Related:
For two years, Mr. Trump has waged war against his own government, convinced that people around him are fools. Angry that they resist his wishes, uninterested in the details of their briefings, he becomes especially agitated when they tell him he does not have the power to do what he wants, which makes him suspicious that they are secretly undermining him.
Also this article has appeared weekly (essentially) for 2 years.
And these types of observations, also regularly presented, always deny agency by the people who actually determine the "national conversation" which for people at the New York Times means "things that are on the front page of the New York Times or discussed during their cable news gigs":
Yet even with a 38 percent approval rating in Gallup polling, Mr. Trump has dominated the national conversation as no other modern president has, and his base thrills at his fights with the establishment, seeing him as a warrior against self-satisfied elites who look down on many Americans. Determined to maintain that base, he has insisted — despite the seemingly long odds — on his pledge of a border wall, aware that abandoning his signature campaign promise would make him less authentic, the quality that his voters often cite as his appeal.
When daily front page news at the New York Times is dumb palace gossip about Trump, the national conversation dominates, he does.