The Trump v2.0 Playbook So Far

What strategies and tactics are working for Trump & his team?

As someone who solves problems and optimizes processes for a living, I've been blown away by the effectiveness of the Trump team so far. They've done an outstanding job of not only getting shit done in a hurry, but also neutralizing their opposition at the same time.

And they've done it all within the explicit letter of the law, even while following blatantly unconstitutional court orders from horribly conflicted deep state crony judges.

Holy crap, that's impressive.

I'm better at solving problems than analyzing how other people solve them. But since I think this is an unprecedented result from any administration, and a unique moment in history, I'm going break down some of what Trump and team are doing.

How are they making this happen? And what techniques are they using to both make progress and keep their enemies off-balance at the same time?

(If you think differently about the historical impact of this, please take the time to school me about past admins in the comments).

Act 1: Victory Loves Preparation

Although Trump and team may feel differently, at this point I'm glad Trump didn't win the 2020 election. I'm not talking about whether or not he should have, just that the result was that someone else was in the White House.

Because if Trump had gotten a second term, I think it would have continued mostly like the first - including constant opposition, backstabbing, and pulling teeth to get results.

The four years Trump had between administrations gave him time to prepare. And prepare he did, in spades. This preparation allowed him to come in with an onslaught, instead of stringing out the attack on the deep state out over four more years.

Here’s what I think he did different this time.

A. Identify Like Minds

To be honest, there aren't too many people who are truly like-minded with Trump. There isn't anyone else who's been smeared, deplatformed, impeached, indicted, convicted, and shot at.

But there are plenty of people disgusted with the deep state, and many who have suffered from its excesses. So, Trump has sought out others who have suffered at least some of that, and purged those who only pretended to support his goals.

Rooting out the traitors

This includes leakers, the people slow-walking or quietly resisting, and the actual traitors (like Milley whose promise to tell Chinese military officers Trump's plans was literally a pledge to give top secret information to a foreign nation).

Trump got ambushed repeatedly by these people in his first round, and we all paid for it. But he figured out how to identify and purge these people before the second round - it's been a very tight ship so far.

Keep in mind, these people weren't traitors to Trump; they were traitors to the American people who voted for Trump. They decided that their opinions of Trump were more important than the actual votes of American citizens. (The reason the penalty for treason is death is not because it's a crime against the state, but because it's a high crime against the people).

Recruiting other deep state victims

Something happens to people when they get turned on by their own. Either they get crushed and die, or the blinders get ripped off and they see things clearly for the first time.

They also often undergo a psychological shift. Many have remorse about their own past participation in attacking others, and they often re-connect with their original goals - things like patriotism, and the ability to actually help people in need, instead of just claiming to.

During his four years out of office, and especially during his last year campaigning, Trump found a few of these people. They helped him find more.

These people cross the political divide - conservative or progressive or D or R doesn't really matter much here. They're all at least a little pissed (some, like Kash Patel maybe more so), and ready to excise the rot, whether that takes a scalpel or a few sticks of dynamite.

I'm honestly surprised that all of Trump's key cabinet picks got confirmed; the lack of defections on at least one was surprising. But we now have a full court press from every agency head in support of the same goal, from people who have all been hounded by the deep state.

Building a Deep-State-Dismantling Machine

The side of this we don't see is the people running Trump's hidden machine. There's no way this team is doing what it's doing without the support of a good number of deep state veterans.

We don't know who they are yet, but I suspect it's staffed with people who were either excommunicated by the deep state, or who turned whistleblower because of the rot they saw in their past roles.

So, Trump has worked hard to make sure that this time, the people on his team all share his goal of draining the swamp. And he seems to have succeeded.

B. Prepare for challenges up-front

Trump and his team know without doubt that many, if not all of his EOs and cabinet actions will be challenged in court. This is a no-brainer.

So, they prepared for this in advance - as in, before he even took the oath of office. Preparation for the challenges appears to be part of the Trump team’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for drafting EOs and making decisions in the first place. In other words, preparation for the inevitable challenges is part of the initial decisions, not something that comes after.

Preparing Responses Before Challenges Are Filed

I'd bet good money that responses to potential challenge lawsuits are drafted before the EOs even hit the President's desk. So, once a real challenge is filed, it takes very little time to file a response.

