I would disagree with the assertion that either Hitler or bin Ladin were rational actors. If your major premise is flawed, and doesn’t stand up to objective reasoning, then it doesn’t really matter if you make rational assumptions, or sometimes act in a rational manner, when you try to impose that flawed premise on the reality around you … you will not be engaging in a rational enterprise.

The premises embraced by both Hitler and bin Ladin defied rational analysis … as do Trump’s. But morally, both intent and outcome have to be appraised—if Person A kills three people while committing a hate crime, while Person B kills six due to momentarily being distracted and causing an automobile accident, it would be hard to argue that Person B is morally inferior to Person A. If we accept that argument, both Hitler and bin Ladin have greater moral defects than Trump. They intended to kill — Trump, on the other hand, simply didn’t care.