Actually a pretty interesting piece, despite the off putting into.
Posted on 08/14/2015 3:46:48 AM PDT by mongrel
Like many of you, I have been entertained by the unstoppable clown car that is Donald Trump. On the surface, and several layers deep as well, Trump appears to be a narcissistic blow-hard with inadequate credentials to lead a country.
The only problem with my analysis is that there is an eerie consistency to his success so far. Is there a method to it? Is there some sort of system at work under the hood?
Probably yes. Allow me to describe some of the hypnosis and persuasion methods Mr. Trump has employed on you. (Most of you know I am a trained hypnotist and this topic is a hobby of mine.)
For starters, Trump literally wrote the book on negotiating, called The Art of the Deal. So we know he is familiar with the finer points of persuasion. For our purposes today, persuasion, hypnosis, and negotiating all share a common set of tools, so I will conflate them.
Would Trump use his negotiation and persuasion skills in the campaign? Of course he would. And we expect him to do just that.
But where is the smoking gun of his persuasion? Where is his technique laid out for us to see.
Everywhere.
As I said in my How to Fail book, if you are not familiar with the dozens of methods of persuasion that are science-tested, there’s a good chance someone is using those techniques against you.
For example, when Trump says he is worth $10 billion, which causes his critics to say he is worth far less (but still billions) he is making all of us “think past the sale.” The sale he wants to make is “Remember that Donald Trump is a successful business person managing a vast empire mostly of his own making.” The exact amount of his wealth is irrelevant.
When a car salesperson trained in persuasion asks if you prefer the red Honda Civic or the Blue one, that is a trick called making you “think past the sale” and the idea is to make you engage on the question of color as if you have already decided to buy the car. That is Persuasion 101 and I have seen no one in the media point it out when Trump does it.
The $10 billion estimate Trump uses for his own net worth is also an “anchor” in your mind. That’s another classic negotiation/persuasion method. I remember the $10 billion estimate because it is big and round and a bit outrageous. And he keeps repeating it because repetition is persuasion too.
I don’t remember the smaller estimates of Trump’s wealth that critics provided. But I certainly remember the $10 billion estimate from Trump himself. Thanks to this disparity in my memory, my mind automatically floats toward Trump’s anchor of $10 billion being my reality. That is classic persuasion. And I would be amazed if any of this is an accident. Remember, Trump literally wrote the book on this stuff.
You might be concerned that exaggerating ones net worth is like lying, and the public will not like a liar. But keep in mind that Trump’s value proposition is that he will “Make America Great.” In other words, he wants to bring the same sort of persuasion to the question of America’s reputation in the world. That concept sounds appealing to me. The nation needs good brand management, whether you think Trump is the right person or not. (Obviously we need good execution as well, not just brand illusion. But a strong brand gives you better leverage for getting what you want. It is all connected.)
And what did you think of Trump’s famous “Rosie O’Donnell” quip at the first debate when asked about his comments on women? The interviewer’s questions were intended to paint Trump forever as a sexist pig. But Trump quickly and cleverly set the “anchor” as Rosie O’Donnell, a name he could be sure was not popular with his core Republican crowd. And then he casually admitted, without hesitation, that he was sure he had said other bad things about other people as well.
Now do you see how the anchor works? If the idea of “Trump insults women” had been allowed to pair in your mind with the nice women you know and love, you would hate Trump. That jerk is insulting my sister, my mother, and my wife! But Trump never let that happen. At the first moment (and you have to admit he thinks fast) he inserted the Rosie O’Donnell anchor and owned the conversation from that point on. Now he’s not the sexist who sometimes insults women; he’s the straight-talker who won’t hesitate to insult someone who has it coming (in his view).
But it gets better. You probably cringed when Trump kept saying his appearance gave FOX its biggest audience rating. That seemed totally off point for a politician, right? But see what happened.
Apparently FOX chief Roger Ailes called Trump and made peace. And by that I mean Trump owns FOX for the rest of the campaign because his willingness to appear on their network will determine their financial fate. BAM, Trump owns FOX and paid no money for it. See how this works? That’s what a strong brand gives you.
You probably also cringed when you heard Trump say Mexico was sending us their rapists and bad people. But if you have read this far, you now recognize that intentional exaggeration as an anchor, and a standard method of persuasion.
Trump also said he thinks Mexico should pay for the fence, which made most people scoff. But if your neighbor’s pit bull keeps escaping and eating your rosebushes, you tell the neighbor to pay for his own fence or you will shoot his dog next time you see it. Telling a neighbor to build his own wall for your benefit is not crazy talk. And I actually think Trump could pull it off.
On a recent TV interview, the host (I forget who) tried to label Trump a “whiner.” But instead of denying the label, Trump embraced it and said was the best whiner of all time, and the country needs just that. That’s a psychological trick I call “taking the high ground” and I wrote about it in a recent blog post. The low ground in this case is the unimportant question of whether “whiner” is a fair label for Trump. But Trump cleverly took the high ground, embraced the label, and used it to set an anchor in your mind that he is the loudest voice for change. That’s some clown genius for you.
Update: When Trump raised his hand at the debate as the only person who would not pledge to back the eventual Republican candidate, he sent a message to the party that the only way they can win is by nominating him. And people like to win. It is in their nature. And they sure don’t want to see a Clinton presidency.
