The Trump Narrative

This essay will discuss the narrative used by Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States. Using the authoritative father-figure narrative, President Trump has become one of the most influential Presidents of our time, capturing the minds of an extremely loyal base of followers, without having any political experience or grounded policy initiatives. An unlikely Presidency that has been riddled with controversy and questionable behavior, the President continues to enjoy solid loyalty from his supporters through cognitive biases (Gelfand & Denison, 2019).

The use of the authoritative father-figure narrative has been effective in the United States of America because of the deeply rooted notion of family value amongst its citizens. As Lakoff (White, 2020) states, our country is naturally drawn to family values as can be seen in how we frame our ancestry, our founding fathers during the birth of our nation, our sons and daughters of the many wars that we have fought, our protection through homeland security (Lakoff, 2017). This notion of personal responsibility of one’s family as a father has resonated, especially with white male conservatives that view their family role as the protector and provider. This runs counter to the more liberal notion of social responsibility where it takes a village to support one another.

President Trump harnesses this subconscious view in many ways. He portrays himself as tough and protective. He will frame even the most complex of situations in a way that is broken down into its simple denomination. We are good, they are bad. The juvenile insults towards his opponents clearly gets that message across. The moral hierarchy as described by Lakoff (2016) places the protective father (Trump) as the patriarch of his family (Trump supporters) to protect them from the villains that are out to hurt us.

This ability to grasp the social understanding of others (cognitive states) and alter one’s behavior to appeal to those underlying states of others (social decision-making) is a key reason for the rise of Trumpism, in my opinion. (Arioli et al., 2018). DeLamater et al. (2014) discuss the roles of schemas that individuals use in their decision-making process. The person schema is the cognitive structure that describe the personality of others. Role schema are the perceived attributes that one could perceive as typical of persons within a certain role. President Trump has transformed both schemas, using repetition and framing within the family structure to be perceived as many as the savior of a fallen nation – determined to make it great again. He has also managed to alter self-schemas and group schemas to accentuate the perceived threats and ultimate rise to power through the use of many cognitive and emotional biases such as confirmation bias (tapping into the deep rooted concerns of others and providing them a voice), availability bias (over-simplifying the issues at hand), and focus-of-attention bias (overstating the actual threats to our society).

This ability to activate the inner neural network within others is quite skillful. There are, however, consequences to these actions. Given our nations past struggles with intolerance, bigotry, and racism, there still exists these feelings in many, if even on a subconscious level. An unfortunate side effect of the Trumpism movement is the unlocking of these distorted views and an increasingly public acceptance of it by many in our country, in my opinion. This causes increased turmoil and strive within the political arena and throughout our population as many struggle to deal with an event that disrupts our own personal narratives.

Joseph S. Kalinowski, CFA

References

Arioli, M., Crespi, C., & Canessa, N. (2018). Social Cognition through the Lens of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience. BioMed Research International, 2018,

DeLamater, J., Myers, D., & Collett, J. (2014). Social psychology (Eighth ed.) New York, NY: Westview Press.

Gelfand, M., &; Denison, E. (2019, September 16). Opinion: The science behind how Trump turns our unfounded fears into a potent political weapon. Retrieved September 04, 2020, from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-13/science-trump-fears-political-weapon

Lakoff, G. (2017, November 16). No One Knows Why Trump Is Winning. Here's What Cognitive Science Says. Retrieved September 04, 2020, from https://evonomics.com/lakoff-no-one-knows-why-trump-is-winning/

Lakoff, G. (2009). The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Lakoff, G. (2016, August 19). Understanding Trump. Retrieved September 04, 2020, from https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/

White, D. (2020, May 11). Berkeley author George Lakoff says, 'Don't underestimate Trump'. Retrieved September 04, 2020, from https://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/05/02/berkeley-author-george-lakoff-says-dont-underestimate-trump