Donald the audacious: Why Trump wins
His opponents are battered and bewildered. They study the polls, hire consultants and assemble coalitions. Their punditry permeates television. And yet, the central question remains. Why does President Trump keep winning?
He defies the odds again and again, rewriting his political obituary with each new victory. The critics cannot comprehend it. The political class has no answers. And the academic analysis repeatedly fails. They look for weakness and find only will. They search for retreat and find resolve to advance. They expect contrition and get defiant confrontation.
Trump wins because he is not merely a politician; he is a phenomenon, a paradigm. He is transformational, resolved, relentless, reckless, focused, unafraid, undeterred and unrepentant. He is a master of the media, surrounded by committed servants who embrace his message and methods.
Most people alive have not seen an American president of this timbre, temerity or temperament. And none of us are likely to see it again. For all the invective aimed at him, Trump continues to triumph. He not only defies convention, he destroys it. From foreign affairs to fiscal policy, he has remade Washington — and, indeed, the world — into a new American paradigm.
Unlike other presidents who governed with one eye on history and the other on polling numbers, Trump governs with both eyes on the prize: power and results. He understands, instinctively, what Machiavelli counseled centuries ago — that it is better for a prince to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both. Fear and respect are the twin currencies of his leadership, and he spends both lavishly.
Trump wins because he never abandons the battlefield. He never yields a narrative. He never surrenders a stage. He fights everywhere, always with weapons of rhetoric, spectacle and sheer stamina, leaving no slight unaddressed. He refuses to play by rules written by his enemies, moving with the speed of a storm while others are moving memoranda. His detractors only enlarge him with their every opposition.
Every age has its medium. Roosevelt ruled the radio. Kennedy mastered television. Obama harnessed digital data. Trump commands social media with ease, bypassing gatekeepers and speaking directly to millions.
Once, presidents courted journalists. Trump commands them. Once, the press set the agenda. Trump is the agenda. In a 24-hour news cycle, he is the perpetual headline — the constant, unavoidable story.
Most leaders seek safety in consensus. Trump thrives in conflict. He welcomes opposition and absorbs hostility, transmuting adversity into advantage. Where others grow weary under scandal, Trump grows stronger. Where others are cowed by criticism, Trump is emboldened.
This is the stuff of Churchill’s defiance: “Never give in. Never, never, never.” It recalls Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena,” marred by dust and sweat and blood but daring greatly. Trump thrives in the arena — and unlike many, he enjoys the dust.
Each impeachment, each investigation, each indictment, all meant to ruin him, has only made him more resilient and formidable.
Nor is Trump’s triumph confined to policies or elections; it is cultural, psychological and civilizational. He has unmasked the fragility of institutions once thought invincible and ripped the veneer off untouchable elites. He has revealed the chasm between the governed and the governors, recasting democracy as a contest of will more than a ceremony of rules.
Like most transformational movements, his legacy is double-edged. Disruption energizes, but it also destabilizes. It unnerves allies, unsettles markets and unmoors traditions. But it is undeniably powerful. Trump forces questions others evade: What is leadership? What is legitimacy? What is America’s destiny in this century?
Trump wins because he is singular. Where others equivocate, he declares. Where others defer, he decides. Where others retreat, he advances. He does not ask permission or apologize. He does not relent. Obama gave America “The Audacity of Hope.” Trump gave it the habit of audacity.
Trump’s every instinct is to push further, fight harder and demand more. Hope looks upward; audacity leans forward, and Trump never stops leaning into the fight.
He wins because he embodies audacity in an age of timidity. He wins because he commands the stage in an era of shrinking men. He wins because his opponents underestimate not his flaws but his force. And he wins because America, in this age, requires more than managers or caretakers. It demands a gladiator.
In the end, Trump wins because he has mastered an ancient truth: Leaders are not measured by the titles they hold, but by the tides they turn. Trump has turned tides in foreign policy, economics, media and culture. He has turned the assumptions of his enemies upside-down and the expectations of his followers into conviction.
Trump’s opponents will continue to walk in the wilderness of loss, searching for explanations. They will write books, hold seminars, fund commissions and talk on TV. They will blame the voters, the system, the press — even Providence itself.
But the truth is simpler: they lost because he won. Trump wins because America has entered the age of audacity, and he is its unchallenged herald.
For better or worse, whether you support him or oppose him, Trump has turned the tides of a nation, and arguably the world. Whether history records it all as triumph or tragedy, none will dare call it small.
Adonis Hoffman is an independent counsel and author who writes on business, law and policy in America. He has served in senior roles at the FCC and in the U.S. House of Representatives.