I did include two qualifiers there.<p>&gt;In his mind, and the minds of his constituents, the &quot;information gathering&quot; aspect is a sly wink at the other sadists in the room.<p>I&#x27;m not so sure. You could have a model where the main purpose of torture is for information, and the value of that information is so much that you don&#x27;t need a high chance of it being effective, and even if it&#x27;s not effective there&#x27;s not too much harm done. Trump has certainly claimed it to be effective.