Trump isn’t playing 3D chess because he doesn’t have to

What is up with Donald Trump calling for an investigation into voter fraud? He won, didn’t he?

The favored narrative within the Trump-hostile media is that he is thin-skinned and bothered at not winning the popular vote. I don’t think so, for a couple of reasons that should be obvious. One, thin-skin and success don’t go together well. Say what you will about daddy’s money, Donald didn’t inherit a brand. And two, the electoral strategy he won the presidency by all but guaranteed a popular loss. It’s crazy to be upset that your plan worked perfectly. So, if you think Trump is a lunatic, you may as well stop reading now.


So what is going on? It’s highly unusual for any winner to question the process that led to his win. But Trump is an unusual president. Just look at how active he’s been in his first week! More to the point, look at what he’s working on. He’s tackling a lot of issues that voters on the right have been begging to have addressed for decades! Federal hiring, abortion, oil production, regulations, the EPA, sanctuary cities, the Mexican border, not to mention cabinet appointments virtually designed to stick thumbs in the eyes of every Democrat. From this perspective, it’s easy to see that Trump is pursuing voter fraud because the people who voted for him want to pursue voter fraud. Easy peasy!

But what does this have to do with 3D, or even 4D chess? Well, nothing, since Trump isn’t playing it. But he is outsmarting his media critics. Or rather, they are under-smarting him. They don’t understand what Trump is doing and they’ve dismissed his supporters entirely, so they have to put what’s happening within their own frame of reference. Even though he won, his critics still see him as a sore loser, a whiner and a fraud. And Trump is more than happy to indulge their confirmation bias.

Trump’s unsubstantiated claim about 5 million illegal immigrant votes is tailor made for the “alternative facts” narrative. It’s plucked from thin air, so it’s not immediately falsifiable even if experts refute it. At the same time, it threatens to undermine another narrative the media has latched onto, that Trump is deeply unpopular. That’s probably the case, considering coastal opposition to him, but without any hard data, who knows? The press may smugly laugh it off, but their continued focus on it belies their insecurity.


Meanwhile, Trump is destroying the news cycle by creating headlines faster than the press can report them, much less spin them. This also keeps the press myopically on the lookout for crisis, corruption and scandal, since they can’t hope to keep up with Trump.  That’s not to mention how adrift the media is, having pinned their hopes on a Hillary victory and ensuing temper tantrum from Trump. They are eager for a distraction, desperate for a lifeline. They unwittingly grab at the first one that is thrown their way, which just happens to come from the man they despise. 

Comments

  1. PatriotJanuary 26, 2017 at 2:01 AM

    Tryanmax.....I believe you got it right here. "He’s tackling a lot of issues that voters on the right have been begging to have addressed for decades! Federal hiring, abortion, oil production, regulations, the EPA, sanctuary cities, the Mexican border, not to mention cabinet appointments virtually designed to stick thumbs in the eyes of every Democrat. From this perspective, it’s easy to see that Trump is pursuing voter fraud because the people who voted for him want to pursue voter fraud. Easy peasy!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. tryanmaxJanuary 26, 2017 at 6:18 AM

    Patriot, thanks for swinging by! I really do think Trump's agenda is fairly straightforward and predictable to anyone who isn't blinded by rage and fear.

    ReplyDelete

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