, 8 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
My meta theory on Trump is still that he never really updated his playbook/personality/strategy from the GOP primary.

It worked well enough to barely win a general election against HRC, but it hurt him in the midterms and makes him unpopular now.

And imo that explains a lot
Like the strategy is

Be super restrictionist on immigration

Be loudly "politically incorrect" on tons of stuff

Dominate media coverage all the time, even if it means doubling down on your negative qualities

Outsource issues you don't care about to existing GOP politicians
And that was good enough to a) give him a plurality in the GOP primary and b) help keep the already-fractured non-Trump wing of the GOP from consolidating --> win the nom

Then in the general he didn't change much & had the good luck of running against HRC, who was also unpopular
And now we are here

Where Trump actually has to do policy stuff, doesn't want to, still thinks dominating media in crazy ways all the time is great and outsources stuff he doesn't care about to McConnell

The approval rating + 2018 House results show it's not a good strategy
And I don't have a window into Trump's mind, but I'm guessing the 2016 primary + his personality informs him now

Many People Said he wouldn't win the 2016 primary, but he won anyways. So now when Many People Are Saying he's unpopular, he might be just ignoring it
^ that is speculative, and like I said I don't have a window into his mind. And maybe parts of this are wrong

But I do think there's something to the overall idea here
one response I'm getting is that it's not a strategy and Trump is just being himself

I sorta agree? For some pols, there's not a bright line btwn strategy and persona. Like if you do politics, what you're doing is by definition a strategy, even if it happens to resemble you IRL
also getting people saying Trump can't change and he is who he is. I think that's a reasonable view given what we've seen over the last four-ish years

would only tweak slightly & say that Trump "probably won't" change b/c again I don't know him personally --> hard to say can't
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to David Byler
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!