Is Donald Trump Dumb…Like A Fox?
By David Oates
My first thought is…maybe.
Here’s why. “The Donald” is really going out of his way to make a Grade A USDA Prime Jackass of himself, and he’s doing a marvelous job at it. As I was reading the news reports, watching the videos and following the tweets, I kept thinking to myself that it’s as if Trump’s going out of his way to be a complete jerk.
And then my marketing training kicked in — maybe that’s his whole point.
Look I get it. Trump’s lost a ton of media partners and sponsors. Everyone under the sun, short of his family, are seemingly jumping off the ship faster his hair dye can wash away any semblance of gray. Some reports put the price tag for Trump’s incessant and vitriolic ramblings at more than $78 million. I’ll admit that’s real money, but here’s the thing. The Donald is already a gazillionaire by any account — his or others. The only thing fueling his drive is a need to stoke his personal brand and gargantuan ego more so than what’s done for any camp fire on this planet.
So if we consider that fame and notoriety are his only quests, Trump is going about it in the best way he knows how: by positioning himself as one ginormous knucklehead that incenses many and endears a select few. Either way, everyone’s tuning in, his brand is back on top and he’s tops in the GOP Presidential polls, at least for now. And maybe at the end of the day, that’s all he really wanted out of this promotional stunt.
What’s more, we’ve seen this act from The Donald before; several times over as a matter of fact. But the act is like a good sitcom. Even after it’s long over, you can always find it coming back as a rerun on some channel. So let’s all relax and watch this marketing campaign run it’s course. I think it will be done by Halloween. How appropo.
David Oates is president of Stalwart Communications and a 20-year marketing and public relations veteran whose clients include agency, corporate and government organizations. This article is reprinted from The Times of San Diego which, along with The Moderate Voice, is a member of the San Diego Online News Association.