Abstract
Manno argues that Donald Trump embodies the values of the Poker Mindset in a particularly striking way. The chapter draws upon research about Trump voters during the 2016 election, Trump’s campaign as outsider candidate, and both Trump’s and Trump voters’ authoritarian tendencies. Further, Manno makes the case that Trump’s lies and deceptions, focus on independent action, penchant for revenge, desire to “fight, not fold,” history of corruption, and accusations of sexual harassment and assault powerfully demonstrate over-conforming to the values of the Poker Mindset.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abramowitz, Alan. 2016. “Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball» Forecasting the 2016 Presidential Election: Will Time for Change Mean Time for Trump?” University of Virginia Center for Politics, August 11. http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/forecasting-the-2016-presidential-election-will-time-for-change-mean-tim-for-trump/. Accessed July 10, 2019.
Alterman, Eric. 2019. “Trump’s Prodigious Lying Threatens Our Democracy,” May 16. https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-lies-eric-alterman/. Accessed May 24, 2019.
Azarian, Bobby. 2019. “A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201812/complete-psychological-analysis-trumps-support. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Barstow, et al. 2018. “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches from His Father.” The New York Times, October 2, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Bartels, Larry. 2016. “2016 Was an Ordinary Election, Not a Realignment.” Washington Post, November 10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/10/2016-was-an-ordinary-election-not-a-realignment/. Accessed July 22, 2019.
Bondarenko, Veronika. 2019. “Trump Keeps Saying ‘Enemy of the People’—But the Phrase Has a Very Ugly History.” Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-president-trumps-phrase-an-enemy-of-the-people-2017-2. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Britzky, Haley. 2018. “Everything Trump Has Called ‘FAKE NEWS’.” Axios, September 20. https://www.axios.com/everything-trump-has-called-fake-news-1513303959-6603329e-46b5-44ea-b6be-70d0b3bdb0ca.html. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Buchanan, et al. 2019. “The Two-Word Phrase President Trump Relies on Most.” CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/politics/donald-trump-president-speeches-favorite-phrases-trnd/index.html. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Buettner, Russ, and Maggie Haberman. 2019. “In Business and Governing, Trump Seeks Victory in Chaos.” The New York Times, January 21, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/donald-trump-leadership-style.html. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Buettner, Russ, and Susanne Craig. 2019. “Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses.” The New York Times, May 7, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Campbell, John L. 2018. American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ceaser, et al. 2017. Defying the Odds: The 2016 Elections and American Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Chait, Jonathan. 2018. “Trump Isn’t Inciting Violence by Mistake, but on Purpose. He Just Told Us.” Intelligencer, November 5. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/trump-isnt-inciting-violence-by-mistake-he-just-told-us.html. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Chow, Kat. 2019. “Why More White Americans Are Opposing Government Welfare Programs.” NPR.Org. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/06/08/616684259/why-more-white-americans-are-opposing-government-welfare-programs. Accessed June 10, 2019.
“CNN’s File: PunditFact.” 2019. Punditfact. https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/cnn/. Accessed July 22, 2019.
Cox, Daniel, et al. 2019. “Beyond Economics: Fears of Cultural Displacement Pushed the White Working Class to Trump | PRRI/The Atlantic Report.” PRRI. https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/. Accessed June 24, 2019.
D’Antonio, Michael. 2016. Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success. First edition. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press.
Depaulo, Bella. 2017. “I Study Liars. I’ve Never Seen One like President Trump.” The Independent, December 8. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-liar-us-president-scientific-study-frequent-malicious-dishonest-white-house-a8099636.html. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Desjardins, Lisa. 2016. “All the Assault Allegations Against Donald Trump, Recapped.” PBS NewsHour, October 14. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/assault-allegations-donald-trump-recapped. Accessed July 22, 2019.
Enrich, David. 2019. “A Mar-a-Lago Weekend and an Act of God: Trump’s History with Deutsche Bank.” The New York Times, March 19, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/business/trump-deutsche-bank.html. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Fisher, Marc, and Will Hobson. 2016. “Donald Trump Masqueraded as Publicist to Brag About Himself.” Washington Post, May 13, sec. Politics. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-alter-ego-barron/2016/05/12/02ac99ec-16fe-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Foer, Franklin. 2019. “The Mueller Probe Was an Unmitigated Success.” The Atlantic, March 24. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/mueller-report/585631/. Accessed June 24, 2019.
“Fox’s File: PunditFact.” 2019. https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/fox/. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Frum, David. 2018. Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. New York: Harper.
Fuchs, Christian. 2017. “Donald Trump: A Critical Theory-Perspective on Authoritarian Capitalism.” TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (1): 1. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v15i1.835.
Galston, William A. 2018. Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ginsburg, Tom, and Aziz Z. Huq. 2018. How to Save a Constitutional Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Giroux, Henry A. 2017. America at War with Itself. San Francisco: City Lights Books.
