The Abnormal Demand Curve in the White House: Donald Trump

By Dr. nouridin melo

Title: The Abnormal Demand Curve in the White House: Donald Trump
Subtitle: Decoding Economic Paradoxes: Populist Capitalism and the Weaponization of Emotion

What if the man still shaping America's future isn't just a politician, but a corporate raider of democracy itself?

Donald Trump operates not as a former president but as the CEO of Disruption, turning outrage into equity, loyalty into leverage, and democracy into a hostile takeover. The Abnormal Demand Curve in the White House cracks open the algorithm of his enduring power, exposing how he weaponizes economic theory and emotional contagion to dominate the American psyche. This isn't history. This is the playbook unfolding in real time.

Scandals Are Assets. Voters Are Consumers. Democracy Is a Brand.

Trump didn't retire, he retooled. In this electrifying dissection, discover how "marketized democracy" thrives today: a world where attention is the new GDP, racism is a branding tool, and institutions are strip-mined for viral content. Watch as tariff wars morph into nationalist ad campaigns, conspiracy theories become equity shares, and the Capitol insurrection is repackaged as rebel lore. Trump's White House wasn't a government; it's a franchise, and he's still signing up voters as franchisees.

The question isn't why Trump sells, it's why we keep buying. Why do millions trade healthcare, wages, and stability for the dopamine hit of "owning the libs"? How does outrage become the ultimate renewable energy? With surgical precision, this book unmasks the consumer psychosis of a nation addicted to political spectacle, a marketplace where democracy isn't debated, but day-traded.

This isn't a postmortem. It's a field manual for survival. As Trump pivots from presidency to perpetual campaign, The Abnormal Demand Curve decodes the real-time merger of populism and profit. Learn how narratives hijack facts, virality overthrows legitimacy, and democracy isn't just eroded—it's monetized. For fans of No Logo and Sapiens, this is your crash course in resisting an era where truth is negotiated on the stock exchange.

Don't Just Witness the Unraveling, Understand It. Click 'Buy Now' to Decode the Playbook of Marketized Democracy Before It Rewrites the Rules of Governance Forever.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. nouridin melo
• Release date: Apr 23, 2025
• ISBN: 9798231095797

Dr. nouridin melo

Dr. Nouridin Melo, a leading critic of digital colonialism, reveals how algorithms and data have become the new weapons of empire. From exploited votes to indigenous sovereignty, this groundbreaking work provides the tools not just to understand the system, but to dismantle it.

Book preview

DEDICATION 

To the noble memory of Professor T. Guilbert Fah, whose wisdom lit my path, and to my dearest heart, Linda Melo

PREFACE:

THE SPECTACLE OF POWER AND THE PRICE OF DEMOCRACY

In the grand theater of modern politics, where attention is currency and outrage fuels engagement, Donald Trump’s presidency did not just disrupt norms; it rewrote the rules. This book is not merely about Trump; it is about a seismic shift in how democracy functions, where politics morphs into performance, loyalty eclipses governance, and identity becomes the ultimate commodity. Welcome to an era where the demand for chaos outstrips the appetite for stability, and where the abnormal is the new normal.

Classical economics teaches us that demand wanes as prices rise. Yet Trump’s presidency inverted this logic, transforming scandal and division into political assets. Like a luxury brand thriving on exclusivity, his appeal grew not despite controversy, but because of it. This phenomenon, what we term the abnormal demand curve, reveals a chilling truth: in today’s political marketplace, emotion often trumps reason, spectacle overshadows substance, and democracy itself risks becoming a transactional game.

Why This Book? Why Now?

This book emerged from a pressing question: How did a reality TV star turned president redefine the rules of political engagement, and what does it mean for democracy’s future? To answer this, we dissect Trumpism through three unconventional lenses:

1.  Economics: Trump’s presidency functioned as a Veblen good, where perceived value soared with controversy.

2.  Media Theory: His mastery of the attention economy turned governance into a 24/7 spectacle, with tweets as policy and rallies as rituals.

3.  Performance Studies: Trumpism is less ideology than branding, a fusion of populist theater and identity politics that markets belonging as power.

This is not a partisan critique. It is a forensic examination of how democratic institutions, designed for deliberation, buckled under the weight of viral moments and loyalty tests. It is about understanding why politics feels more fractured than ever in an age of unprecedented connectivity.

