Julio Bonilla’s Reviews > Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter > Status Update

John Bolton was on the short-list for secretary of state. He was thoroughly qualified, Republican, and a Trump supporter. Many observers thought he would get the job. But he had two incompatibilities with the brand Trump was trying to build:

Forming a persuasion perspective, we can't ignore President Trump's famous haircut and what I assume was a fake tan of some sort. Early on in the race, both his hair and face registered in our minds as orange.
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... Attack on the individual—In this case, a highly respected veteran. I saw Trump's joke as a playful response and the type of thing he might say to his best friend. Californians saw a monster acting like a monster. Same world, different movies.

Clinton's health was a campaign question (thanks to me, in part). She needed help getting up and down stairs, and she once collapsed getting into her car. It was easy to imagine her posture as "crooked," and that gives you the visual persuasion.

The idea was to reinforce the idea that Trump was "ducking" (avoiding) showing his tax returns and whatever else he might want to avoid in the future. Knowing that politicians like to avoid unfavorable topics, this nickname had the potential....

Hypnosis is largely an observational skill. Half of the process involves looking for microchanges in the subject so you can determine whether or not the approach you are using is having the effect you want.

Persuasion is all about the tools and techniques of changing people's minds, with or without facts and reason. When I started writing favorable blog posts about Trump's persuasion talents, it felt like going to war alone.

Common sense tell you that solid walls are not the best solution for all types of terrain. In many locations, the most cost-effective solutions might include wire fences, or digital monitoring of various types, or something else. If Trump....

In more recent times. cognitive psychologists and physicists have discovered a lot of eye-opening stuff about the limits of human rationality. For example, Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, has....

President Trump‘s policy evolution was generally in the service of moving toward the political middle, as presidents generally do, creating haters on the right as well as the left. My point is that I wasn’t invested in Trump‘s stated policies because I assumed he would drift toward the acceptable middle once he was elected. 🇺🇸