This minimizes the time challenges linger in the courts. And I wouldn't be too surprised if each EO has a pre-assigned team to research & draft it, prepare the challenge response, and take it to court.

The value of being this prepared is that it keeps the opposition on defense. They think they're throwing a roadblock in the way with a legal challenge, but that's actually planned for, and Trump's team is already a few steps ahead.

Preparing Alternate Orders

I'll take it a step further. Not only do I think they have the responses planned in advance (likely all the way up to SCOTUS review), I suspect that for at least some of the EOs, there's an alternate EO - already drafted - waiting in the wings in case the existing EO gets struck down.

Yes, I know, some of you poo-poo the idea that Trump is playing 3D chess. In the past, I agreed. But this is a different team; in fact, it's not just a team, it's a machine.

I don’t say this as a fanboy, I say it as someone who’s built and fixed technology and processes in many different teams in different industries, and from watching the administration’s orders, actions, reactions, and timing.

Trump signed 200 well written, highly detailed EOs fully sourced to multiple established Presidential authorities on day one. There is no alternate universe where that's unplanned or ad-hoc.

Act 2: Incapacitate Your Enemies

An enemy with no leaders, no weapons, or no morale is toast. At this point, it feels like progressives are still missing all three, and Trump is working to keep it that way.

A. Go Dark

In Trump's first administration, leaks were the norm; almost every move Trump made, the target was aware before Trump made it. This left Trump playing defense.

But an enemy that doesn't know what you're doing can't plan to defend themselves. So, Trump and his team have broken the rules to ensure no one outside the team knew what they were doing.

They "Just Said No" to the normal transition process, turning down both coordination with the GSA and Biden's staff, and turned down the use of government-provided computers and laptops. So, no one in the bureaucracy had any idea what they were doing or what they were planning.

Trump's team has also honed their skills and processes to seek out and plug leaks. They've also made example of leakers, to provide a disincentive to others to entertain the option of leaking anything to anyone. And it's worked.

As a result, the deep state didn't know what was going to hit them, and were caught flat-footed when Trump and team flooded the zone (see below).

B. Bypass the Gatekeepers

The private transition was one aspect of this, but going into Treasury and other agencies and interrogating the systems through algorithms instead of through people was the ultimate expression of it. The bureaucrats are the gatekeepers, and it's not just that the algos bypassed them completely, it's that Trump's team let the bureaucrats know: We don't need you.

That would be poetic just as a thumbing of the nose at them, but the cherry on top is how amazingly effective it all was - the gatekeepers were irrelevant.

C. Flood the Zone

We've all seen this; ask most Americans, and they feel like it's been a year already, not a month. It's literally too much too keep up with - and that's exactly the point. If it's this hard just to read about everything happening, imagine how hard it must be for the opposition to try and actually counter any of it.

Some people think this is about demoralizing the enemy. Some think it's about moving too fast for the enemy to respond. Some think it's about getting as much done as possible before the midterms.

I think it's all of the above, and probably more we haven't thought of. Trump's team is milking this strategy for all it's worth, and knocking it out of the park.

D. Provide Ample Distractions

I have no strong opinion one way or the other on renaming the Gulf of America (though I will say that both Mexico and the U.S. are part of the Americas, so it really shouldn't be controversial).

But I'm gobsmacked that the AP and the rest of the progressive press are falling for this distraction like a cat chasing a laser pointer. How can they not see this blatant (and successful) attempt to suck up their "resistance" energy chasing something that DOES NOT ULTIMATELY MATTER?

Are they really that dumb? Or just so captured they don't know their ass from a hole in the gulf?

Trump's team fires these distractions off continually. And they continually work. In fact, they work so often, it almost makes me wonder about the long-term viability of human sentience; even cats figure this shit out eventually.

At this point, I wonder if Trump's team doesn't have a group of people who's only job is to think up distractions for the press. That would honestly probably be a better use of taxpayer funds than almost anything the Biden admin ever spent our tax dollars on.

Another piece of this that I think is working well is that Trump chose a bunch of other lightning rods to share the limelight. From co-master-troller JD Vance (the press troll at the Harris campaign stop still makes me laugh), to Hegseth to RFK Jr. to Gabbard to Patel, they're all are willing to stand up and draw fire.

