Chris Cillizza: Donald Trump’s Not Playing 3D Chess — Maybe Not Even Checkers

"In this video, Chris Cillizza explores a long-running debate about Donald Trump: Is he a master political strategist playing "3D chess," or is he simply improvising and reacting in the moment? Drawing from a recent Atlantic interview and Trump's own words in "The Art of the Deal," Cillizza argues that Trump operates without a long-term plan, instead reacting instinctively to media, public reaction, and his own impulses. Like a stand-up comedian testing material, Trump gauges what resonates and doubles down on it, making his presidency more about tactical day-to-day reactions than strategic foresight." 

Source:Chris Cillizza has 10 words for Donald J. Trump.

From Chris Cillizza

This is the part of "The Art of The Deal" that Chris Cilliza is talking about: 

"Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don’t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops.

 

There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or so of each day reading the morning newspapers. I usually arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There’s rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long.

 

It never stops, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point... 

From Penguin Random House

So "The Art of The Deal" came up during 1 of Karoline Levitt's "press conferences" 2 weeks ago. Safe bet she's never read the book either: 

"She never lets facts get in the way of whatever partisan argument that she's trying to make. 

I'm willing to bet that Karoline Leavitt has never read "The Art of The Deal" either. Or, she's just lying about that. Either 1 could definitely be true. It's easy to see why a businessman who went bankrupt 6-7 times, who is looking at a debt in New York State of 500-million-dollars because of how they did business in Manhattan, would try to run a federal government and national economy like this. To put it simply: President Trump doesn't know what the hell he's doing...

From The New Democrat

I don't completely disagree with what Chris Cilliza is arguing here. I guess I would just put it differently and risk sounding more humorous. I don't think Donald Trump plays chess or checkers. 

I'll tell you who Donald J. Trump reminds me of in how he operates and does business:

Cillizza and I are both Gen-Xers and we both remember the 1980s and 1990s fairly well. There was a popular ABC sitcom back then called Growing Pains. Kirk Cameron (who perhaps is famous for different reasons today) played Mike Seaver, the oldest child in Seaver family. His character was an immature, underachiever, born to be professional conman: 

You could catch Mike Seaver redhanded walking out of store with a truck load of unpaid for merchandise, on videotape  and he could lie his way out of that. He would say the truck is not his, someone stole his receipt, he would claim a casher ranged him up but now the cashier has either forgotten that, or is lying about not ringing him up in the first place. 

And 1 of Mike Seaver's favorite cons that he used to get people to do things for him, that they don't want to do, or wouldn't do for him voluntarily, would be tell his sister or brother: "Let's flip a coin to decide who does this". But Carol or Ben wouldn't know that Mike's coin is a one-sided coin and Mike always picks the correct side. It always comes up tails or heads. 

To make a long example and reference shorter: Donald Trump also plays one-sided coin as well... but he always picks the wrong side, which is why he screws up so badly. He's like the head football coach, whose team never even bothers to practice, let alone puts any game plan together: 

So no thought put into the costs of unilateral, across the board tariffs on everyone, (except Russia, of course) and the economy retracts 1st quarter 2025. 

President Trump talked about firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell a couple weeks ago, even though he legally can't fire Chairman Powell... the Stock Market suffers a huge loss that day and the President backtracks on that the following say. And then are many more examples like that. 

My point here is Donald Trump's off the cuff, make things up, take things as they come, strategy, works for him as an entertainer and reality TV star. But it didn't work for him as a businessman. How many 6 time bankrupt successful businessman do you know of, who has to rely on the tax code and all the credits and deductions in it, just so he can pay his bills are you aware of? And it's not working as President of the United States either. It didn't work the first time and he's now more unpopular than ever. 

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