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I'm so glad to see this story about Trump's Trump University scam. I've been saying (most recently on @Honestly_Tara) that the Trump U scam was the biggest story of 2016 because it directly contradicted Trump's hero narrative & showed he was a con. washingtonpost.com/politics/spin-…
I write about it in my book, the Trump U play books were amazing. You can still buy Trump U crap on amazon--he's still making money off of this scam.

Here's a thread from when I was writing that chapter:
The takeaway from my story was about how Trump strategically used ad baculum (threats of force/intimidation) appeals when he needed them, then discarded them when he didn't. Not only is he a con, but he's also a con authoritarian. He used his followers' frustration as a wedge.
Trump isn't the hero his followers think he is, he is a con man.

Trump isn't the authoritarian tyrant* his opposition thinks he is either, he is a con man.

*BUT, he will be a tyrant, if he has to be. It's a strategy for him. He's America's authoritarian PT Barnum. Dangerous.
Anyway, that's the kind of thing I explain in my book. I hope it's useful!
Related to what I was saying about Trump being America's Authoritarian PT Barnum: "Welcome to the world of performative authoritarianism," @anneapplebaum: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
And credit for the "authoritarian PT Barnum" line goes to @JTiloveTX. I use it all the time, you should know he wrote it.
one other thing about this since folks are interested: Trump distracted us from focusing on this story with an ad hominem attack (attacking the person) on the judge's credibility & ad baculum threats (threats of force/intimidation) against reporters.
All "ad" fallacies are distraction techniques. The word "ad" is Latin for "to" and these fallacies are used to re-route our attention from the central issue of debate TO the person or threat.
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Jennifer Mercieca
@jenmercieca
I'm glad that people are thinking about this. Trump has shown a willingness to violate democratic norms about the election & the smooth transition in power. We take it for granted, but the first time the president's political party changed they called it a "revolution" & still do
I wrote about Trump's authoritarianism, conspiracy & his refusal to say if he'd accept the results of the election, the election would be rigged in my book. Here's a excerpt that covers a part of it, but I couldn't fit everything in one piece: theguardian.com/us-news/2020/j…
The key things here are: the language of conspiracy is "self sealing," meaning it cannot be pierced. Evidence isn't allowed to count against it.

And, Trump's followers believe that democracy is broken. It's more democratic to break the "phoney rules" than to follow them.
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Jennifer Mercieca
@jenmercieca
ICYM: Review | A deep dive into President Trump’s doublespeak and other rhetorical tricks washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-deep…
"Genius" is another way of saying "demagogic effectiveness." His demagoguery is effective, unfortunately. He's really good at using dangerous demagoguery to control the public sphere, attack his opposition, and consolidate his base.
Trump uses three strategies to ingratiate himself with his followers: ad populum, paralipsis & American exceptionalism.
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Jennifer Mercieca
@jenmercieca
"You are warriors" v "they are fake news" as his opener.

#AdPopulum #AdHominem

Also, told you he'd blame the media.
Anchoring to Lincoln (again) and pivoting to law & order.

Those are antithetical claims.
His Justices haven't really voted his way this week.
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