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Retribution and Repetition: The Trump Playbook You Should Be Scared Of

Repetition is hypnosis and he is prepping us to accept a dictatorship

5 min readAug 28, 2025

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Photo by Rick Rothenberg on Unsplash

You want to normalize a repulsive concept? Say it so often it starts to seem acceptable. It’s the basis of all propaganda and it is a blunt instrument Donald Trump plays very well. He is more of a marching band horn player than an orchestral musician, but it has worked for him for his entire life.

So when he talks about dictators he is prepping us to get used to the idea. It’s not subtle but it works. Repetition is a form of hypnosis. Fortunately there is an antidote, which is known as ridicule. Mock the shit out of the guy and his message.

And Gavin Newsom is talking the lead in that effort by going full on Trump social media personality and it seems to be working but…it’s a huge risk for his political future. Newsom is pretty openly positioning himself for a Presidential run in 2028.

The risk is going to attack mode too early but I don’t think his people saw any greater opportunity because of the Trump/Greg Abbott redistricting effort to steal the midterm elections by artificially creating new Republican districts in Texas. It was an opportune moment to go on the attack.

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MartinEdic
MartinEdic

Written by MartinEdic

Mastodon: @martinedic@md.dm, Writer, nine non-fiction books, two novels, Buddhist, train lover. Amateur cook, lover of life most of the time!