I think it is time to repeat this: the explanation for Trump's offensive tweets, vulgar speech,

[Atticus]

blatant provable lies, self-contradiction, etc, etc, etc, has nothing to do with his genius or cleverness or strategy or even distraction.

The explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is simply that his impulsive man-child makes it up as he goes along. He does not think and then speak. He reacts. It is all this spoiled little boy has ever had to do. His money bailed him out of any trouble he got into.

It is primarily the press, looking for something to fill up air time, which speculates about Trump's strategy and political technique. We would not tolerate this behavior in a 6 year old, but this 71 year old is indulged and forgiven time and time again.

The man is a fool who just happens to have fallen into the most powerful job in the world.

[MFM008]

1. Good points

......

[leftstreet]

2. He seems to be pathologically impulsive

If such a thing is possible


I bet most of his inner circle has given up trying to control his impulses. They just work on responding to the aftermath, defending his behavior and attacking the accusers.

Most fucked up POTUS ever

[no_hypocrisy]

27. Part of the reason I think he's impulsive is because

except for his father and the military academy, nobody's ever stopped him getting what he's wanted.

[3catwoman3]

3. We have all heard of knee-jerk responses.

He has a tongue-jerk response to everything. Or maybe brain-jerk.

[kentuck]

4. He is impulsive but...

...he knows the news media. He knows media. He has worked in the middle of it.

I do believe he understands just how much his base "distrusts" the mainstream media. And he uses that to his advantage, even if he is improvising along the way.

[politicat]

6. I think he may have learned how to provoke media reactions without any understanding.

He's reactive the same way a rat in an electrified cage with a sugar feeder is reactive. He has learned through conditioning what rewards and what hurts, but his understanding of how a sugar feeder or a shock floor works is at the magical level. He could never articulate it. He only knows how to push the button, not why or how the button works.

[Phoenix61]

7. Great analogy

He doesn't have the mental discipline to think long enough to fugure out anything. Personally, I think the rats probably do better then him at that skill.

[politicat]

11. Um, usually, yeah.

Rats have a 3-5 year lifespan in the lab if they're behavioral subjects. (Much less in other circumstances.) They remember their caretakers and those working with them, and you can usually give an elderly rat a routine they learned in childhood, and they remember. They may be rusty, but they pick it back up. It's one of the ways we do work on cognition and memory retention and dementia.

[rock]

8. I think you're right

[BumRushDaShow]

9. And I think Bannon manipulates what he is exposed to

triggering him to push that button.

[politicat]

10. Yes, but not just Bannon.

There's a whole team of behaviorists (of varying quality) setting up experiments around him. His wives and his daughter are the most adept, because their entire personal self-worth and stability are based on not being his target. They may not understand the buttons much better, but they understand the parameters extremely well.

But don't make the mistake of thinking Bannon is the only one. Anyone who manages to stay in his circle is very, very good at adjusting the parameters. Brannon's only been there for a relatively short time. That means he is still disposable if he pushes the shock button too often without giving enough sugar.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. The way I hear it

the rest of the staff are trying to keep him "occupied" because he is screwing it up for THEM!

[kentuck]

12. He may not know why or how?

All he knows is that it works.

[politicat]

14. Mostly, yes, but he may not even be that aware.

To even get to the "know that it works" stage requires a level of introspection -- a toddler's level, to be sure. It's the ability to reflect and draw conclusions. I'm not even sure that's within his regular capacity. He may "know" it on an instinctive, subconscious level, but I don't think he consciously, intentionally does A/B testing to gauge how others react to him.

[lordsummerisle]

26. OK, anyone got a .jpg of Trump as a rat in a cage? n/t

[zentrum]

18. I think he's actually

Last edited Mon Jul 3, 2017, 08:51 PM - Edit history (1)

.....a media-idiot-savante.

He *really* has an instinctive understanding of entertainment-media.

[lunatica]

23. He's also intimately knowledgeable of

The shadow side of the human psyche. It's his playground.

It's the higher human aspirations, the nobler aspects of humanity that he knows nothing about.

He's a slave to his basest instincts.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

5. I agree.

I think people want to think there is something deeper going on there that would prove how smart he is because they don't want to think that electoral college just elected a moron as president.

[Moral Compass]

13. Absolutely right!

He is not playing 17 dimensional, populist chess. He is not some sort of political genius. He wasn't raised properly. He's just a rich asshole with a gaping hole where his soul should be.

[leftyladyfrommo]

15. I think he just needs to be the center of attention

And needs to have his picture and his name out there all the time. I don't think it goes any deeper than that.

It is like a little child who just wants a reaction and being atrocious gets him lots of attention. Bad or good Doesn't matter.

[mnhtnbb]

17. He didn't "fall" into the most powerful job in the world. He conned voters by

appealing to them the way a con man does. He made his marks: racists, misogynists, white male
supremacists and Christian theocrats. He appealed to their fears and their values.

It's a mistake not to recognize what a supremely successful con Trump ran.

[bhikkhu]

19. He's an asshole - that pretty much sums it up

and pretty much everyone gets it.

[ginnyinWI]

20. another point is the way we elect Presidents these days.

There is something really wrong with a system that can elect a clown who just happens to have a skills for lying and for playing to a willing media.

I don't have any answers, but that is a question that deserves some attention.

[iluvtennis]

21. Wish it was media simply trying to speculate of fill airtime, no they are trying to NORMALIZE Dumpty

[lunatica]

22. He does what works and always has worked for him

So whether we think he's a fool or not is totally besides the point. He always gets what he wants and people always suffer in the wake of his messes. If he is a fool then we have plenty of reason to still fear for our future and for the planets future.

The people I truly fear are his followers and his enablers. They will gladly throw this country into total chaos to get what they think they'll get. They're every bit as foolish and as stupid as he is because they won't get anything that they want to get. They will destroy this country.

Actually they already are.

[Xolodno]

24. Marketing.

As the old adage says, their is no such thing as bad publicity. He knows the Republican base and they respond to his bullying of their perceived "enemies". His celebrity status and actually being the quintessential "successful" business man endeared those who thought "finally someone not a career politician and a successful business man who will whip the government into shape".

Only.... Marketing only gets you so far and he's not as successful as people give him credit for. Government isn't a business and can't be run like one. He's in over his head and uses "marketing" to distract... but eventually its all going to catch up to him. You can only bullshit your way for so long.

[Willie Pep]

25. He knows that his base loves it.

Trump is our first pro wrestling president. He plays the bad guy to liberals and his base eats it up. Normally other presidents at least try or pretend to try to be bridge-builders that want to unite the country. Trump doesn't. He antagonizes liberals and his base loves it. A lot of conservatives don't care about policy that much but just want to see people they hate get hurt or become upset. I know people who didn't like Trump before but are starting to like him more and more just based on the fact that he "triggers" liberals.

It is not a bad strategy because it keeps the Republican base revved up. It is like Trump never stopped campaigning. Democrats need to think about how to combat this strategy because it has been working not just for Trump but for other Republicans too. Fox News, talk radio and other right-wing outlets keep the Republican base angry and galvanized even when they are in power. For some reason we seem to be unable to do something similar on our side although that might be changing since people really seem to hate Trump a lot, even more than George W. Bush I think.

[gordianot]

28. Correct that is the essential Donald Trump.

He makes it up as he goes along. The only plan he has "no criticism allowed".