They do matter in some way to him, but that's a very challenging thing to define, and so long as reality is not too far outside of his ability to distort it, he won't become aware of the problem. Notably, his capacity to distort is very remarkable, and one of the chief errors people make in trying to understand Trump is expecting his glimpses into reality to stick. They don't. They reflect a failure of his ego to distort reality sufficiently, but circumstances change over time, and when his ego can go back to distorting capacity it will again function to rewrite reality including his own past actions and statements. We've seen this happen with Iran and COVID-19, although I wonder if he isn't still scared of Iran.
The other fundamental error is assuming there is some overarching durable logic to his positions from moment to moment. There isn't. He capitalizes all the time on the errors people make assuming his past behavior predicts the future. The reality is he's not a complicated puzzle. Just look at what position he thinks makes him look the best at any moment and that's the one he takes. Even if that position was different 3 seconds prior.
So what's happening here? It's not a plan. It's narcissistic rage. That's all.
Don't get me wrong. Narcissistic rage has its place in the normal function of humanity. But toddlers generally lack the capacity to kill people thankfully.