Back in October, Kellyanne Conway made some minor news by opening up about the difficulties of dealing with her boss, and how she’d learned to solve them:
That the news was minor–that few seemed to think it was any sort of problem that the GOP candidate had to be handled the way a parent handles a toddler–was disturbing in itself. More disturbing: the reporting on how Steve Bannon openly and overtly guides Trump:
David Fahrenthold, co-author of that piece, appeared on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show November 16. They discussed clips of interviews between Trump and Bannon in which it’s obvious that Bannon is pulling Trump’s strings:
Most famously, perhaps, is the hold Vladimir Putin got on Trump by calling him something Trump chose to believe was “brilliant” and “a genius.” In fact,
The point is that the hungry-for-praise Trump chose to misinterpret Putin and that led him to praise the Russian leader over and over again. One little not-quite-complement was all it took to turn Trump into a fanboy. One of many examples:
… So, how easy IS it to manipulate Trump? Will the many people who will have his ear—Bannon, Jared Kushner, Pence, Vladimir Putin—all be pulling in the same direction? Or will one induce Trump to do the opposite of what another of the insiders has been stimulating Trump to do?
What about others, not in the inner circle but gifted at handling unstable personalities? What might they be able to imprint on Trump without his knowledge? Many CEOs and many world leaders are where they are today because they can read their adversaries and sway them without their conscious knowledge. Half an hour with Trump, and some of these people will be able to get him to agree to anything…
Add to this that Obama is apparently planning on doing some “hand holding” and seemingly has already guided Trump somewhat on the issue of the ACA, and possibly on immigration.
Yes, you’re right: there was a certain amount of surprise when Trump, after meeting with Obama, rolled back from his longtime ‘repeal Obamacare’ position to the extent of promising to keep some Obamacare features.
All it took, perhaps, was some judicious flattery from Obama.
That would have an overall good result. But what about other meetings with other men who happen to be good at flattering Trump? What kind of results might we see?
Obviously we could see some terrible results considering the company he keeps. No doubt they are actively working to keep him from consulting with Obama any further.
Given that Trump seems to listen to and respond off the last person he talked to, we will likely see a very chaotic first term. His campaign was reportedly pretty chaotic
I like to think that that Obama, Warren, and Sanders will play him like a violin, but it’s much more likely that it will be Pence, Republican legislators, and corporate lobbyists (and possibly Putin) who will have his ear.
Then again, he is obviously concerned about how he’s perceived by the public. Maybe there’s some way that the majority (who voted for Clinton) can use that.
As opposed to the smooth-running, calculated, military precision of the operation that got his opponent elected.
Anyway, I’ve learnt on this site that his twin problems are:
He doesn’t listen to anyone, and no-one can influence him.
Different people have different opinions. Some here feel that he’s easily swayed. Some don’t. No public website as active as this one is going to consist of a monolithic view on anything unless it actively censors.
Myself, I think how easily he’s swayed depends on the subject, his level of knowledge on that subject, the person he’s talking to, and even his mood that day. This is pretty much true of anyone, but it does seem like he may be more susceptible than most on at least some things. But I don’t know the man so that’s my opinion and you can take it for what it’s worth.
It could be that he is more easily swayed in strategy than tactics and demeanor. That he isn’t sure from day to day whether to gut the ACA or keep most of it, but he knows how he will accomplish it – speaking from the cuff, midnight tweeting, and denigrating anyone in his way, and he can’t be counseled out of those methods.
He’s easy to sway in terms of things like policy, because he doesn’t know policy and has few, if any, firm principles regarding what government should or shouldn’t do (apart from making it easier for him to put his name on things and make money). I think he’s much harder to sway in terms of his own behavior, and it took months and months of bruising self-inflicted damage during the campaign before he could finally be persuaded to stop Twitter-feuding every five minutes.
Yeah; he’s like any toddler: He’s gonna do what he wants to do! But if someone offers him a cookie, that will distract him enough to get him to do what the cookie-offerer wants.
With Trump, the ‘cookie’ is praise and flattery. I doubt that it’s possible to go overboard with the flattery; my guess is that Bannon lays it on with a trowel, as the saying goes. Trump will never catch on that he’s being handled.
Kellyanne Conway is making news today for her use of a technique for handling Trump that she’d described (in the article linked in the OP) as using media to get his attention. The situation this time appears to be that Trump is leaning toward naming Mitt Romney as Secretary of State, and Conway want media buzz to persuade Trump away from his inclination:
Apparently talking to Trump is not effective in getting him to make a change. But if there are a lot of news stories about the topic his handlers want him to change direction on, he will do so.
This is hilarious. The cognitive dissonance of the left is just amazing to watch. Let’s see:
As was obvious to anyone with a room temperature IQ, the media HATED trump. They gave up even the pretense of fairness. Yet Trump manipulated them into what has been estimated as $2 BILLION dollars worth of free coverage.
Trump was up against the biggest, richest, political machine the world has ever seen in the Clintons, and yet he manipulated them into saying and doing things that a political novice would know better than to do (deplorables, anyone?)
The entire GOP establishment wanted to see him go away, and now Mitt Romney is visiting Trump Tower to kiss the ring.
This is someone you think is easily manipulated? I have news for you. He’s not the easily distracted toddler here. I’m not a Trump fan by any means, but the dismissal and underestimation of him is EXACTLY why he is President-elect. This kind of thinking is why you lost, and why you will never understand the true reason why.
“Fair” coverage of Trump would have been a whole lot worse than it was. The “media” didn’t hate Trump, the only thing they love is ratings and Trump brought that in spades. He didn’t “manipulate” anyone, all the stupid shit he said was real and heartfelt.
Everyone has their favorite 'this is when I realized Trump wasn’t too bright’ moment; I guess mine was when he latched onto The Element of Surprise as a “brilliant” military move that, he seemed to believe, no one but him had ever thought of. He used the claim again and again:
Sherrerd, your quotes about Trump are very interesting but we live in the Fake News era now. How do we even know that Clint Watts or George Little are even who you say they are?
Even CNN is showing child-porn these days and businessinsider.com is mock.red_is_nisseni_sub spelled backwards. Can you get a cite from a better source? The You Are The Resistance Youtube channel perhaps, or rt.com? Sean Hannity’s show?