What Is Donald Trump Really Selling?

Heh.
Yeah. But so many folks believe him; he must be right.
No?

His message is pretty simple to understand.

His slogan is "Make America Great Again". This is a pretty standard nationalist message; the country should be great and has somehow lost it's way and he is the one to get it back on track.

He's trying to sell power, glitterbag! Only problem is, his power games are displayed in little vindictive rants about people who have done him wrong. He's incredibly thin skinned and the twitter war against Megan Kelly was sheer embarrassing and he seems to have no filter that connects his brain to his mouth. Any reporter remarking the slightest negativity towards Trump will be on his radar - just as he told one of them "you are a nasty guy, very nasty guy". That poor guy had just asked questions Trump didn't like.

Trump is pathological - that's it in a nutshell !

I cannot imagine him as president. Remember when Bush acted against all advisors and the entire world telling him to not start a war in Iraq? Bush let his emotions overtake his brain, if there ever was one. He nearly ruined and bankrupted us . Now imagine Trump being his usual self: vindictive and irresponsibly seeking revenge on any foreign diplomat who dared to criticize him? Can you imagine a G7 meeting with him? He'd be far worse than any Berlusconi ever was.

True, and here I'd thought Berlusconi the top fool of our time. But Berlusconi is cleverer/smarter.

I can imagine him winning the presidency, on a day when I might have to start walking south, past where he could build a wall to protect me from incipient U.S. chaos.

I exaggerate - I would stay and take part in protests of various sorts, but I'm probably right about chaos occurring.

Even he doesn't know. He's making it up as he goes.

Picture him delivering a State of the Union, or a speech to the Naval Academy midshipmen? How much humiliation can the American people absorb? I am not looking forward to a future with that clown in the White House. I am absolutely stunned it's gotten this far, but a sad suspicious part of me always dreaded that something like this could happen. What I really don't get is why anyone can view him as anything less than repulsive. Then again, Jerry Springer is celebrating his 25th year on the air.

Scott Adams, the guy who created the Dilbert comic strip, was on Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday night. His theory (he has been studying the art of persuasion for decades) is that Trump is expert in the art of persuasion and that he has a knack for connecting emotionally with people without ever troubling himself with facts or truth. He was saying that Trumps success has nothing to do with traditional notions of what makes for successful politics like consistency and a track record. Trump's success is in branding others (crooked Hillary, Commie Bernie, Low-Energy Bush, etc.) saying the exact right emotionally charged thing to dominate the news cycles constantly, and never troubling himself with complicated issues any more than he has to to get the loudest applause.

The scariest thing he said? He said he predicted last year that Trump would take the GOP nomination easily... AND he is now predicting Trump will win the general in a landslide. This wasn't the Rovian wishful thinking of a wild-eyed rightie. This came from an avowed leftwing liberal.

I never marched, was always working working. But once I was firm owner (so called), I put on my black travel suit, the poor well worn thing but it looked like new given the created fibers, and stood with the Women in Black. Not to brag, that was comfortable in that community. Truckers honked yes at us and some didn't. Some fists. No violence.

Please say it's not so. I would rather Hillary be a President from a Jail cell (not really going to happen) than Trump anywhere near the WH.

I'm really serious when I say we have something to be afraid of. This isn't fear mongering, as Lash and Edgar want to call it, whenever anyone warns of Trump. It has nothing to do with trying to lure Bernie voters. I'm just saying it is a grave mistake in judgement to underestimate this guys chances of winning (a mistake of which I've been guilty), or the damage he could do from the office of president.

Do you think Bernie Sanders promises are any less outlandish? I have been claiming from the start that after 30 years in congress Bernie has to know his promises are bogus. It would take a liberal democratic congress to pass even one of his proposals. Sorry but Bernie is just as big a liar as Trump.

I consider Bernie seriously and not bogus.
I don't think he is electable.

He is serious, but a jerk imo.

I don't know all the reasons you think Bernie is a jerk.
I have somewhat agreed with him, including re education, strongly.

We can make a failed plane for a trillion dollars? Trillion not an exaggeration. We can pay for some schools for people who are sans access.

I saw the same show, snood. It was absolutely frightening. If anyone else here on A2K has HBO, you can call it back up on Demand. That jerk, Root who was on Fri. night was another frightening example of bluster trying to pass hateful innuendo off as fact. Scott Adams outlined in clear terms what has only been fuzzy notions floating around in my head. Trump uses many dodges to avoid being direct, he's so incredibly skilled most folks are willing to let it pass because he is so odious to deal with its a relief to get away from him. To date he is just too slippery.

I think Elizabeth Warren and believe it or not - Hillary herself will have more luck shutting him up (or at least fighting him more effectively)after all the distractions stop.

And, don't forget that guy Obama - I think he might be an effective weapon against the Trump garbage.

I find him to be self righteous and condemning and most of all judgmental, it is very off putting for me which is why I can't listen to him even though I agree with having at some point down the future, free universal health care and free education for community college or vocational tech schools and such like.

The problem with many people's analysis, in my opinion, is that they make Trump out as a great manipulator of people's logical thinking. I would not underestimate the masses that voted for Trump. There is an old expression called, "spite work." It has a more visceral meaning in Russian Yiddish, but perhaps, some/many of those that voted for him are doing it out of spite, for having seen their vision of America trampled on during the last eight years. In effect the message might be, payback is a bitch when one messes with the majority?