing - maybe "impressing" is a better word) the person sitting in front of him. The easiest way for a journalist to get a scoop is to feed some bullshit to him and have him repeat it back to them almost verbatim. Then he'll read the headlines, be impressed with his own brilliant idea, and his people will struggle (enthusiastically or not) to make it policy, at least until his brain worm brain forgets about it.
