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Opinion | How the method in Donald Trump’s madness makes him a political genius

  • Forget the gaffes, Trump has the Republican Party solidly behind him and a fan club of world leaders, while keeping competitors such as China on the economic back foot. This is the work of a mindful genius

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Why you can trust SCMP
US President Donald Trump hugs the American flag at the Conservative Political Action Conference annual meeting near Washington on March 2. Photo: Reuters

Is US President Donald Trump, politically speaking, mindlessly mad or a mindful genius? It is a question I am often asked in different ways at my Sino-US relations book talks and lectures, and a question raised by many political pundits and commentators.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I confess that I agree with some of his policies and disagree with many – especially on climate change, immigration, and his brazen challenges to the rule of law, justice and justices.
As a political scientist and an active partisan in the US political scene locally, statewide and nationally – and having worked on the election campaigns of presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan – I am sensitive to and aware of how the political game is played, sold to and accepted, or not, by the voting public.
And the way that Trump won the US presidency makes him a mindful genius. That he did so accidentally, in the opinion of many, is irrelevant. Social media, millennials and the 2008 financial crisis came together in a perfect political storm to give America and the world The Donald, his new world disorder and his disruptive definition of democracy.

How did a media-savvy gamer of the media and political system, a brand-conscious New York property developer and master salesman outsmart the political professionals and pundits to win the Republican nomination and then the US presidency?

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