A Roadmap Through the Chaos:

The book unfolds in four acts, each probing a facet of Trump’s disruptive legacy:

  Part I: The Demand Curve Distorted explores how Trump turned voters into consumers and politics into a marketplace of outrage.

  Part II: The White House as a Corporate Empire reveals governance reshaped by CEO logic, where loyalty is currency and institutions are assets to be leveraged.

  Part III: The Gig Economy Presidency examines leadership reduced to transactional gigs; volatile, attention-driven, and perilously unstable.

  Part IV: Beyond the Curve confronts the aftermath: a democracy haunted by Trumpism’s ghost, where autocracy beckons and spectacle reigns.

In a world where politics is a product, can democracy remain a public good?

The answer begins here.

In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

- George Orwell

Politics is no longer about policy. It’s about attention. And attention is the oxygen of power.

- Adapted from Mark Manson

ABSTRACT

What happens when a president governs not as a public servant, but as a brand, transforming scandals into assets, voters into consumers, and democracy into a stage-managed enterprise? The Abnormal Demand Curve in the White House: Donald Trump interrogates this political inversion through the lens of economic theory and media spectacle. It argues that Donald Trump did not merely break the norms of governance; he exploited them with the precision of a market strategist, converting leadership into a performance driven by provocation, loyalty, and identity rather than policy, truth, or institutional continuity.

Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks, including political economy, media theory, and populist performance (Moffitt, 2016; Postman, 1985; Mudde & Rovira Kaltwasser, 2017), this study situates Trumpism within a broader shift toward what may be called marketized democracy. Here, attention functions as currency, outrage becomes a renewable political resource, and institutions are commodified to serve the imperatives of branding. Racism is reframed as a product differentiator, governance becomes spectacle, and policy is replaced by public relations. The presidency itself morphs into a franchise, run less by legal principle than by affective loyalty.

From tariff wars designed as nationalist marketing campaigns to the Capitol insurrection reimagined as insurgent mythology, every disruption under Trump was strategically packaged for mass consumption. Yet the deeper analytic concern lies not in Trump’s tactics alone, but in the consumer psychology of the electorate: Why did millions invest in a political brand that often undermined their material interests? What structural transformations enabled such a marketplace of political desire?

Ultimately, The Abnormal Demand Curve decodes how the fusion of populism, media logic, and market rationality reshapes the very conditions of democratic life. It offers a critical blueprint for understanding twenty-first-century power, a world where virality displaces legitimacy, narrative supplants truth, and democracy, increasingly, is sold rather than practiced.

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RESUME

Que se passe-t-il quand un président gère le pouvoir comme un PDG, transformant les scandales en atouts, les électeurs en consommateurs, et la démocratie en téléréalité ? La Courbe de demande anormale à la Maison Blanche : Donald Trump décrypte la logique économique derrière l’une des présidences les plus chaotiques de l’histoire moderne. Ce livre soutient que Trump n’a pas simplement brisé les normes politiques, il les a exploitées comme un stratège en marketing chevronné, transformant le leadership en un spectacle où l’indignation, la loyauté et l’identité ont primé sur les politiques, la vérité et la stabilité.

À travers une analyse percutante et un humour noir, l’ouvrage présente le mandat de Trump comme une étude de cas sur la rencontre entre le théâtre politique et les lois du marché. Il démontre comment il a recyclé le racisme en « différenciateur de produit », monétisé le chaos via un feuilleton médiatique ininterrompu, et converti des institutions comme la Maison Blanche en une franchise corporative fondée sur la loyauté, non sur le droit. Des guerres commerciales érigées en coups médiatiques à l’émeute du Capitole recyclée en récit de campagne, le manuel de Trump a révélé une vérité troublante : à l’ère de la désinformation virale et des identités fracturées, la démocratie elle-même peut être transformée en jeu.

Mais ce n’est pas qu’une question de Trump. C’est une question de société. Pourquoi ses partisans ont-ils « acheté » sa marque alors que ses politiques leur nuisaient ? Comment l’indignation est-elle devenue une ressource renouvelable ? Et que devient une société où la politique n’est plus un bien public, mais un produit ?

