be interesting

This is probably the number-one takeaway from the whole political affair. We live in the age of Entertainment. Trump has been interesting from the get-go. In the 2016 primaries, he was amusing when he talked of Marco Rubio sweating like a pig, and he shook a water bottle to demonstrate. In 2016, he was cruelly entertaining when he called Jeb Bush “low energy.”

If you can be entertaining without being cruel, that’s better. Everyone loves entertainment, but many people are turned off by incipient cruelty. But if you can’t be entertaining at all, you’re sunk. Kamala Harris was boring, and she couldn’t hold the camera’s focus. Her followers followed her because she was a saint on the calculus of left-wing morality. Trump is immoral, but the camera can follow him.

don’t give up

If President Biden had been the one indicted on 4 major criminal charges — and convicted on one, a felony — he would have surely given up. If Trump had given up, he never would have become President a second time, and he might be looking at jail time. But Trump has a backbone of steel. Say what you will about the man, he’s strong and sustains himself through crisis periods. Not only will having a backbone save your future prospects, it will win the respect of voters. Nobody likes a loser, a brownnosing suck-up, or a quitter. If you get shot and cry out “Fight! Fight!” that wins you props even if no one likes your politics.

defend your constituency

Abortion is popular with women, but deeply unpopular with conservatives. Trump risked alienating his female supporters by backing restricted abortion access — what are called the states’ right to decide. But evangelical voters turn out to vote. For the first time since Roe v. Wade, they had hope — and this hope was given by a man who cheated on his wife with a porn star, who treats women like dirt (and they seem to like it) and whose motto in life is “incorporate — you can always shed the corporation and lose the debt.”

Tariffs are unpopular with economists and some right-wingers, but Trump made it a plank of his electoral and presidential program. In the burnt-out husks of the Rust Belt, there is nothing more popular than throwing up a wall of steel to block imports. Just as Trump risked alienating women, he risked alienating the elites who profit from globalization, but who’s president now?

enjoy life

Trump must have suffered immensely from the twists and turns fate (and the Democrats) have spun against him, many-edged dodecahedrons of advancing destruction coming at him from every side. As he fended off these advances, he must have taken refuge in movies, food, sex and good conversation with allies and friends. More than a sound diet, more than exercise, having a good time in life prepares you for a long one. And it is the surest remedy for the blues that accompany a public life.

Other public figures hide out in their homes, taking refuge from the paparazzi. Not Trump. He welcomes publicity, thrives on it. He flips the bird to reporters, calling them “nasty” and refusing to answer their questions, but there’s no question he wants the cameras on him. What another man would find intolerable, he derives enjoyment and invigorated life from.

know who your friends are

Despite everything, Fox News has remained Trump’s supporter. Rupert Murdoch may have a bad word to say about Trump in private, but the Trumpster has stolen the Republican standard and made it his own. And Fox News is congenitally predisposed to hate liberals and back whoever has the power among the Right. That’s Trump, for now.

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan — both media gods in their spheres — backed Trump, and they weren’t politician-types. Plenty of politicians, starting with Mitt Romney and going back to Cheney, have turned on The Donald, but the non-politician-types stuck with him. Lesson: you can’t trust a snake in a suit who’s running for office, but you can rely on certain private citizens. The lesson stuck. Good for you, Mr. Trump.

conclusion

Trump’s political instincts don’t need a brushing-up, they’re fine. He got unlucky with the Covid thing back in 2020 and lost to Biden because of it. People tar you by association with bad events. Just as it was Biden’s turn to get tarred when inflation raged. It wasn’t his fault, but who cares about proper culpability when the nuclear missiles of fate are falling on your head?

The number-one takeaway from the Trump conquests in the political arena is be yourself if you’re cool, and don’t be a politician. Politicians are lower than shit, but the people still want a champion.