'Dilbert' creator says Trump won because he can paint pictures with his words
Despite arguments from his opponents that President-elect Donald Trump's rhetoric would cost him the election, one of his supporters predicted that his persuasive speaking ability is what led to his victory.
Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that Trump's ability to paint pictures with his words may have been key to his popularity among voters.
"When he talks about his enthusiasm about his campaign he says 'look at the crowds. look at how big the crowds are.' So he always goes for the visual and our visual sense is our most persuasive part of our brain," Adams said Friday.
Adams, who has a background in hypnosis and studied persuasion, used his assessment to correctly predict Trump's victory who many - including the Democratic Party - saw as a surprise.
When asked if Trump would follow through with his controversial policies on immigration and abortion, Adams said his presidency would involve a lot of trial and error.
"I think you'll see in Trump what I call A/B testing that's a phrase from the business world where somebody will try something and then if it doesn't work they quickly reverse," he said.
The cartoonist admitted his own support of Trump's candidacy caused some trouble for him. Adams recalled outside efforts to have his Dilbert comic removed from newspapers, adding that his speaking engagements "dried up," also.