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By Andrea Javor
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President Trump has spent his career bluffing in business, the media, and now as the governing leader of the (for now) free world. He doesn’t need the best hand, he needs opponents who won’t call him. In poker, he’d be considered a "bully," and there are ways to take down an opponent who’s “bullying the table.”
On a recent vacation, my family didn’t have poker chips and used potato chips, pretzels and peanut M&M’s as currency for a game of Texas Hold 'em. Sorely outmatched by my brother—who had a mountain of snacks at his fingertips—I meekly played medium hands while trying to pick off a handful of his potato chips and make a comeback. As the only woman, I constantly feel I am trying to prove my worth in male-dominated competitions. It didn’t work, and he soon scooped my full snack pile.
It was then that I remembered the cardinal rule of poker—be aggressive.
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Trump does not play poker—or at least hasn’t talked about it. He does, however, use some of the game’s most effective strategies as a leader.
He creates a climate of uncertainty. He uses misdirection, like when confronted with something he doesn’t want to talk about (ahem, the Epstein Files). He exudes arrogance. He makes shocking plays, like posting AI-driven images of feces raining on the No Kings protest or dismissing a reporter by calling her “piggie.” And, although their relationship has evolved, I’m still ruminating on our European ally—who speaks English as a second language—enduring an ambush in the Oval Office. Trump goaded Volodymyr Zelensky with, “You don’t have the cards.” The Ukrainian president responded, “I’m not playing cards.”
America isn’t throwing in an ante for pretzels. We’re in a showdown for SNAP benefits, common sense gun laws and justice for survivors—a more inclusive rhetoric—and a functioning democracy. Trump’s big beautiful bill was a big beautiful bluff designed to maintain a rigged financial system for the wealthy—but it only works if the other side keeps folding.
If I played the hand Democrats did to end the record-length government shutdown, my poker coach would have two critiques. First, the left projected a weak table image. Some wanted to hold the line and others were ready to fold. That split made their bluff easy to read. Second, they misread their opponent, assuming Trump couldn’t be reasoned with. Democrats let him set the stakes.
But, Democrats can still ante up.
Several weeks ago, the party won key elections in New York, Virginia and Georgia, flipping long-held Republican seats with campaigns built on economic accountability. California Governor Gavin Newsom is repeatedly trolling the president with AI-generated ads and ALL CAPS tweets. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has called out the cuts to SNAP. Even Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene—once a fierce Trump ally—has broken ranks, opposing the focus on foreign issues over domestic ones.
There’s nothing wrong strategically with bullying the table the way Trump does, but it’s time for Democrats to play bigger. Pick up a book from poker legends like Daniel Negreanu or the late Doyle Brunson and they’ll tell you the same thing: Use your chips to your advantage. Make your opponents commit. Put them in bad spots. Poker is a zero-sum game, take everything you can get by any (legal) means necessary.
It’s simple math: With $100 worth of chips against an opponent with $500, double up twice and the odds fundamentally flipped.
So, how do Democrats double up? First, build a stronger stack on issues like health care, housing and student debt relief to energize the base. Play tighter—symbolic shutdowns without a clear path to victory just burns chips. Trump holds the MAGA base, but independents have shown to be wary of chaos. The GOP is betting on immigration and crime and Democrats should play into that with border reform and police accountability, not ignore the topics.
In other words, never stop playing the game.
America’s waiting, elbows propped up on the felt at the poker table, calculating the next moves. Polls are showing Trump’s approval rating declining. What gives me hope is that poker, like life, is a game of multiple decisions. In a single hand of Hold 'em, I decide at least four times whether I want to call, fold, check or raise. It's never too late to calculate and make a better move.
I recently sat across from a guy in a casino who epitomized the "bully." He blustered, bet big and talked to the dealer as if they were old pals. Heads-up against me, I thought he had a high pair. He flashed a grin and raised the pot. I pushed my entire remaining chips into the center and he called quickly.
“Hah!” he boasted, “Gotcha, sweetie!” and revealed his pocket queens, making a set on the board.
But, his strong hand was vulnerable to my back-door straight. I flipped my offsuit nine-seven and—without eye contact—exhaled slowly and gathered the chips toward me.
I used what I had: Guts and timing. I beat the bully not by waiting for the perfect hand, but by recognizing the moment when he couldn’t let go and then made the wrong move. Democrats don’t need pocket aces to win. They need the nerve to push back as a unified party when the stakes are high.
Happy that I put the bully in his place, I placed two red discs in front of me. The ante for the next hand.
Andrea Javor is a Chicago-based freelance writer and marketing executive working on her memoir about poker and love. Connect with her on Instagram.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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