Thinking about how Donald Trump got to where he now sits ... the Oval Office. He began as a preppy kid with some of dad’s money and, bringing more than his fair share of IQ points to the task, became a successful New York City developer.
As such he palled around with show biz folk and observed they were charismatic but none too smart. So he got involved in figuring out what kinds of stories sell, first with the faux-athletic professional wrestling circuit and beauty pageants, then with ‘reality’ TV, all of which utilize soap opera-style invented story lines.
Along the way interviewers reported his peculiar insistence on watching a replay of his just-concluded interview performance with the sound turned off. He appears to have been studying his presentation of self, with the aim of improving it.
I suspect that, contrary to popular opinion, Trump does very little that isn’t part of his carefully created and curated narrative line and persona. He imagined himself as president and created a story arc that took him there. Now he imagines himself reelected and we should see his current behavior as being in service of that goal.
Scott Adams’ master persuader ... at work.
