(Note: I wrote this in 2018, and I think it’s still relevant today in 2025.)
In this thread, I want to discuss and develop a blueprint for beating Trump based on the essay, How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps by Andres Miguel Rondon. Rondon is a Venezuelan who opposed and tried to defeat Hugo Chavez, the populist dictator. In the op-ed, he gives advice to Americans who oppose Trump, drawing on lessons he’s learned from opposing Chavez. In my opinion, Rondon’s analysis is spot on, and if Trump opponents fail to understand his points, they could keep Trump in power.
Here’s a summary, based on my understanding of Rondon’s position. Basically, Trump’s power derives from polarization–specifically, he needs enemies who evoke fear, anger, and even hatred. Trump’s power depends on the intensity of his supporters ‘,fear, anger, and hatred for these enemies. If these feelings diminish, and the supporters no longer see these groups as enemies Trump’s power will end. Trump’s cruelty, incompetence, ignorance, corruption, dishonesty, and immorality will not bother his supporters as long as they have enemies they intensely fear and hate. Now, I think Trump has cast several groups as enemies–namely, liberals, the political establishment, the press, immigrants, Muslims, and maybe even minorities. In this post, I’m going to focus mainly on liberals and non-liberals that oppose Trump.
If this analysis is correct, then the plan to defeat Trump has to be to decrease these feelings and ultimately remove the perception that liberals, political establishment, immigrants, and Muslims are enemies. This is the primary goal.
In this post, I want to discuss concrete ways Trump opponents can achieve this goal.
First, here’s a list of what not to do:
1. Don’t try to win arguments with Trump supporters. This misunderstands the way to beat Trump.
2. Don’t try to convince Trump supporters how awful he is. Again, this misunderstands how to beat Trump. The problem isn’t that Trump supporters really don’t understand how bad he is–or to be more precise, fixating on enemies like you allows them to push aside the things that make Trump awful;
3. Don’t show contempt for Trump’s supporters. Let’s settle something now: Some of them deserve it. Some don’t. Neither matter. What matters is undermining the perception that Trump opponents are the enemy. As Rondon says, “Your focus has to be on erasing the cartoon you’ve been drawn into. Scrambling it. Undermining it.”
4. Don’t employ Trump’s tactics. That makes you just as bad as Trump, and it can alienate important allies (Read: moderates/low-information voters.)
None of those things matter, and both will likely increase the impression that you’re the enemy and as well intensify the feelings behind this. Here’s a basketball analogy. Gary Payton was a notorious trash talker, and he has admitted that when he talked trash–insulting his opponent–and opponents talked trash back to him that elevated his performance. In other words, he goaded his opponents to say bad things about him, because that motivated him to play better. Many of his opponents figured this out, and employed the strategy of silence. Payton admitted that this made playing against these opponents a little more difficult. Trump opponents have to employ a similar strategy. Trump and his supporters get stronger the make them angry, and they get weaker if you don’t.
I realize that recommending what not to do, while helpful, may be frustrating. Trump opponents are riled up and angry as well. They may want to channel that energy somewhere. In the next section, I’ll offer several concrete suggestions, but before I do, let me say this: If you can’t move beyond your anger, then saying nothing or avoiding Trump supporters might be the best course of action. Again we want to erode the perception that Trump opponents are the enemy and mitigate hostile feelings.
How to Interact with Trump Supporters
Some of what I will say is based on recommendations from Rondon and also lessons learned from Jonathan Haidt’s Righteous Minds. With regard to the latter, I’m thinking specifically of Haidt’s experiences in India. Many of the Indian beliefs and social mores repulsed Haidt, but he had such good interactions with many Indians that after a while he began to examine these beliefs more open-mindedly, and eventually made an effort to understand and justify them. Haidt used an anecdote to illustrate the way people are swayed more by our elephants–that is, emotions and intuition–than the riders of the elephant (e.g., reason and logic). Our situation is similar. The elephants of Trump supporters cast Trump opponents as the enemy. We need to move their elephants away from this, and we do this by appealing to their emotions and interpersonal interactions with them, not reason.
Rondon’s advice is very similar:
Don’t waste your time trying to prove that this ‘ism’ is better than that one. Ditch all the big words. Why? Because, again, the problem is not the message but the messenger. It’s not that Trump supporters are too stupid to tell right from wrong, it’s that you’re much more valuable to them as an enemy than as a compatriot.
The problem is tribal. Your challenge is to prove that you belong in the same tribe as them: that you are American in exactly the same way they are.
In Venezuela, we fell into the abstraction trap in a bad way. We wrote again and again about principles, about the separation of powers, about civil liberties, about the role of the military in politics, about corruption and economic policy. But it took our leaders ten years to figure out they needed to actually go to the slums and to the countryside. And not for a speech or a rally, but for game of dominoes or to dance salsa—to show that they were Venezuelans too, that they had tumbao and could hit a baseball, could tell a joke that landed. That they could break the tribal divide, come down off the billboards and show that they were real. And no, this is not populism by other means. It is the only way of establishing your standing. It’s deciding not to live in an echo chamber. To press pause on the siren song of polarization.
I found Rondon’s advice a little blurry, but I think he’s advocating two things, essentially: relate to Trump supporters as human beings; don’t see them as political adversaries but see them as human beings and relate to them as such–so that they will see Trump opponents as human beings like them. Put politics aside and let me them see and experience your humanity.
Ideally, this process will include the type of cultural and social attitudes that you share as Americans. Those elements coming out in the interactions can weaken polarization.
In the next section, I want to give specific examples of how that can occur.
1. Laugh together. It’s hard to dislike someone that makes you laugh or that you laugh with. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to not like someone that makes you laugh. Laughter is an icebreaker, and can break any existing ideological differences.
2. Be a good listener. Genuine interest in someone, their opinions, feelings, hopes and dreams, is extremely appealing. If you have this interest and listen thoughtfully and patiently, they will be far more open to your ideas, feelings, etc. I think this approach will is a good one if politics is brought up. This will take discipline, but it can be very effective. Additionally, listening done with genuine interest can also be a great opportunity for compassion.
3. Look for shared interests, especially outside of politics. Maybe you like the same sports team, hobbies; your children share the same interests; maybe you’ve traveled to and enjoyed the same places; talk about movies, TV shows, and music that you both love.
4. Share a good meal. Eating together has a bonding effect. If participants come from different cultures, and share and enjoy food from these cultures, that’s even better. Prepare a meal together.
5. Offer acts of kindness.
6. Celebrate what you share in common.
More Ambitious Projects
Do a community project together.
If Trump is defeated by his supporters the fears and anger withdraw but remain, the potential for another Trump exists.