Alumnus launches political party card game “Talking Trump”


Photo courtesy of Gibson Morales

While some people spent the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidential victory watching the news, crying or cheering, others were glued to political forums, discussing and debating what having Trump as our president would mean.

One of these forum-crawlers was Gibson Morales, an alumnus who graduated from USC in 2011 and majored in psychology. Morales classifies himself as an “authorpreneur,” having written various young adult science fiction novels such as The Deadliest Earthling and The Boy Who Wields Thunder. Yet, as a writer constantly on the prowl for new ways to entertain, Morales found a way to transform his time discussing politics with friends into “Talking Trump: A Presidential Party Game.”

The card game is simple: Players are asked to answer a “conversation starter” question using a randomly drawn Trump quote. The catch is that the other players should not recognize that a Trump quote is being used. To make matters more challenging, certain quotes have interchangeable words so as not to give the player away; for instance, “Nobody knew [subject] could be so complicated.” When a player uses the quote and does not get recognized, they get a point. When the deck of quote cards or question cards runs out, the player with the most points wins.

The idea came to Morales amid political discussions with friends that oscillated between genuine concern and parody.

“Among my friends, we’d often use some of Trump’s debate quotes as jokes to satirize him,” Morales said. “I noticed the same thing on political websites; people would reference his quotes with a word changed or a twist to it to make it more relevant to the topic.”

The game is meant to not only exemplify our generation’s approach to humor — that is, the metamorphosis of news into entertainment — but also to promote political awareness in social settings. Trump’s quotes, like politics itself, now linger at parties like an issue waiting to be addressed, or a joke waiting to be told. 

Though the options were vast and seemingly never-ending, Morales opted for quotes that were both outrageous and colloquially used, reminding players and political enthusiasts alike that there is, in fact, humor in everything. However, the hilarity of the game comes from its relevance. What one might see on the news today could make it into a future edition of “Talking Trump.”

“The nice thing about a card game is that there’s always room for expansion,” Morales said.

The two most recent expansions are titled “Trumplandia” and “Deplorable Rising,” bringing in the vernacular that some Trump supporters use. Like the vocabulary surrounding Trump’s presidency, “Talking Trump” itself is also constantly expanding.

“If I discover a great quote I missed, I can always include it in a later expansion,” Morales said.

Though Morales’s favorite Trump quote in the game is based off the classic “Jeb is a mess,” many other quotes are yet to come.