No, stop treating him like he's some sort of brilliant conman. He's never been. Even his own sister has said that he's a moron - his entire plan consists of "I wanna". I want it to be the Department of War, I want to be the one launching wars, I want to be the guy pushing the Big Red Button. He's a narcissist, and narcissists rarely tend to think more than a step or two ahead. They assume everyone's dumber than them, and they can rarely be dissuaded from this.