The Case For Donald Trump’s Genius
Or what you can learn from someone you don’t like
Donald Trump is a genius. No, really. Not exactly the way he would like or claims to be, but he still has some genius in him, or at least, someone in his entourage does.
Love him or hate him, you can learn something from Donald Trump.
The man may be completely incompetent and unqualified for his job, but no matter where you go, you can’t get away from the headlines about The Donald. Everything he does is like Christmas morning to the media. Everything’s a scandal, everything’s a faux-pas, and every gaff is better than the last.
People attack him and latch on to everything he does as an indictment of his competence and a sign that he’s in over his head.
But what if we saw it differently?
Because when you think about it, the man has done something no one in history has ever done. He came into a heavily entrenched political system as a complete outsider and took down two parties with power-of-god backing and billions of dollars behind them. Whether you hate or love him, he won the presidency under incredible circumstances.
How was he able to do this? Donald Trump intuitively knew something about the world that most people don’t understand. He understood the power of attention, and he understood the power of the media.
All Press Is Good Press
Say what you will about the commander in chief, he certainly knows how to command attention. It seems that Trump knows the power of the media. He knows that being the topic of discussion and gaining notoriety — especially when you’re the underdog, is of the highest importance.
This insight shows in his use of Cambridge Analytica, in his data-driven campaign strategy, and in looking as far back as the eighties when he would appear in interviews while working in the notoriously behind-the-scenes industry of real estate development. He’s a master at gaining the spotlight.
Whether he’s great, awful, criminal, or the second coming of Jesus, you can’t ignore the fact that he understood something that career politicians, the mass media, and the general American public didn’t. He saw a side of the US that no one else did. He saw the importance of appealing to the disenfranchised, angry right-wing, the people who saw things differently, the people who were fed up with the regular way things were done.
Trump knew that when appealing to his base, all press is good press. The way the media framed it didn’t matter. He commanded the attention. He was certainly a controversial figure, but his message still resonated with his base. The media didn’t realize they were doing his job for him. Whether it was labeled as a scandal or not, commanding 90% of the election air time worked in his favor, and he knew it.
The man may be a criminal, but he’s got an uncanny aptitude for understanding human nature. He’s not given enough credit in some areas, while given too much in others.
Attack
When gaining attention and notoriety, there’s usually one strategy that works above all the others: attacking the most public figure with the best reputation you can find and make a case against them. Create an enemy. It may be immoral and downright sociopathic, but the reality is that it works — and Donald Trump proved it in the world’s largest arena.
He had a vague idea to rally supporters around — “Make America great again” and anti-whoever else. This played into his view of the American people and he became their god. The people agreed with him and they easily latched onto the idea of being anti-something else.
Even before Trump ran for office he was attacking Barack Obama over the dubious issue of his birth certificate. This brought him attention, press coverage, talk show appearances, and oddly enough, many people seemed to agree with him.
During the election cycle, he famously came up with derogatory nicknames for all of his opponents. From wild Bill to the infamous Crooked Hillary, he rallied his supporters around a common enemy.
But before you can be anti-something else, you need a contingent that agrees with your controversial opinions. Remember, controversy is only controversy if there are people on both sides of the argument.
Polarity Is The Key
Sure, bad press is still press and attention. This is true. But the case of Donald Trump (and any public figure or company) is more nuanced than that. The true key is in polarity. It would not be a good idea to do something that can only be cast in one light. That’s boring. It’s important that there be a portion of the population that agree with you, however odd your view may be, as is the case with Trump.
The world is not black and white. There’s a huge grey area that the majority of the world operates in.
In fact, polarity can be made sufficient, and support gathered, simply by standing against something. Donald Trump is the perfect example of this. Much of the Republican establishment didn’t want to support him, but when it came down to it, they would rather support Trump than support Hilary (or God forbid, vote democrat).
Contrarian Is Cool
Sometimes, you can gain support simply by going against the grain. Donald Trump’s campaign saw something in the American people the Democrats and Republicans didn’t (or didn’t pay attention to). People were fed up with the establishment and were looking for an alternative figure. It didn’t matter so much that Donald Trump had never worked in public service. This was a good thing. Trump preached the need for change and people agreed with him. It just so happened that his candidacy was also the answer to the problem.
The feelings of discontent and wanting a new figure from outside the political world was echoed by many people, even those truly powerful who typically try to maintain the status quo, politically speaking. Figures such as Mark Cuban voiced the positives of a Trump presidency and stood behind him, even if just for a while.
You also see this all the time in the art and business worlds. Eccentric and different figures are often given positive attention and praised as going against the grain and offering something fresh. Different is exciting and interesting, the same old thing can be boring or even repulsive.
What You Can Learn
Great, but who wants to be like Trump? Even if you view this more as how-not-to do something guide, you can learn a few things from what Trump understood.
The world is not black and white. There’s a huge grey area that the majority of the world operates in. Trump making a “controversial” statement is objectively neither good nor bad. As Shakespeare would say, “Only thinking makes it so.” That’s the grey area — where so many people diverged in their thinking about something Trump did or said. And he capitalized on it.
You can use this in many ways, but the main takeaway is that we often shy away from controversy or being in the spotlight. Our ego wants to please everybody and be likable. As you’ve probably heard before, it’s impossible to make everyone happy. It’s better to find something you can stand behind and broadcast it to the world.
Remember: attention can be an asset, both good and bad.
Whether you love him or hate him, there is something to learn from Trump’s campaign. He understood human nature and leveraged it into holding the most powerful office in the free world. No small feat.
Is there more to Donald Trump than meets the eye? Or is he oblivious to his own “genius”?
Originally published at https://ridgepointmedia.com on November 13, 2019.
