The Secret Ingredient of Donald Trump’s Winning Formula

Brian Floyd

Donald J. Trump was far from the perfect candidate for elected office. At least three times last year I predicted his defeat, both in the primaries and during the November election. Yet on Friday, January 20, 2017, Mr. Trump became the 45th President of the United States. How exactly did Trump pull it off?

There have been many explanations for Trump’s victory. Trump’s voters are all angry white bigots lashing out. Hillary Clinton was a horrible candidate who took her election win for granted. Clinton actually won but Trump stole the presidency because of the Electoral. There’s probably a few you’ve heard that I haven’t.

While some of these reasons given may have a certain level of validity to them, they don’t fully explain the Trump victory. The secret sauce behind Donald Trump’s electoral success was his ability to tell a good, clear story that deeply resonated with voters.

The Power of a Winning Campaign Story

Early in the 2016 campaign cycle, I noticed both Trump and Bernie Sanders were winning elections that popular punditry said they couldn’t. They were winning because both candidates were very clear about why they were running. In his inaugural address last Friday, Trump demonstrated once again he still knows how to tell a winning story.

As a candidate for elected office, there are several things you can learn from President Trump’s inaugural address. This is not in regard to his politics or his policies, but rather how he successfully uses the Six Pillars of a Winning Campaign Story to achieve victory. The best candidates can do this, most innately have the skill, but anyone can use them if they understand them.

However, those who fail to tell a winning story, typically make one major mistake that costs them everything.  They think they are the hero of the story when they are not. It’s the voters who are the heroes, always and without exception.

If you fall into the trap of casting yourself as the role of the hero in your campaign story, you run the risk of losing. Hillary Clinton often did this and on Friday she sat watching the 45th President sworn into office instead of being the one standing, taking the oath.

Despite his obvious flaw of being incredibly self-absorbed, Trump almost tells a story where the voters are the heroes. He did throughout the campaign, during the Republican National Convention, and he did it again in his Inaugural Address.

If you didn’t see Trump’s first speech as President, you can watch it below or read the transcript here.

The Heroes of Trump’s Story

Right off the bat, Trump identified the voters as the heroes of the story.

“Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another — but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished — but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered — but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes — starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.”
Trump has been criticized for taking such a strong aim at elected officials in Washington, many of the top leaders sitting on the platform behind him as he delivered his remarks. But that’s okay. They weren’t the ones who elected him.
It was the voters that propelled his unlikely and upstart campaign into the White House.
To ensure that his words were not missed and these voters knew they were the heroes of the story, Trump stated it as clearly as possible with these words:
“January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”

 

Trump’s critics have complained that his speech was not inclusive enough for a presidential inaugural address.  They’re wrong for two reasons.

First, Trump is in a precarious political position.

He did not win the popular vote. He does not enjoy a larger sense of good will that most presidents start office with. As the protests in major cities across America the day after his inauguration literally demonstrate, there shall be no honeymoon for the 45th President of the United States.

On top of that, he’s taking on the Washington establishment. The Democratic minority in Congress is committed to foiling Trump’s success. The Republican majority doesn’t agree with Trump on some very big issues. Plus there are still many traditional Republicans who resent Trump’s hostile takeover of the Party.

One of the first rules for political success is to hold your base, then add to it.

Trump made sure his base of voters knows he isn’t going to change now that he is in office. He meant what he said on the campaign trail. It may have unnerved some people and possibly frightened others.

To keep winning, legislatively and in 2020, Trump needs to make sure these voters know they remain the heroes of the story he’s telling and that they are the ones he is fighting for in Washington D.C.

The second reason that his critics are wrong about Trump not reaching out is because he did.

 

“Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.
But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
The word “carnage” comes across to many as way too overblown and dark. But Trump wasn’t speaking to them. He wasn’t speaking to me. He was talking directly to ethnic and socioeconomic groups not typically associated with the Republican Party.
His words were aimed at single mothers in inner cities, many of them black and Latino. For those living in the South Side of Chicago where a large number of the city’s 762 murders in 2016 took place, the word “carnage” might be an understatement.
He was talking to blue-collar Democrats who believe the slogan “Live Better, Work Union” but saw their jobs disappear overseas or made obsolete by a machine. Many Midwestern blue collar workers worried about their future backed Trump last year because the changing economy has brought “carnage” to their lives.
Will black and Latino voters accept Trump’s invitation and become the heroes of the story he’s telling?  Conventional wisdom says its unlikely, but such wisdom also told us that Donald Trump would never be president. Political alliances often shift and reorient themselves. If they hadn’t, Hillary Clinton would be our President today.

What Does It Matter?

Whether Donald Trump can and will be a successful president remains to be seen. But The Campaign School isn’t focused on how to govern. It’s here to help candidates like yourself learn what works when it comes to winning an election.
Believe it or not, there’s a lot to be learned from digging deeper into the political success of the non-politician who is now the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Especially when it comes to how he tells a winning story that casts his voters as the heroes.