befuddle

He says he has drawn on classic police interrogation techniques to befuddle chatbots and get them to "crack".

Lost in the haze of Trump’s befuddled narcissism and fascism is the often ignored reality: this is not normal.

Intricate pre-plotted plays befuddle defences with a blizzard of runners, while they shift the ball with a cardsharp's speed and dexterity.

People were befuddled by Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-making passion project, a rococo take on the collapse of an empire.

That’s all nonsense too, but I remain especially befuddled by the insinuation that it’s somehow sinister or unpatriotic for “entities” “controlled” by “domestic companies” to oppose tariffs.