President Trump is a Genius

The one thing the newest leader of the free world understands better than anything else is, the more heavily a person invests in a thing - be it real estate, a wager, or a political opinion - the harder they'll fight to justify their choice. For people of a certain mindset, the introduction of empirical evidence to the contrary will spur them to dig in and resist a change of heart with even greater fervor (see any active comment section anywhere for proof of that), and the more divided a contingent is kept the easier it will be to set various factions at one another's throats, thus not only allowing for the hegemony to exert greater control with less effort, but distracting from the actual agendas of the ascendancy.

By the time enough people get together and begin to wonder why they're fighting each other when they all want the same thing, there'll be little left with which to bring about an evolution (always preferable to a revolution). Those who are most convinced that an authoritarian leader intends to work for them will be the first to be thrown under the proverbial bus and the last to let go of their belief in the autocrat's loyalty to their cause.

President Trump has understood this peculiar human quirk better than most for a long time, given that it's the very mechanism by which he's convinced buyers that an apartment in one of his establishments, made of the same stuff as any other high-end building, is worth some margin more than a non-Trump-branded residence; by which he convinced those who rented rooms in his resorts and gambled in his casinos to keep putting money in the slots even though the house always wins, and convinced his now 'special advisor' to buy the corporation that owns them after declaring it bankrupt early in Mr. Trump's successful presidential run; and by which he convinced a large enough portion of the voting populace of the United States to propel him into the highest office in our country, arguably the most powerful position in the world, that he was 'their candidate'.

It should be noted that the four or six, depending upon who you ask, bankruptcies filed by President Trump's corporations allowed him to forego paying many of the same Americans - who helped build his establishments - for whom he claims to be a supporter, while protecting his own money and allowing him to claim losses that allowed him to pay fewer taxes.

It should also be noted that Mr. Icahn, because he holds no specific duties, isn't required to divest himself of any of his outside business interests, including Trump Entertainment Resorts. Mr. Icahn is serving as Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform.

Another example of this president's moxie is his ability to make his opposition underestimate him by running off at the fingertips via Twitter, speaking directly to his fan base with statements that run the gamut from immature to self-aggrandizing, while dashing off his signature - in today's example, flanked by multi-millionaire business leaders - on a variety of sweeping executive orders by which he bypasses congressional oversight, allowing him to act effectively as a dictator.

Yes, Mr. Trump's genius runs deep and wide. Are we ready to bow to his brilliance?