Category: Scott adams
Scott Adams made Trump plausible before anyone else would
On the timeline of making America great again, two dates in 2015 stand out for anyone who backed Donald Trump before it was safe to do so.
On June 16, 2015, Trump came down the escalator in New York City and announced his run for president. The political class laughed. Conservative pundits mocked him. Commentators treated the whole thing as a stunt. A lifelong Democrat running as a Republican? A celebrity billionaire developer? Please. What a “clown.”
Scott understood something most people never learn: Bad reviews from bad people are good reviews. He also understood how to grieve with honor instead of self-pity.
Then came August 13, 2015.
That day, Scott Adams — the creator of “Dilbert” and a best-selling personal development author — published a blog post that reframed the entire race in a single phrase:
Usual frame:
Donald Trump is a clown.
Reframe:
Donald Trump is a clown genius.
That was Adams’ title: “Clown Genius.” And his point was simple: Trump wasn’t improvising. He was persuading. Adams wrote that Trump’s “value proposition” was to “Make America Great,” which meant selling the world on America again — what Adams called “good brand management.”
It sounds obvious now. It didn’t sound obvious then.
Adams became one of the first major nonpolitical public figures to say out loud what millions of Americans were starting to suspect: Trump wasn’t a joke. The joke was the people pretending they couldn’t see what was happening.
“Clown Genius” by Scott Adams, accessed via the Internet Archive
That post didn’t just defend Trump. It gave people permission. It gave tens of millions of everyday Americans cover to voice support for the one candidate the establishment of both parties hated more than anyone they had seen in decades. Adams called it before the polls did, and he kept calling it.
And, in the process, he helped change the course of human history.
He later packaged Trump’s persuasion methods into a book-length case study, “Win Bigly.” And famously, he assigned Trump a 98% chance of winning in 2016 — at a time when most of the media treated the idea as laughable.
Adams paid for that courage.
When he backed Trump in 2015, he didn’t just lose polite invitations. He lit his career on fire. He traded lavish speaking fees, safe corporate fame, and establishment approval for permanent exile from respectable opinion.
In October 2025, Adams described the price in stark terms:
When I decided … to back Trump … I sacrificed everything. I sacrificed my social life. I sacrificed my career. I sacrificed my reputation. I may have sacrificed my health. And I did that because I believed it was worth it. … I’m really happy I lived long enough to see it. It was worth it. … It was worth it to be right.
Independent journalist and filmmaker Mike Cernovich made the point even more bluntly. Adams could have kept quiet, kept the corporate speaking gigs, and died richer. Instead, he chose the lonely road and earned something bigger than money. He became a legend.
For millions, Scott Adams was more than a cartoonist or a commentator. Worldwide, listeners of Scott’s daily show, “Coffee with Scott Adams,” knew him as our “internet dad.” If Trump is the father of MAGA, Scott is its honorary stepfather.
People didn’t just read him. They listened to him. They learned from him. They built confidence from his willingness to say what others wouldn’t.
President Trump made America great again. Scott Adams made Candidate Trump plausible in the first place.
After a long, public battle with prostate cancer, Scott Adams died on Tuesday, January 13. He was 68.
President Trump responded with a tribute that said more than many will admit.
“Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease. My condolences go out to his family, and all of his many friends and listeners. He will be truly missed. God bless you Scott!”
I’m one of those listeners and friends. More than that, I was Scott’s editor, and I remain the publisher of the Scott Adams library. He brought me on as a contributing editor for “Reframe Your Brain,” a book that has helped thousands of readers apply his signature “reframes” to work, money, relationships, and even faith.
As of this writing, “Reframe Your Brain” is the No. 1 best-seller on Amazon.
RELATED: Glenn Beck remembers Scott Adams: ‘A philosopher disguised as a stick-figure artist’
Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Near the end of his life, Scott also made a quiet but meaningful choice. He accepted Pascal’s Wager — the simple risk-reward logic that faith in Jesus Christ is worth the bet. He pinned that profession to the top of his X.com profile in his final statement.