The press has too many targets to choose from, and only so much of our stolen federal budget to pay for it all. Flood the zone.

E. Cut Off the Money Flows

The cutoff of just USAID funding has already reduced paid-for opposition to the government in El Salvador. Imagine what will happen when the corrupt money spigots from everywhere else in the government go dry.

How many huge protests will be mounted when the protestors no longer get paid, housed, fed, and bussed in and out? Since Trump's enemies are almost all cutouts, once they lose money to support their professional protestors they'll struggle to mount a "movement".

This includes progressive media; from the end of USAID funding of (pretty much every progressive cause under the sun, including) the major media networks, to the cutoff of $40 million for way-more-subscriptions-than-even-remotely-possible to the NYT, progressive media is already feeling the hit. But the audits have only just begun.

I expect ABC, CNN, and MSNBC will be forced to consolidate once all the corrupt money flows stop. Similar consolidation is likely in print/digital media (NYT, WaPo, etc.).

(Sure, WaPo has been losing money hand-over-fist for a long time, but whatever you think of Bezos, he's not an idiot; he's not likely to keep throwing good money after bad forever since his dollars aren't buying him favor with the White House any more).

Over the long-term, I believe stopping the money flows is going to be the most important and most effective tactic of everything I cover in this post.

I believe the results of this will change our entire world. And no, I'm not exaggerating (just look at El Salvador).

F. Force Your Enemies to Defend the Indefensible

I was going to title this section "Make Your Enemies Look Like Idiots", but I realized Trump isn't making anyone look like an idiot - he's just giving them the opportunity to do it to themselves.

To disarm your enemies in politics, you have to make them look corrupt, or stupid, or both. What better way to do that than to let them choose to defend things that no right-thinking person - and no average voter - would ever defend?

Trump has an advantage here, because his enemies have such a knee-jerk negative reaction to literally everything he does. How do you force enemies like these to make themselves look bad? Just do something that the average voter thinks is right - like deport violent illegal aliens or expose fraud. When your enemies reflexively attack you for it, they're forced to defend the indefensible.

Enemies who defend the indefensible show themselves to be both corrupt and stupid at the same time. Because defending the indefensible isn’t just obviously corrupt; it also shows you’re stupid for allowing yourself to be tricked into doing it.

The constant drumbeat from the Trump administration about discovered corruption and waste is a three-fer - it supports a major policy objective (spending cuts), helps maintain public support for Trump’s actions, and forces the swamp to defend the indefensible, all at the same time.

Act 3: Blow Out the Overton Window

The Overton window is the range of ideas that the public is willing to consider; anything outside the window is considered too fringe or radical for serious discussion.

The Overton window is a filter; it limits what Trump can do, because it limits the actions he can take which the voters will accept. Actions outside the window, no matter how good or well-intentioned, will be limited by pushback. The farther out of the window the actions are, the more effort it will take to even try them, and the less effective all that effort will be.

I suspect Trump and team have much bigger actions planned than they've talked about or even hinted at so far. I think they're intentionally keeping their end game close to their chest, because it's too far outside the Overton window. So, I think that to achieve their end game, they need to blow the Overton window wide open.

And I think they're doing that now, day by day, tweet by tweet, speech by speech. JD Vance's speech in Munich was a good example of this.

But there have been many others. At first I thought Trump's talk about buying Greenland and making Canada the 51st state were just negotiating tactics. They may be that; but what they also do is splinter the frame of the Overton window. Other world leaders were ready to talk about changes to our relationship on the margins, and Trump let them all know were way past that.

The message is: It's time for them, and us, to reset ideas of what our global relationships are, and what's acceptable. The window widens.

A. Forget the Rules (Play Hardball)

The rules were made by our enemies, and they were made to keep us in check (while they loot our accounts). So, Trump is ignoring them.

What many of Trump's enemies don't understand is that he's not ignoring the laws. He's ignoring the rules - the unwritten playbook that the global elites all expect us to follow.

Despite what his opponents shriek, Trump is breaking from global elite’s expectations without breaking any laws or agreements. He just finds the combination of laws and clauses and escape clauses that allow him to achieve his objective fully within the law, and then executes them with prejudice.

This, by the way, is very difficult to do. Our laws and international agreements are a labyrinthian morass of complexity and illogic.