Provocant et accessible, La Courbe de demande anormale ne se contente pas d’expliquer Trump il décode les nouvelles règles du pouvoir dans un monde où l’attention est une monnaie d’échange, la vérité est élastique, et où la démocratie vacille.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK

The Abnormal Demand Curve in the White House: Donald Trump is not just a study of a presidency, it’s a mirror held up to a world where politics and economics collide in unprecedented ways. This book matters because it decodes how Donald Trump transformed leadership into a spectacle, voters into consumers, and democracy into a marketplace where outrage, identity, and chaos became the most valuable currencies.

By framing Trump’s tenure through the lens of an abnormal demand curve, the book reveals a paradox: the more Trump broke norms, the more his base rallied. Scandals didn’t sink him; they supercharged his appeal, turning him into a political Veblen good where controversy signaled status. This isn’t just about Trump; it’s about how digital age dynamics, algorithmic virality, media circus, and emotional capitalism, rewired democracy itself.

From trade wars fueled by performative nationalism to governance run like a reality TV show, the book shows how Trumpism thrived by blurring lines between public service and private gain. It warns of a future where autocratic tactics masquerade as populism, crises are monetized, and truth is traded for clicks.

But this isn’t a eulogy for democracy. The book challenges readers to confront urgent questions: Can institutions recover from being treated like disposable gig jobs? Can we resist a politics reduced to branding and tribalism? And how do we rebuild a world where leadership isn’t a product, but a promise?

Sharp, provocative, and deeply researched, this book isn’t just about understanding Trump; it’s about decoding the playbook of modern power. For anyone grappling with today’s polarized politics, collapsing trust, and the rise of strongmen, it’s a guide to fighting for a democracy where substance still matters more than spectacle.

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LIST OF FIGURES

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Figure 1: Understanding Trump’s Political Branding and Leadership Style.

Figure 2: President Donald Trump as a Brand

Figure 3: Trump’s Controversial Strategy Undermines Democratic Norms

Figure 4: Corporate Governance in Politics

Figure 5: Trump’s Polarization Strategies and Political Capital

Figure 6: Political Strategy of Chaos

Figure 7: Governance Model and Its Impacts

Figure 8: Trump’s Second-Term Economic Agenda

Figure 9: Trumponomics’ Economic Impact

Figure 10: Spectacle Governance

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

PREFACE:

ABSTRACT

RESUME

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK

LIST OF FIGURES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

PART I: THE DEMAND CURVE DISTORTED – ECONOMICS MEETS PERSONALITY POLITICS

CHAPTER 1: THE ECONOMICS OF DESIRE – TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEMAND

1. Revisiting the Classical Demand Curve

1.1 What the Classical Model Says

1.2 How Trump’s Presidency Challenged This Idea

2. Behavioral Economics and Trump’s Presidency

2.1 How Behavioral Economics Offers a Better Lens

2.2 Trump as a Political Luxury Brand

3. Leadership as Spectacle

3.1 From Policy-Making to Performance

3.2 The Emotional Appeal of the Spectacle

4. Emotional Markets and Media Amplification

4.1 Building Emotional Loyalty

4.2 How the Media Amplifies Demand

4.1 Turning Contradictions into Strengths

4.2 Simplifying the Message

5. Trump’s Presidency and Market-Like Volatility

5.1 Volatility as a Feature, Not a Bug

5.2 Challenges for Traditional Institutions

6. A New Framework for Understanding Political Demand

6.1 Shifting the Focus from Policy to Identity

6.2 How Modern Conditions Sustain Trump’s Political Model

6.3 Lessons for Democratic Resilience

CHAPTER 2: TRUMP AS A MARKET PHENOMENON

1. Branding, Real Estate, and the Architecture of Identity

1.1 Trump as a Brand, Not Just a Businessman

1.2 The Illusion of Wealth and Success

1.3 From Real Estate to Myth-Making

2. Trumpism as a Political Product

2.1 Rebranding for Politics

2.2 Selling Dominance

2.3 A Direct-to-Consumer Presidency

3. Voters as Consumers in a Polarized Market

3.1 Politics as Personal Identity

3.2 Trumpism’s Target Market

3.3 The Commodification of Opposition

4. The Market Logic of Scandal

4.1 Scandals as Publicity

4.2 The Attention Economy

4.3 Controversy as a Loyalty Test

5. The Algorithmic Presidency

5.1 Governance by Social Media

5.2 Optimized for Virality

5.3