Donald Trump and game theory: Expert says no brilliant 3D chess is involved
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/20/donald-trump-and-game-theory-expert-says-no-brilliant-3-d-chess-is-involved/
This article relates to topics learned it class, as it discusses President Donald Trump’s political strategies in relation to game theory. The author starts off by saying how politics is basically a one big game: everyone is looking for ways to gain more power than others through strategic decisions. That being said, looking at politics and political decisions can be a good way to understand how game theory plays out in real life. The author points out that in game theory, the players are essentially trying to decide what the best option is for them, or their “dominant strategy”, given number of choices. However, dominant strategy is an ideal option that does not often occur in real life; in real life, people must cooperate and negotiate.
President Donald Trump’s unpredictable actions and unwillingness cooperate at times, shows an example of zero-sum game, where his opponent must lose all for him to gain. His Twitter tweets are a perfect example of his unpredictable action that leads to a zero-sum game. Not only in politics, but in many real life situations in general, zero sum games are not optimal; there must be room to negotiate and cooperate, but the author of the article criticizes President Donald Trump’s lack of ability to do so. In the case of President Trump’s goal to win, and to win fast, this zero-sum game may work for him, but in the long run it is only bound to create conflicts. With the launch of Trump impeachment inquiry, it would be interesting to see how President Trump and Nancy Pelosi’s actions will play out in game.