He's certainly not that stupid if he managed to convince a significant portion of the population of the US that he's a genius deal-maker, 4D chess, high-IQ, big-brain wonder miracle worker.

The things he says and does are irrational to the point of comedy...

Populism does take a certain type of talent.

It takes a lot of conviction.

And it does take the "right" ideas to resonate with the public in a certain manner.

no, Vlad's right. He's a genius at marketing and branding. But his narcissm and silver spoon fucc boi-ness blinds him to how much of a retard he is with everything else.

Granted, he's had a team to help him throughout, but he's the central figure in this entire circus for a reason.

He's bulldozed his way through life with an army of lawyers just to take. Not to create wealth or contribute to the economy, he wants a shitty dept ridden empire because it's big with his name everywhere.

Nah idk about the whole genius 4D chess stuff. Maybe there are glimpses of it, somewhere, but being a loud abnoxious "bigger than life" personality takes neither genius, nor even talent when done as tastelessly as Donald Trump.

No, Cosby, I don't believe he plays 4D chess either.

His bullshit is transparent.

Interviews with him when he was younger are very interesting

What I am saying is that there's talent into convincing people that he does.

It really seems like he's losing his mind

Compared to when he was in his 40s, yeah.

He did seem to be bright back then.

If you do 200 dumb things a week, that shits up the presses and prevents wider attention on what is actually happening policy wise. That at the very least he understands well.

I suppose you're right that building the brand he did (even with all the help, "small loans", and unethical - if not illegal - business practices) must have taken some kind of effort and skill...

He's the the heir to a multigeneration white collar crime family. They love exploiting the American tax system.

<:honk:583238347124637707>

His father did it before him.

GG @Vlad, you just advanced to level 17!

WHy wouldn't he?

YEAH, 17, LADS!

LET'S GO!

It's not that I support Trump in his behaviour in any way, shape or form, Cosby.

I just recognize that he does have the grand ability to gather masses around his ideas.

And that's critical for a populist.

But he's not the source of the problem, but the natural consequence of our culture. Sensationalism and controversy is rewarded, being an asshole for its own shake is endearing to enough of the populace, and our checks and balances have no teeth at all.

Yeah, I agree.

There's an entire establishment that allowed Trump to "become".

Starting from the generally corrupted GOP, moving through the Electoral College and ending up with the two-party system in the US.

double edge of an otherwise efficient system that any idiot can function in. That's why people love coming to live it in america, everything makes sense.

Vlad, that phenom wasn't reallly trump alone remember

you had bannon and all those guys in there doing so much of that strategy early on. they are all gone now so trumps' true colors are coming out more

watching that bannon piece it's clear to see he had a real handle on so many moving parts of not just the campaign, but the white house situation in general, until one-by-one those first-in guys were departing(or getting fired)

It was pretty much Bannon and Manafort doing campaign strategy while Trump played golf.

he was around, miller, sessions

bannon was on a talk show yesterday, going to listen to that, he said some interestin gthings i saw quoted in rolling stone

fucking bannon called goldman and wall street the IR arm of the CCP, ouch

Trump was a great president