But Trump's EOs and the structure of his organization use this morass to Trump's advantage with lethal precision. So, this is something Trump's hidden machine deserves great respect for.

B. Change the Incentives

I shake my head every time I read an article from some economist or otherwise intelligent person clamoring about how Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy. Are you people all so daft that you don't realize it's not about the money?

Trump is using tariffs exactly as we should expect (and want) him to: to incentivize our trading partners to behave the way we want them to.

This may be an incentive to do something we want, but more often it's a disincentive: you're doing something we don't like, and you've been ignoring us asking you nicely not to do it. So, we're not asking nicely any more.

As anyone who's even squinted their eyes briefly at our foreign aid budgets knows, we have plane loads full of carrots. Tariffs are a very public stick.

Yes, tariffs may hurt our economy some (and progressive policies that got us to a $36 trillion national debt didn't?) But the U.S. is the consumer of the world. This gives us some disadvantages, but it means that if we make it harder for other countries to trade with us, that hurts them. A lot.

I’ve long wondered why some countries levied tariffs on U.S. goods, but we didn't levy tariffs on theirs in return; it made no sense. It appears Trump agrees. How long do you think those tariffs will last once those countries feel the pain of our tariffs on them?

So, Trump is using tariffs - and other economic, political, and military agreements - to incentivize our supposed "partners" to behave in ways that align with U.S. interests. This isn't rocket science, it's America First.

And if you're still not sure if it will really work, just ask Gustavo Petro.

C. Enforce Existing Laws

No, this shouldn't actually be outside the Overton window, but for too long it has been.

Officials in sanctuary cities that impede the operation of ICE and Border Patrol agents are literally breaking federal law. For too long, this has been allowed, because they're elected officials, or because of bad optics, or whatever.

But if you think Tom Homan gives a flying freak about optics, you need to think again.

The Trump administration is enforcing existing laws that simply haven’t been enforced. This is one of those things that's an easy win for Overton window enlargement, because no amount of getting upset about it is going to change the law, so Trump and team don't really need to drum up support to do it.

(Though, as it turns out, a majority of voters do support enforcement of most of these laws, and have supported it since long before it became politically fashionable).

As part of this, once it's clear that judgment is coming for the swamp creatures, I expect we'll start to see some of them turning state's evidence to protect themselves. It may only take a few high-profile defections before there's a flood of informants jostling for the chance to turn their former besties in.

And if that happens, we're going to see even more revolting revelations. Followed by prosecution of swamp creatures for crimes that have been outside the Overton window for some time.

D. Trial Balloons

Another part of this strategy is throwing up trial balloons. These are for both wild things that Trump doesn't actually plan to do and things that he actually wants to do.

The former help push the window wider. The latter test for reactions, to see if the window has moved enough to allow Trump to take the desired action without opposition from the average voter.

So far, when trial balloons have been shot down, Trump has backed off. But I expect that we'll see some of the same proposals, though maybe in slightly different form, once Trump's team believes the Overton window has opened wider.

What Happens When the Window Becomes a Door?

I believe expansion of the Overton window is one of the most important tactics Trump is employing. But we haven't seen the real impact yet because the window isn't wide enough yet.

I suspect that once the window is as wide as Trump and team want it, they have some more “radical” (as that term is currently understood) actions waiting in the wings. This may include well-justified actions against people who are currently considered too beloved or protected to be brought to justice.

What Comes Next?

I expect to see more of all these tactics, and some new ones that haven’t been revealed yet. If they’re smart - and it’s rather obvious they are - they’ll have some tactics up their sleeve they’re not using yet, because they want something to spring once the deep state adapts to the current tactics. So, I’m keeping my eyes open.

Trump and team know they have only 21 months until the midterms. They have to do everything they possibly can in that time, because there's no guarantee they'll still have congressional support beyond that. And voter approval is fickle.

There's a team behind the scenes making all this happen. I don't know who they are, or who's running that show (though I suspect without any evidence at all that Vance is heavily involved). But even many people that reflexively hate everything Trump does are being forced to admit Trump's machine is doing a fantastic job of getting it done.

So, I say: bravo! This really is a historical moment, and this operation will be written about in the history books.

I can't wait to find out more about the nuts and bolts of how it was put together and how it's being executed. Lots to learn, and I'd love to be a fly on that wall.