Gaming the system

Is it all bad?*

A great number of you already understand Fogy's dislike of Donald Trump. This has hovered near the top of Fogy's hate list since the early days of Trump's failed ventures and self-centred rhetoric, confirming a label of incompetence coupled with self-grandeur.

Becoming president—twice—has not changed Fogy's opinion. In fact, the dislike has only worsened.

Hence the title of this post: Gaming the system.

Has there been any moment in his public life, as we know it, that hasn’t seemed to involve gaming the system?

But what does this really mean?

Strategic manipulation – not random cheating; it's calculated.
Rule-abiding but exploitative – works within the letter of the law, not the spirit.
Efficiency-focused – often a shortcut to rewards.
Ethically grey – usually legal, but morally debatable.

Now we have a 90-day reprieve around reciprocal tariffs between China and the US. Simply put, this is just a strategy to appease investors and distract supporters—supporters who are about to pay for the consequences of a poorly thought-out economic policy.

As mentioned previously, even Reagan had to admit the folly of instigating a tariff war.

But as Fogy often tries to remind people, should we only look at the negative aspects and impacts of Trump’s policies to date?

Well, no.

Sitting back and objectively analysing the state of the US pre-Trump, it was clear that so much had fallen into an abyss of excessiveness—excessive debt, consumerism, political disarray, and public spending, among so much else.

What was needed, obviously, was a new broom. Sweeping changes that could help stabilise the sinking “US hopelessly lost” and set it back on a more even keel.

So, gaming—or even bucking—the system has brought immediate results, no matter how unpleasant to the outsider, but supported and cheered on by the Trump loyalists.

Could this have been done differently? Hardly. Only extreme regime changes have ever managed anything close to what Trump has set out to achieve. Bully-boy tactics sometimes have their place—let’s face it—but for the life of me, I still can’t see where, or how to justify them.

So let’s just say that Fogy has sat back and understood the necessity for such actions. Fogy, however, does not support the methods used.

Lula once stated in an interview towards the end of his last term—here I’m paraphrasing—that his greatest regret was how long each and every process took to march through the heavy machinery of Brazil’s politics. So much more could have been done!

So, should gaming the system and bully-boy tactics always be used? Should we all act like “Karens”? Or should the political system and its objectives be redefined and reformed, so that progress can be better executed—and sensed—as being beneficial to everyone, not just those defining the system?

This, dear reader, is where you might want to pull your heads from the sand and contribute with some earth-shattering ideas.

Or not.

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