Careful, more-than-once-burned-twice-shy former Trumpsters: The Great Trumpkin is trying to dog-whistle you back home.

Take your cue from Ulysses, who had himself lashed to the mast to withstand the seductive call of the sirens, those Stormy Danielses of BCE lore.

In New Hampshire on Monday, the Dear Leader, playing on your affinity for authoritarianism, tried to lure you back with a call for executing drug pushers. This is Trumpery, pure and simple. Just look at what Trump himself said after insisting the death penalty should be a crucial part of any anti-opioid effort: “Maybe our country is not ready for that. I can understand that, maybe, although personally I can’t understand that.’’ (To understand or pretend you don’t — that is the question for our huckster Hamlet.)

See what’s up here? Trump is scoring easy points with a tough-sounding, but simplistic, stand that he himself realizes is ridiculous. He does that repeatedly. With apologies to the late, great Muhammad Ali, that’s Trump’s own rope-a-dope ploy.

He’s using the same modus operandi in regard to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Do you think Trump really believes the straight-arrow Republican he himself considered for an encore as FBI director is leading a politically motivated witch hunt?

Dubious indeed. Here’s where Occam’s Razor leads: Trump is trying to delegitimize Mueller’s investigation. Why? Several reasons suggest themselves. First, he’s likely trying to establish a rationale for not consenting to an interview with Mueller.

Second, if he can dupe the gullible into thinking the investigation is really an attempted partisan putsch, they will be less inclined to respect Mueller’s actions and conclusions. He may also be testing the waters for dismissing the special counsel. After all, we know by his own admission that ending the investigation was on his mind when he fired former FBI director James Comey. And that he wanted to fire Mueller, backing down only when White House counsel Donald McGahn refused to do so.

But the notion that the probe Mueller leads is a political hit job is the kind of conspiratorialist codswallop cooked up to bamboozle the base. Even Trump’s regular Republican enablers aren’t buying his nonsense on this count.

Look at the advice Trey Gowdy, whose partisanship apparently has its limits, imparted to Trump’s attorney, John Dowd, over the weekend, after Dowd called for the Justice Department to end Mueller’s probe: “If you have an innocent client . . . act like it.’’ Why, on Tuesday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell even ventured out of his gopher hole to express confidence in Mueller.

The outcry over Trump’s escalating rhetoric against Mueller has led Sean Hannity, who apparently now moonlights as a Trump spokesman, to declare that the president won’t fire Mueller. That has likely created some cognitive dissonance for the Fox News host. After all, in his regular role as conservative media Mynah bird, Hannity has delighted right-wing viewers by saying, on cue: “Robert Mueller needs to go.’’

In another attempt at misdirection, Trump has been insisting that the person who really needs to be investigated is Hillary Clinton. But even Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is not exactly a towering oak — witness his willingness to enable Trump’s firing of Comey — demurs here. In November, responding to Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, who demanded to know what it would take to see a special prosecutor appointed to probe Clinton, Sessions replied: “It would take a factual basis that meets the standards of the appointment of a special counsel.’’

Damn! Standards!

So stay strong, guys. If you start to backslide, just recall that Mexico hasn’t paid for a border wall. Neither has Obamacare been replaced by something much better and much cheaper. Nor has Trump released his tax returns.

Remember those broken promises — and resolve, like Pete Townshend, that you won’t get fooled again.

Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehigh.