We've lost count of the number of games that have been churned out to mock US President Donald Trump. Like, Trump Card, which we reviewed on Board's Eye View two and half years ago, most are more satirical or sarcastic mockery than game. That's not the case with From Idiot to President, from Haarenwek Verlag. Tho' this tongue-in-cheek German game mocks the way in which the political parties select their candidates for the US presidency - and, yes, you'll spot some jibes at Donald Trump among many others - this is a 'proper' board game where the satire is incidental rather than supplementary to the game play.
As if to underline this point, the edition we've shown here on Board's Eye View is in German. For those who sprich kein Deutsch, you're really only missing out on the flavour text 'fake news' stories on the headline cards that display the dice rolling targets you need to hit in order to be able to place your political party's cubes out on states neighbouring the oversized pawn marker that moves around the US map board. This is an area control game (player with the most cubes on a state wins it to take any bonus cards it generates and the electoral votes it carries) with a dice rolling push-your-luck element.
From Idiot to President is played over four rounds and there's scope for strategy in deciding on whether to go for relatively easy to achieve dice-rolling targets or to risk tougher dice targets that will give you more cubes. You also have to weigh up whether to prioritise states that give you in-game bonus actions or those with the most electoral college votes. When the four rounds are up, the win goes to the player with the most electoral college delegates - so New York, California, Florida and Texas are each going to be worth rather more than less populous states like Vermont, Oregon or Iowa...
Its German origins notwithstanding, From Idiot to President is no Die Macher (Stronghold / Spielworxx). Designers Florian Isensee and Philipp Grasl, and illustrator Carsten Fuhrmann, have created here a light easy-to-play game that you can expect to finish in around 40 minutes. The rules say the game is for 3–5 players but it seemed to us that the only reason it couldn't be played with just two (Republicans vs Democrats) is that in just four rounds two players would likely just seize separate states and have no need to come into head-to-head conflict. We suspect you could play this game successfully with two if you simply upped the number of rounds.