Decoding Donald™
Trump’s Lesson for Communicators: Be Fast
November 8, 2018For all the plays that President Donald Trump runs it might be speed more than strategy that gives the president his unique political edge. Even when he’s been beaten. In the wake of a midterm thumping, Trump delivered another clinic in perception management and information warfare. By 8 a.m., he tweeted to House Democrats that […]
Trump’s Strategy Signature: Plays of the Annenberg Analysis
January 4, 2018The analysis published this week by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, “Disruption, Demonization, Deliverance, and North Destruction: The Rhetorical Signature of Donald J. Trump,” moves us closer to solving America’s most unusual president. As well, its descriptions of Donald Trump’s foremost persuasive characteristics — what the authors Prof. Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Doron […]
Jack’s Write: Media-Jamming is Trump’s Alpha Play
December 28, 2017Writing this week from his perch at Politico, Jack Shafer’s analysis of Donald Trump’s Fourth Estate feud is a perfect primer to the plays of this 45th presidency and the purpose of this blog: Crack the code of the unconventional POTUS and the games he plays with the press. Perhaps Jack’s been studying the Playmaker’s Taxonomy. […]
Plays to Impeach: Strategies That Will Doom The Donald
August 1, 2017As with the tides, political fortunes ebb and flow. They begin at the edges and work toward deep water. Consider the influence play of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), among the earliest to surface the “I” word. Her label, however hasty, is a nuisance meme in the mainstream. Of course she’d call for the president’s impeachment, most have tut-tutted. But now […]
Call Outs Never Prosper: WSJ and Coulter Whiff
July 19, 2017In this week of political posturing, two skirmishes stood out in the games of influence and strategy, each offering lessons in ad hominem attacks and the risks thereof. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Alarmed by the arc of Donald Trump’s presidency and his predilection for denial, journalism’s conservative icon thought it time to give PR advice to the PR […]