The UX of Donald Trump

I try incredibly hard to avoid saying someone is an asshole without further explanation. The reason is that the adjective lacks any specifics. It doesn’t help you understand WHY. When Donald Trump speaks, I constantly want to scream at the screen, “Shut up! You are such a dick!” This is when I catch myself and say, “But Glen” (speaking to myself, yes, I do that) “What specifically do you disagree with? Why is he a jerk?”

The problem is that Donald Trump moves from topic to topic with lightning speed. He is like a comedian who is roasting someone, going from joke to joke, ridicule to ridicule so quickly that you have no time to examine the veracity of any single statement. With comedians it’s OK because you are only trying to get a laugh. With Trump, he is trying to be the chief executive of the United States of America. Truth matters, at least a little.

Years ago, Howard Dean was the “over the top, wild/exuberant” candidate for the democrats. Dean got alot of attention before imploding. Eventually, John Kerry was nominated. (The safe candidate) I think the same will happen in the GOP. Jeb Bush seems the most obvious candidate. However, if the GOP actually does nominate Trump, I think most middle of the road Americans will not be fans.

There will be two problems. The first is that bombastic personalities typically get old. It would be impossible for him to maintain this level of attitude for 428 more days without becoming tired. The American attention span for that sort of thing doesn’t last that many months. The second problem is that he says so many things, eventually some of them will be labeled as “lies”. You know what, forget the second problem. The press, nor the american people (statistically) care about that. So it’s just the one problem.

Trump is a meme. A popular one. But like all memes, he will run his course and we will move on to the next meme.

Our collective consciousness has become extremely meme friendly. It’s impossible to be ignorant of the memes affecting us. The UX lesson here is about memes. Stay on your toes, keep changing the dynamic and don’t assume that today’s meme will last very long.

But seriously, he is an asshole.

Comments

3 responses to “The UX of Donald Trump”

  1. Dan Lipka Avatar

    A meme? Or a villain? Throughout history, terrible people are elected (or put into power) and we look back and say how did that happen. Trump wants to do things that are completely illegal (he wants us to steal oil from other countries (remember when we defended Kuwait from a villain who wanted to do that). He blames everyone else for the problems we created. He wants to build a wall on our boarder and make Mexico pay for it (exactly how is that legal). And did he forget that Mexico is our second biggest trade partner. [unfortunately] History has shown that being charismatic, blaming others, coming up with plans that sound great (although are impossible), belittles others (his quotes about women are shameful), and generally being a bully is a successful political strategy. And if he wins, what does that say about our country, our ideals, and our future.

    Prediction: He will have dropped out before the first primary. He will say something that is just indefensible and that will be the end.

    On another note, check out each Republican candidate’s logo
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2016

    Jeb’s definitely stands out the most, but seems childish. I like Lindsey Graham’s logo, it is confident (he is not running “for President”, he is just “President”

    1. Glen Lipka Avatar
      Glen Lipka

      *border

    2. Glen Lipka Avatar
      Glen Lipka

      Hmm, what is going on with Pataki’s flag. That’s not a flag. What is that?

Whatya think?