Scott was a father figure to me in the most practical sense. I asked his advice the way a son asks his dad. He was happy to oblige. That’s who he was: sharp, funny, and eager to be useful.
Now critics will rush in to re-litigate his controversies, including the 2023 livestream that helped get “Dilbert” pulled from newspapers. I wrote the truth for Newsweek at the time, after his remarks triggered an organized effort to kill his book deal and erase him from public life.
I worked with an author on a not-quite-banned book recently. Dilbert creator and bestselling author Scott Adams had his long-running comic strip ended by multiple newspapers and his forthcoming book contract canceled over some hyperbolic remarks on race that were intended to stir up discussion. Scott Adams’ books were twice banned, but Amazon reversed the decision. … Adams then went to his audience and let them know that there were people who didn’t want his book published, and they responded by buying it, en masse. Sales shot up.
Scott understood something most people never learn: Bad reviews from bad people are good reviews.
He also understood how to grieve with honor instead of self-pity. As he wrote in “Reframe Your Brain”:
When you experience the death of a loved one, your instincts push you into feeling tragedy, loss, and pain. Once you have had enough of that, and when you are ready, start tossing these five words around to release some of the pain: Gratitude. Respect. Honor. Privilege. Service.
Scott Adams lived those words. And now he belongs to the ages.
Scott won bigly.
Thank you, Scott.
‘REST IN PEACE, SCOTT ADAMS’: White House, President Trump Pay Tribute to Dilbert Creator
Cartoonist, author, and political commentator Scott Adams died Tuesday after a battle with prostate cancer.
‘A true American original’: Trump, Vance, Musk, and others pay tribute to the late Scott Adams amid leftist attacks
Following the heartbreaking news of Scott Adams’ death on Tuesday, the leftist media wasted no time before slinging mud at the ardent conservative cartoonist and author. However many conservative political figures and commentators came to the “Dilbert” creator’s defense just as quickly.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, for instance, came to Adams’ defense, praised his work, and thanked him for standing up for conservative values, even when it wasn’t easy.
‘Instead he chose courage and died surrounded by the love of tens of millions.’
Trump posted a photo of Adams and himself in the Oval Office. He wrote, “Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease. My condolences go out to his family, and all of his many friends and listeners. He will be truly missed. God bless you Scott!”
Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire delivered a poignant message to Adams’ detractors.
“To have monsters celebrate your death is not a bad thing. In fact it is a tribute. But to die and have no one either mourn or celebrate, to die and be forgotten, to have left no impact of any kind on the world, to have your existence add up to nothing in the end — that is the greatest horror. And it’s the fate of basically every leftist who gloated over Charlie, and gloats now over Scott. Gloat all you want, you pathetic nothings. We will not return the favor when you die, because we won’t know or care.”
RELATED: ‘Subhuman ghouls’: People, WaPo trash Scott Adams hours after his death
Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Vance paid his respects to Adams on social media: “Scott Adams was a true American original, and a great ally to the President of the United States and the entire administration. My prayers go to Scott and all of you who loved him.”
“We lost one of the good ones but we’ll never forget him,” Vance added.
“Rest in glorious peace, @ScottAdamsSays — you changed more lives and made the world infinitely better. God bless you and thank you for everything you did for me. We will always love you,” Fox News comedian and host Greg Gutfeld said.
Mike Cernovich chimed in, “Scott Adams could have kept his mouth shut in 2015, kept those lavish corporate speaking gigs where he’d earn 50-100K per talk, and have died with an extra zero or two in his bank account. Instead he chose courage and died surrounded by the love of tens of millions.”
Quote-tweeting Adams’ final message, Elon Musk commented, “Even though I knew his death was coming, as he told us it would, I still can’t believe he has died. Rest in peace, good and great man, rest in peace.”
Adams’ X account posted a two-page “Final Message” mid-morning Tuesday. The statement offers a reflection on his life and work and, significantly, shined a light on his apparent last-minute conversion to Christianity.
