PART II-Some Shocking Sh*t: How Trump-the Most Hated Man in Politics-Gets Others to Do Things His Way.

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #246

Last time, we talked about Principle #5 (Getting people to like him) regarding the influence and persuasion Donald Trump, either consciously or unconsciously (or both), has used throughout his life to shape the people around him into doing what he wants them to. (If you haven’t read Part I, please do.)

In this issue, I thought I’d discuss his use of Principle #6: Being seen as the person in charge and the expert on whatever topic he happens to be discussing.

What convinces us that someone is an authority figure or an expert in a given area? With time to think about it, many of us eventually arrive at solid answers, such as vast amounts of knowledge or education about a particular area of life or perhaps a vital job position or title that others have bestowed upon us.

While those things could indeed be agreed upon as things we might discover when we are present with a legitimate authority figure or subject matter expert, most people are only vaguely aware (if at all) of just how little it takes for someone to bypass our conscious and critical/logical thinking mind and quickly have us believe they figure or are an authority or subject matter expert.

Allow me to demonstrate this with a couple of short stories about how quickly and reliably I’ve used a simple change of clothing to instantly cement myself in someone’s mind as an unquestioned authority figure.

While I was the Senior Corpsman (Medic) of the oncology ward at the San Diego Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California, I received my initial training in using hypnosis to modify pain, ease nausea associated with chemotherapy, and guide anxious patients into a more comfortable and peaceful state of mind and body.

Bone cancer is a type of cancer that can be incredibly painful. There are times when even the most potent pain medications a doctor has ordered can fail to manage a patient’s pain adequately.

For reasons that still aren’t fully understood today, twenty-seven years after I completed my first training in using hypnosis for pain management in a medical setting, we still aren’t clear on all of the pathways involved when the suggestion is successful in modifying a patient experience of pain.

One thing I can tell you, however, is that over and over again, I witnessed what seemed like a Goddamned miracle when a cancer patient who had been groaning in agonizing pain, who had maxed out on their morphine...settled into a very softened and comfortable existence after the appropriate use of what became my style of suggestion/hypnosis.

I was very good at using suggestions in everyday conversations to impact people’s mental, emotional, and physical states while they were patients at the Naval Hospital. It felt like I was born to do this. To this day, when someone asks me, “Does suggestion work for pain management?” My answer is almost always, “It depends.”

It's a skill set. Just as in any other area of life where a particular skill set is used, some people are masters of their craft; the bulk is “Meh...okay, I guess,” and some suck. For me, it felt like “coming home.”

Now, most oncology patients in pain and/or their family members are eager to agree to use something like hypnosis/suggestion to ease their pain. However, that wasn’t always the case.

One older Filipino woman who had been having a particularly rough time with her cancer-related pain was one of those exceptions.

She was a strict Catholic, and while the Catholic faith is not anti-hypnosis, her family told me she had some beliefs about demons, exorcism, etc., that would make doing hypnosis with her a “no-go.” “She’d close her mind down to that, and as a result, I don’t think it would be effective,” her daughter told me.

“What if I could find a way to work around her beliefs?” I asked. “Oh, that would be great!” her daughter cheerfully replied, “but how are you going to do that?”

I asked her to give me the night to think about it, and I’d get back to her in the morning.

The following day, I cautiously told her about the plan I had devised overnight. Surprisingly, she said, “Oh...how clever! Let’s see if it will work.”

What was my plan? I knew that to bypass her beliefs about hypnosis and the “risk” it presented for “demon” possession, I would need to not only frame my communication while offering suggestions as something other than hypnosis, but I would need to position myself as an unquestioned authority figure, for her, precisely, so that whatever I did in connection with her would be acceptable, and encounter little to no mental or emotional resistance.

Being Catholic, I knew a Priest would be someone she would almost certainly see as an authority figure and be far more open to. I had a friend who was close to my age and a Navy chaplain at the hospital. I twisted his arm, asking him to loan me his slacks, shirt, collar, rosary beads, etc. Nervously, he finally relented.

The family presented me to Yolanda the next day (not her real name) as the “Chaplain.” After a few moments of holding her frail hand and quietly chatting with her about her family, I lowered my voice, “Can I pray with you?” I asked her.

She closed her eyes and slowly nodded, “Yes.” I spent the next twenty-thirty minutes offering her suggestions through parables, quips, quotes, etc., under “prayer.”

Because she saw a priest/chaplain as an authority figure, I had her utter and complete acceptance the moment she laid eyes on me.

Then, because to her, we were “praying” (and I argue...we were), my words flowed through her critical thinking mind like a hot wire through soft butter and right to her other-than-conscious language processing centers and various sensory cortices. I was impacting her on much deeper emotional levels—complete acceptance of my communication and, thus...relief from her pain.

It's incredible what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit. I was more than willing to let God, or whoever/whatever else she attributed her relief to after her time with me.

I used this a few other times when a colleague and I were doing security consulting for businesses. Our sales “Presentation,” if you will, involved one or both of us breaching their current security protocols and then, after making them aware of it, telling them we could help them tighten their security. It was a very effective way to get their attention.

