“Politicians usually try to win voters by matching policies to preferences. Trump goes somewhere deeper. For people despairing about the country’s direction, he offers hope; for those who feel disrespected, validation; for those who feel uncertain, clarity.”
Excerpt from: “The Four Types of Trump Supporter” by Daniel Yudkin & Stephen Hawkins | The Atlantic
He’s slowly built his power over time by presenting himself as the singular figure who can be the builder, redeemer, blasphemer, and grand narrator to MAGA hardliners, anti-woke conservatives, mainstream Republicans, and the reluctant right through:
- Identity-first Politics: belonging matters more than policy
- Narrative Compression: complex problems and change are reduced to emotional pleas and stories
- Transgressive Credibility: breaking norms signals authenticity
- Selective Ambiguity: different audiences hear what they want
- Emotional Substitution: offers certainty, dominance, or validation to people feeling betrayal or loss
- Attention Economics: master of the art of living rent-free in everyone’s mind
Attempts to attack him with logic or morality rarely land, while targeting the bogus status signals he actually cares about (his image as a winner, literal and figurative awards, dealmaking, role in family, admiration of other powerful people, crowds and ratings, and the usual typical vanity markers like golf, taste, luxury, health, and prowess) should hit closer to home and slowly erode his influence.
Stories about squandered advantage, incompetence, blindly following other people’s ideas, wasted effort, or the gradual diminishing influence itself can all quietly question his strength and dominance. Repeated consistently, they chip away at the persona and shrink the myth without feeding a cartoonish supervillain narrative.
Outrage alone won’t work, we must also lower his perceived rank in the hierarchy he built. While he clearly doesn’t operate under the same norms of shame, embarrassment, or logical consistency, he’s still human and only one person (still make a list, the accomplices and sycophants will still have to face justice).
That project seems largely unopposed by politicians and the media during this clear slide into fascism, with the small consolation that there’s no obvious heir to his particular crown of shit.
(Sidenote, I went to snag the trumpliebury.com domain and it was registered last month 🤷🏻‍♂️)