If you've ever read Thinking Fast and Slow, Trump is great at appealing to System 1. He's spent his entire lifetime focusing on his branding and what people think of him. I dislike almost all of Trump's policies and his tactics; however, he's great at oversimplifying things and getting the visceral reactions he wants.

Chapelle's SNL monolog about Trump is pretty spot on too.

He seems to play the media like a fiddle. It's insane how gullible so much of the media establishment is nowadays and play right into it.

They like it because he's good for views, and because US politics media runs on Murc's law (anything bad is the Democrats' fault for not stopping it).

It's not gullibility; it's a symbiotic relationship.

I haven't read it yet, but I've got it right here, and I just finished my previous book.

It's such a great book. You can skip the first few chapters as the evidence for those chapters on priming hasn't been replicated: https://replicationindex.com/2017/02/02/reconstruction-of-a-...

However, the fundamental ideas of System 1 and 2 have made me rethink so many things.

Don't underestimate the extent to which sexism and racism factored in to his victory also. The level of competence, integrity and patriotism between the two candidates was staggering, and yet...