“I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So, here I go,” the statement reads in part. “I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. And I hope I am still qualified for entry.”
Adams died after a prolonged battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He announced his diagnosis last May and suggested in early January that his days were numbered following serious complications, including lower-body paralysis.
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‘Subhuman ghouls’: People, WaPo trash Scott Adams hours after his death
On Tuesday, Scott Adams, the creator of the beloved comic strip “Dilbert,” died after a prolonged battle with metastatic prostate cancer. However, some of his opponents in media wasted no time before criticizing Adams and his accomplishments.
Hours after it was announced that Adams had died, People magazine published an article titled “Scott Adams, Disgraced Dilbert Creator, Dies at 68.”
‘You are the scum of the earth.’
The author then claimed in the very first paragraph that Adams “degraded Black people in a 2023 rant.”
People updated the article at 12:33 p.m. ET, including changing the author of the piece. The updated version says it was written by “People Staff.”
RELATED: Beloved ‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams dies at age 68
Photo by Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images
However, an earlier, archived version of the article timestamped at 10:47 a.m. ET shows that it was written by Victoria Edel, as many X users, including Eric Daugherty, made sure to emphasize.
Several prominent X users did not try to hide their disgust over the tasteless headline.
“Subhuman ghouls,” BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre said in a reply to People’s post.
“You are the scum of the earth,” Raw Egg Nationalist wrote.
People’s original X post promoting the article also appears to have been deleted.
Other news outlets couldn’t resist the opportunity to drag Adams through the mud either.
An archived article originally published from the Washington Post and apparently shared later by the Boston Globe bore the headline, “Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ creator who veered into racist, far-right commentary, dies.”
Just like the People article, this article wasted no time attacking Adams’ right-wing views. The first paragraph reads: “Scott Adams, who became a hero to millions of cubicle-dwelling office workers as the creator of the satirical comic strip ‘Dilbert,’ only to rebrand himself as a digital provocateur — at home in the Trump era’s right-wing mediasphere — with inflammatory comments about race, politics and identity, died Jan. 13.”
For evidence, critics point to a February 22, 2023, stream of Adams’ show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams.” The “rant” that they are referring to involves Adams’ discussion of a Rasmussen poll of black Americans responding to the statement “it’s okay to be white.” Fifty-three percent agreed, 26% disagreed, and 21% were not sure about the statement.
Adams took issue with the fact that nearly half of black Americans did not agree with that statement. He said in part, “If nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people … that’s a hate group. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people … because there is no fixing this.”
Adams’ critics failed to mention that he went on to encourage his viewers to be “friendly” to everyone and that he was not trying to “start a war” with anyone.
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Beloved ‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams dies at age 68
Scott Adams, creator of the iconic “Dilbert” comic strip and ardent Trump supporter, has passed away at the age of 68.
Adams passed away Tuesday morning after a battle with prostate cancer.
‘You should prepare yourself that January will be probably a month of transition one way or the other.’
Scott Adams announced his cancer diagnosis on his “Coffee with Scott Adams” show last May.
On the January 1 episode of his show, Adams suggested that his health was declining rapidly. His death was preceded by a visit to the hospital with issues like lower-body paralysis.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
“I talked to my radiologist yesterday … and it’s all bad news. So the odds of me recovering are essentially zero. I’ll give you any updates if that changes, but it won’t,” Adams said on Jan. 1. “So there’s no chance I’ll get my feeling back in my legs. And I’ve got some ongoing heart failure, which is making it difficult to breathe sometimes during the day.”
“But at the moment I can breathe, and I’m not in any pain,” he continued. “However, you should prepare yourself that January will be probably a month of transition one way or the other.”
On Monday, Adams was in hospice at his home in Northern California. His first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, told TMZ that Adams began receiving “end-of-life care” last week because his health was declining “rapidly.”
Adams is best known for the cartoon “Dilbert,” which first debuted in 1989.
His death was announced on the Tuesday episode of “Coffee with Scott Adams,” which can be viewed below:
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