Trump’s attention to Game Theory
This article paints a strong correlation between the strategies of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election and game theory, as we discussed throughout the class. First, the article proves that, in a game where payoff is dependent on both players’ strategies, unpredictability is, in fact, a winning strategy. He used this strategy specifically when discussing terrorism and nuclear weapons. The second point made is a slightly more interesting take on his unpredictability and that is that by acting “like a madman,” he actually forces his opponents to act in ways that do not yield the maximum logical payoff because they assume he is so crazy he may do something “truly dreadful” — even if it hurts him. The rest of the article explains how his radical viewpoints actually give him a strategic in negotiations.
This article directly relates the theories we have learned in class to the real world, and, in may cases, sheds light on Trump’s truly irrational behavior. For those of us who sat, astounded, on November 8th, this also explains a lot of his most apparent flaws. To Donald Trump, declaring Bankruptcy never seemed to damage his reputation because he was always able to recover with some surprising “face-saving” deal. This is because he used bankruptcy to signal he was willing to hurt himself and this non self-preservation mentality is very frightening to an opponent, who is then more likely to behave in accordance with Trump’s wishes. This plays a huge role in explaining why he was able to win the presidential candidate coming in as the clear underdog.