———. 2017. “Gangster Capitalism and Nostalgic Authoritarianism in Trump’s America.” Salon, December 3. https://www.salon.com/2017/12/03/gangster-capitalism-and-nostalgic-authoritarianism-in-trumps-america/. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Giroux, Henry A., and George Yancy. 2018. American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism. Open Media Series. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
Grynbaum, Michael M. 2019. “Trump Discusses Claims of ‘Fake News,’ and Their Impact, with New York Times Publisher.” The New York Times, February 1, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/business/media/donald-trump-interview-news-media.html. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Grynbaum, Michael M., and Eileen Sullivan. 2019. “Trump Attacks the Times, in a Week of Unease for the American Press.” The New York Times, February 20, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/politics/new-york-times-trump.html. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Hawkins, Stephen, et al. 2018. “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape.” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a22740f/t/5bbcea6b7817f7bf7342b718/1539107467397/hidden_tribes_report-2.pdf. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Hobbs, Thomas. 2019. “Atlantic City: ‘Trump Turned This Place into a Ghost Town’.” The Guardian, April 8, sec. Art and design. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/08/atlantic-city-trump-ghost-town-gambling-brian-rose-photographer. Accessed June 24, 2019.
Johnston, David Cay. 2016. The Making of Donald Trump. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House.
———. 2019. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Jouet, Mugambi. 2017. Exceptional America: What Divides Americans from the World and from Each Other. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Kacala, Alexander. 2019. “Trump Voters Say Men Are Discriminated Against More Than Gays, Minorities.” NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-voters-say-men-are-discriminated-against-more-gays-minorities-n921801. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Kranish, Michael, et al. 2017. Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President. First Scribner trade paperback edition 2017. New York: Scribner.
Laderman, David, and Brendan Simms. 2017. Donald Trump: The Making of a World View. London: I.B. Tauris.
Landler, Mark. 2019. “Trump and Pompeo Embrace Autocrats and Disparage Opponents at Home.” The New York Times, January 11, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/trump-pompeo-china-cairo.html. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2018. How Democracies Die. First edition. New York: Crown.
Lyons, Kate. 2019. “Flight of Fancy: Trump Claims 1775 Revolutionary Army ‘Took over Airports’.” The Guardian, July 5, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/05/flight-of-fancy-trump-claims-1775-revolutionary-army-took-over-airports. Accessed July 5, 2019.
Marcotte, Amanda. 2018. “Republican Voters Don’t Care About Trump’s Corruption—And Here’s Why.” Salon, October 12. https://www.salon.com/2018/10/12/republican-voters-dont-care-about-trumps-corruption-and-heres-why/. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Mele, Christopher, and Patrick Healy. 2016. “‘Hamilton’ Had Some Unscripted Lines for Pence. Trump Wasn’t Happy.” The New York Times, November 19, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/mike-pence-hamilton.html. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Mueller, Robert S. 2019. “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.Pdf.” The Washington Post, April 18. https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/f5fe536c-81bb-45be-86e5-a9fee9794664/note/a8d336ef-e98d-4a08-987d-b4c154b22700.pdf. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Mutz, Diana C. 2018. “Status Threat, Not Economic Hardship, Explains the 2016 Presidential Vote.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (19): E4330–E4339. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1718155115.
Nelson, Michael. 2018. Trump’s First Year. Miller Center Studies on the Presidency: The First Year Project. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Pettigrew, Thomas F. 2017. “Social Psychological Perspectives on Trump Supporters.” Journal of Social and Political Psychology 5 (1): 107–16. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i1.750.
Reed, Brad. 2018. “Donald Trump Appeals Directly to Men Who Suffer from ‘Fragile Masculinity,’ Psychologist Finds.” Salon, November 29. https://www.salon.com/2018/11/29/trump-appeals-to-men-who-suffer-from-fragile-masculinity_partner/. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Reuters. 2016. “Donald Trump: ‘I Could Shoot Somebody and I Wouldn’t Lose Any Voters’.” The Guardian, January 24, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/24/donald-trump-says-he-could-shoot-somebody-and-still-not-lose-voters. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Samuels, Brett. 2019. “Trump Ramps Up Rhetoric on Media, Calls Press ‘the Enemy of the People’.” TheHill, April 5. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437610-trump-calls-press-the-enemy-of-the-people. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Sherman, Ryne A. 2018. “Personal Values and Support for Donald Trump During the 2016 US Presidential Primary.” Personality and Individual Differences 128 (July): 33–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.02.020.
Snyder, Timothy. 2018. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. First edition. New York, NY: Tim Duggan Books.
Solnit, Rebecca. 2018. “Trump’s Countless Scams Are Finally Catching Up to Him | Rebecca Solnit.” The Guardian, December 4, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/04/donald-trump-russia-robert-mueller-legal-trouble. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Trump, Donald J., and Tony Schwartz. 1987. Trump: The Art of Deal. First edition. New York: Random House.
Watts, Steven. 2017. “What Donald Trump’s Books Reveal About Winning.” The Atlantic, November 12. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/11/what-donald-trumps-books-say-about-winning/544661/. Accessed June 10, 2019.
Wolff, Michael. 2018. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. First edition. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Woodward, Bob. 2018. Fear: Trump in the White House. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Manno, A. (2020). “Fight, Don’t Fold”: The Poker Mindset and the Rise of Trumpism. In: Toxic Masculinity, Casino Capitalism, and America's Favorite Card Game. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40260-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40260-0_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40259-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-40260-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)