It’s true: Pressure makes diamonds. Can’t have diamonds without pressure. But there’s an important caveat: Pressure only makes diamonds if the potential — the core ingredients — were already there.
You can squeeze dirt, dust, and debris ‘til the end of time, and you won’t have a diamond. All you’ll have is a mess. (And very sore hands.)
It’s also true for people: Most of us fold under pressure. For all the talk about “rising to the occasion,” the opposite is more probable: Not only won’t you rise to the occasion, but you’ll perform significantly WORSE.
“Choking is suboptimal performance, not just poor performance,” noted University of Chicago professor Sian Beilock, the author of “Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have to.” “It’s a performance that is inferior to what you can do and have done in the past.”
Which is why it’s so strategically advantageous to put your adversaries on “tilt.”
I learned about tilt from a guy named Phil Gordon. He was the poker expert on NBC/Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown” TV show and one of my very first PR assignments. (He also beat me at pool while using a mop handle as a pool cue. He thought that was very funny.) According to Gordon, he’d put opponents on tilt by doing something so jarring, annoying, inappropriate, or weird, they’d make emotional decisions instead of tactical decisions.
Whatever it takes. Hey, if it’s helpful to break wind, let ‘er rip. (And hope the casino is well ventilated.)
Another pro poker player I repped went far in the World Series of Poker, mostly via the power of tilt: He’d place bets without looking at his cards, wander around the table like a loony-tune, and act like a total goofball. He didn’t win, but he threw everyone around him for a loop, demonstrating an important truth: In zero-sum negotiations, he who puts his opponent on tilt is he who (usually) prevails.
You can steal an awful lot of hands, even when you don’t hold all the cards. [emphasis added]
Conservative campaign legend Morton Blackwell has quipped that the moment a person runs for office, their I.Q. drops 30 points: They go from Albert Einstein to Beavis and Butthead. The same candidate who spoke so wittily and eloquently in his living room will suddenly sound like a doddering dolt; when everything was still in the planning stage, he had nerves of steel, but now that the (metaphorical) bullets are flying, he’s lost his head.
Smart people make stupid decisions under pressure.
Politics is a tactical competition masquerading as an emotional contest. Yes, the emotions matter greatly, but only within the framework of your overall strategy. Emotion for its own sake is pointless.
It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Ever since June 16, 2015 — the day you-know-who descended Trump Tower’s golden escalator — the Democratic Party has been making emotional decisions. They revved up their Id and turned him loose.
Only once did they opt for tactics over emotion: In 2020, when they sabotaged frontrunner Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign to wager their chips with Joe Biden. That was a ruthlessly Machiavellian move… and it culminated with the Democrats back in the White House.
Other than that? Emotions, emotions, emotions!! 24/7, nothing but unhinged emotions!!
It comes across as perpetual P.M.S.
Their hatred of Donald Trump is so severe, they’re blind with rage. It’s all encompassing: Impeachment, lawfare, personal attacks, crazed accusations, and utterly unhinged behavior. They’ve become the poker player on tilt.
It’s why they keep on choking.
Consider: Adolf Hitler held the title of der Führer from August 1934 until April 1945, approximately 11 years, eight months. Donald Trump announced he was running in June of 2015 — roughly 10 years ago.
So, in just two more years, Donald Trump will have been “literally Hitler” longer than HITLER was Hitler!
The mainstream media has been downright giddy over our president’s current poll numbers. All the major outlets have run stories about it, describing them as “devastating,” “weak,” a “disaster,” and “historically awful.” CNN’s in-depth, hard-hitting, award-winning journalistic analysis was: “The numbers suck.”
There’s some truth to it: Amidst the tariff commotions and other upheaval, Trump’s approval rating has declined. (My colleague Matt Margolis provided far more context.) Of course, that’s not entirely unexpected: When a president makes a decision and actually does something, not everyone will agree with it.
But what the media has (predictably) underreported is the REAL story — and the painful consequences of the Democrat’s strategy.
American politics is a binary contest: It’s either Republicans or Democrats. And in zero-sum contests, he who puts his opponent on tilt is he who (usually) prevails.
The Democrats have behaved like unhinged, emotional whackjobs for so long, the American people don’t trust them anymore.
They might not be 100% thrilled with Trump, but unlike our last president, at least our current one is making an effort. The contrast is striking: Not only did Biden refuse to try, he was barely even alive!
Meanwhile, the Democrats are now plotting their THIRD attempt at impeachment. Likely Democratic presidential contender Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) called for riots, protests, and/or public disobedience: “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption — but I am now.”
Not exactly calm, cool, or collected behavior, eh?
The American people have noticed.
Yesterday, Newsweek ran an article that the other outlets all ignored: “Americans Still Trust Donald Trump Over Democrats.”
You see, no matter how “devastating,” “weak,” or “disastrous” Trump’s poll numbers were… the Democrats were always, consistently worse!
In a head-to-head matchup, 37% of the American people said they trusted Donald Trump to solve our country’s problems — which isn’t great — but it’s a helluva lot better than the 30% who chose the Democrats.
The margin grows to nine points when asked which side is out-of-touch with the concerns of the American people: Nearly 70% said the Democratic Party is out-of-touch!
That’s remarkable in a two-party ecosystem: Seven out of 10 people!
If Republicans were running against someone sane, competent, and normal in 2026, they’d be reasons for concern. It’s not like the Republican brand is exemplary.
But against today’s Democrats, they don’t have to be!
Voltaire famously declared, “I have made but one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous! And God granted it.”
Looks like He’s granted it more than once.
Trump has squeezed the Democrats in an emotional vice. They’re screaming, yelling, ranting, and squealing. Been howling nonstop for 10 long years! At this point, it’s their defining characteristic: The party of squealers.
Not only did Donald Trump remake the Republican Party, he remade the Democratic Party, too.
That’s why I call it “The Art of the Squeal.”
One Last Thing: The Democrats are on the ropes, but make no mistake: The donkeys are still dangerous. 2025 will either go down in history as the year we finally Made America Great Again — or the year it all slipped through our fingers. We need your help to succeed! As a VIP member, you’ll receive exclusive access to all our family of sites (PJ Media, Townhall, RedState, twitchy, Hot Air, Bearing Arms): More stories, more videos, more content, more fun, more conservatism, more EVERYTHING! And if you CLICK HERE and use the promo code FIGHT you’ll receive a Trumpian 60% discount!
Thank you for your consideration!