Dressed as a Priest and carrying a Bible, I could easily and effortlessly walk into restricted areas without being questioned most of the time. At most, I’d get a “Sir...may I help you?” “Yes, do you have a key to this door? I’m supposed to be in there right now,” I’d say.

“Oh, I’m sure I can get it unlocked for you...just a moment...” some very polite person would tell me.

We always stopped short of gaining access to something we shouldn’t have seen or experienced, but almost always left no question in their minds that we easily could have, given all of the other things we blew past with ease.

In short, by changing my shirt and pants, I could instantly guarantee I would become an authority figure with men and women of a certain age.

Sweatshirt and blue jeans? “Hey! What are you doing?! You’re not allowed back there! I’m asking that you leave now, or I’ll call the police.”

Collar tab and a long black cassock? “Sir, may I help you?” (Or nothing at all, as I exploited the weaknesses in their safety and security protocols.)

While we don’t see it as much in raising many of today’s youth, many still exist from those generations where we were raised to have a deep sense of duty to authority figures: teachers, clergy, parents, police officers, bank tellers, the mailman, and, for some of us, adults, period. It’s woven through us and operates behind the scenes without us even being aware.

Stanley Milgram shocked the world with his famous studies that showed how easily adults could be swayed to do horrible things to other human beings when asked to do so by someone they perceived as an authority figure.

Milgram developed his reputation for his 1961 obedience experiment. Surprisingly, the experiment found that a very high proportion of subjects would fully obey the instructions to deliver what they believed to be electric shocks to another person.

In this case, the authority figure was established by having someone wear a white lab coat and carry a clipboard. Milgram hypothesized these “scientists” in white-lab coats would most certainly be seen as authority figures or subject matter experts as they played their role in the study. He was right.

By simply throwing on a white lab coat, holding a clipboard, and having what looked to be a crude device for delivering shocks, Milgram’s “scientist” could smoothly and quietly convince most adults that they were precisely what they appeared to be: Authority figures.

Years later, the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo would reach a similar conclusion: With a perceived authority figure in place, you can get people to do some pretty crazy things to others before they finally hit their threshold and say, “No more! I’m done.”

Enter Donald Trump.

Noel Casler is perhaps the most knowledgeable person about Donald Trump. If you haven’t watched the episode of The Jack Hopkins Show podcast I did with Noel, you can do so later using this link. Watch The Jack Hopkins Show Podcast Episode with Noel Casler It’s a must-see!

Noel was there during the tapings of The Apprentice ™. Noel will be the first to tell you that The Apprentice™ was designed to make Donald look like a brilliant businessman with the Midas touch who could do no wrong.

Mark Burnett.

I say “designed” to create that image because, despite his lifelong efforts to develop that image himself, his countless bankruptcies and failed business dealings (among other things) had never succeeded in making him the kind of “brilliant businessman” in the eyes of enough Americans to give him a real shot at becoming President of the United States.

Mark Burnett prepared Donald Trump for the White House, at least in terms of establishing him as the ultimate authority on business deals and negotiations.

By the time Trump’s time on The Apprentice ™ was over, millions of Americans had only one primary frame of reference about Donald Trump: the one Mark Burnett, Donald Trump, and NBC had provided them with, and it all but guaranteed that when the words “great businessman” was mentioned, Donald Trump would instantly come to mind.

As you recall, Donald’s 2016 campaign emphasized his skills as a “master negotiator” and a “brilliant mind” in business.

The Apprentice ™ was nothing more than one long-running infomercial that sold the most significant load of bullshit ever offered in America. The genius of The Apprentice is that no one knew they were being sold anything or that America would pay a horrible cost later.

May I remind you? Yes, you might be thinking, “They didn’t fool me! I didn’t fall for it. I always knew that guy was a joke. " But if you’re reading The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter, you likely weren’t their customer.

You might have watched The Apprentice ™ (or maybe not), but if you’re a Democrat, they knew they were likely never getting your vote, so you could think whatever you like.

They were establishing him as the ultimate authority, a businessman and negotiator for Republicans, and enough Independents to win a presidential election eventually. That’s who their customers were, and their customers went crazy over The Apprentice™and bought it lock, stock, and barrel.

There’s a lot more I want to talk about on Principle #6, (Being seen as the person in charge) a hell of a lot more.

However, I think I’ll break this one up and come back later to continue discussing how Donald Trump positioned himself to be seen as the person in charge, even when that was not the case.

I’ve given you plenty to process. Let your mind wander for a couple of days. That’s when the real insights occur. I hope you enjoy my insights as much as I enjoy writing them.

The main thing I want you to understand in this issue of The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter is that being seen as an authority figure or subject matter expert is a huge responsibility.

It can cause people to accept anything you say without thinking about it. When you have someone who might have less than scrupulous motives, the outcome can go very wrong.

Remember...I appreciate YOU.

Best,

Jack

Jack Hopkins