Update 2: And what about Trump’s habit of bluster and self-complimenting? Every time he opens his mouth he is saying something about the Trump brand being fabulous or amazing or great. The rational part of your brain thinks this guy is an obnoxious, exaggerating braggart. But the subconscious parts of your brain (the parts that make most of your decisions) only remember that something about that guy was fabulous, amazing and great.
If you’re keeping score, in the past month Trump has bitch-slapped the entire Republican Party, redefined our expectations of politics, focused the national discussion on immigration, proposed the only new idea for handling ISIS, and taken functional control of FOX News. And I don’t think he put much effort into it. Imagine what he could do if he gave up golf.
As far as I can tell, Trump’s “crazy talk” is always in the correct direction for a skilled persuader. When Trump sets an “anchor” in your mind, it is never random. And it seems to work every time.
Now that Trump owns FOX, and I see how well his anchor trick works with the public, I’m going to predict he will be our next president. I think he will move to the center on social issues (already happening) and win against Clinton in a tight election.
I also saw some Internet chatter about the idea of picking Mark Cuban as Vice Presidential running mate. If that happens, Republicans win. And I think they like to win. There is no way Trump picks some desiccated Governor from an important state as his running mate. I think Cuban is a realistic possibility.
I don’t mean this post to look like support for a Trump presidency. I’m more interested in his methods. I’m not smart enough to know who would do the best job as president. There are a lot of capable people in the game.
Scott
Donald Trump Breaks Lindsey Graham Like a Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PQOP6eax8
Looked him up. He’s the cartoonist that does Dilbert.
Trump (D-NY) is a demagogue and speaks is broad generalizations. In a meeting with Democrat operatives looking to throw the election to their party a careful analysis was made of the most volatile members of the TEA Party movement. The GOPe was bushwhacked by TEA Party, but the Democrats always worried about the TEA Party. So they moved first.
What they found about the most Volatile TEA Partiers (and that’s what they called them) they had four push button issues all revolving around a 1950s nostalgia for American ‘greatness’. They are:
1. Immigration in general and specifically illegal immigration.
2. Red China and the ‘trade deficit’.
3. The military and specifically veterans with the VA and honoring them as a backdrop.
4. The coastal elites and their disdain for conservative values across a bevy of issues.
The Volatiles were looking for a brash champion to carry their cause forward. They want fighters, bombasts who take on the media and break through with tough words never backing down.
Thus was born the campaign of Trump (D-NY). Note bene that he hits on each of those issues with vague platitudes and is heroic in nature, brash to the point of tendentiousness and aggressive. Polling showed a candidate like that would peel off about 12-22% of the GOP electorate during the Primaries. More than enough even at the low end to kill off the most electable conservative candidates.
Scott Adams gets it, hopefully conservatives will too.
Actually a pretty interesting piece, despite the off putting into.
I say no to Mark Cuban. He is a bigger jerk than what people believe of Trump. This is an interesting article and one which gave me insight into Trump’s deal making. This is going to be an interesting election cycle, that’s for sure. I’m not so certain that even if Hillary gets the nomination, it will be a close race.
Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks...
How come the Left loves Trump (D-NY) so much?
Did you really listen to the whole thing?
Just where is your proof to back up these outrageous claims?
No, Cenk’s a Tokyo Rose and I never find him enlightening. Don’t listen to the Left ever. They don’t have anything to say. I don’t find enemy propaganda insightful.
“........keeps repeating it because repetition is persuasion too.”......
Trump uses the method that the Clinton’s invented. Throw crap against the wall enough times, sooner or later it will stick. Definitely a Clinton strategy.
Are you at all familiar with Trump (D-NY)? PS I love your feigned outrage.
“Trump’s genius in using “anchors,” and the suggestion of Mark Cuban for vice president is an interesting one.”......
Mark Cuban? Just what we need, another odumbo man.
Speaking of Cuban, “he eventually voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election.”...... read his biography.
Couldn’t agree more.
Besides, at this point the only ones on the actual Left applauding Trump either are convinced that he is a clown damaging the GOP—or are whistling past the graveyard.
The Democrats and independents that Trump is attracting are the Reagan Democrat types. Remember how the GOPe has always gone on about the need to reach out to those voters? Now the GOP has someone actually effective on that count and suddenly the GOPe feels compelled to pull out the conservative litmus test they always hate when it is used on them.
yeah, there is validity in this piece....and in case any Trump folks harrumph...this piece is on balance very positive.
If you had actually listened to it, you wouldn’t have made an ignorant ass of yourself by claiming Uygur loves Trump.
You mean those targeted by the Republican establishment?
Exactly. Cuban is a guy who stood in front of a speeding money train and got hit. He’s no smarter than the average FReeper. I cried the night Obama was elected. He’s a Cook County Democrat and I’d never trust the judgment of anyone who voted for Obama.
That’s why Trump (D-NY) speaks in vague platitudes about “Making America GREAT again!”
Cruz, Walker or whoever the candidate is (and I pray it’s not Jeb) needs those Reagan Democrats to win. Trump (D-NY) is a tool to stop that and elect Clinton. I pray they wake up and see him for the fake he is before it’s too late.
So is it your belief that Trump is in it just to build a following on the right, then purposely or expectedly lose the nomination so that he can set up a third party and peel off enough votes from the right to get Hillary into office?
Is it your belief that this entire run is being done in cahoots with the Clintons?
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