A White Paper: Since the 10th grade, when my English teacher—whom I liked—graded a paper I wrote a "B" for a few reasons, one in particular stayed with me. I had used the word "hassle," and she marked it down as slang, saying it wasn't proper. I remember saying, "But that's how I feel. It's my paper and my words." I felt comfortable because she had encouraged us to "dialogue and discourse," and to engage in conversations to lean and understand. This was not debating, it was contributing your voice, testing your ideas, and allowing the exchange to expand your understanding, she would say to us.

That was the first time I consciously challenged a teacher and what was considered "proper" language, and it opened something in me... that's what great teachers do. Since then, I’ve been both curious and expressive with words—always attuned to their power. My favorite Scripture is John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word..." Because words, to me, have always felt like breath and blueprint. Alive. Architecting reality.

As a lifestyle strategist enriching the lives of women, a woman who has stood before teen girls in gymnasiums, after-school programs, and clubs since I can remember, and a guide who has coached visionaries through frequency alignment, I’ve seen how language either liberates or manipulates.

There are words we inherit. Words we reclaim. Words we embody.

And then there are words like grifter — words that name what others dare not say. I had heard the word in passing, but I didn’t truly get into it until recently. I became fascinated not by the opinions people shared about it, but by the origin of the word itself. Because to me, understanding the root is the beginning of reclaiming truth. And in the work I do, it's not enough to just define things, although that is also vital—I desire to mirror them, and the Personal Excellence Profile helps me and our Certified PEP Coach Practitioners do that. The PEP™ is not a philosophy. It is a frequency mirror. It reveals what is, whether we name it or not. And now, here we are.

The grifters are loud. Branded. Organized. And feeding on attention like it’s currency. Because for them, it is.

The word grifter comes from the early 1900s, evolving from the word "grafter"—a British slang term for someone who used corrupt or dishonest methods to make money, especially by abusing trust or position.

In the 19th-century British underworld, a "grafter" was a petty criminal or swindler. By the time it crossed into American slang, it had morphed into grifter: a con artist, scammer, or drifter who manipulates others for personal gain.

By the 1920s and 1930s, grifters became archetypes in pulp fiction and noir detective stories. There were people running long cons. Swindlers with charm, and criminals operating in the grey zone between legality and illusion

In the 2010s and 2020s, the term was revived and sharpened. Today, a grifter is no longer just a street hustler. It’s a “public figure” who exploits public office, visibility, or ideology for personal enrichment, pretends to stand for a cause while secretly selling merch, books, or influence, and uses fear or tribal identity to secure power, profit, or platform.

It’s a term that doesn’t just call out dishonesty—it names energetic betrayal. It marks the misuse of influence for performance, power, and profit. When we say grifter today, we’re naming more than corruption.

We’re naming a frequency pattern of deception cloaked in charisma. And they are everywhere.

FREQUENCY ZONE DISTORTION + HIJACKED LIFE ABILITIES

The Personal Excellence Profile™ (PEP) maps eight core frequency zones and the 12 life abilities that arise from them. These are not personality traits. They are energetic intelligences—original capacities embedded in each of us. But in a distorted environment? These get hijacked.

Frequency Zone Distortion

Each PEP Zone holds its own strength. But when distorted, that power becomes manipulation:

1. Red Zone (Value Self) → distorted into fear-based survivalism, aggression, or identity control

2. Orange Zone (Perceive) → distorted into delusion, projection, or shallow “branding”

3. Yellow Zone (Decide) → distorted into impulsivity, overconfidence, or faux authority

4. Green Zone (Build Rapport) → distorted into performative allyship or tribal manipulation

5. Blue Zone (Communicate) → distorted into polished spin, gaslighting, or overtalking truth

6. Indigo Zone (Command) → distorted into spiritual bypass, moral superiority, or religious nationalism

7. Magenta Zone (Expand) →distorted into illusionary ascension, bypassing, or glamorized overreach

8. White Zone (Expand + Accomplish) → distorted into illusionary ascension or bypassed results

Hijacked Life Abilities

When these life abilities are hijacked, distortion becomes the norm, and grifting becomes a strategy. These abilities then reflect the negative (shadow side) of these life abilities.

1. Value Self → becomes inflated ego or martyrdom

2. Perceive → becomes paranoia or projection

3. Decide → becomes manipulation or bypassed decision-making

4. Communicate → becomes weaponized language or noise

5. Build Rapport → becomes manipulation of connection for clout

6. Interact → becomes performance without presence

7. Act → becomes spectacle or chaos

8. Produce → becomes extraction or spectacle metrics

9. Certainty → becomes false confidence, arrogance

10. Command → becomes domination

11. Expand → becomes inflated branding

12. Accomplish → becomes over-identification with optics or output

Grifters want you to believe they are operating from the White Zone—claiming divine clarity, national “calling,” or absolute moral authority. But their fruits reveal otherwise. Many quote Scripture and sell sacred language to manipulate trust, masking corruption in the frequency of righteousness.

Grifters sell chaos, and we need leaders who transmit clarity—with energetic integrity that can’t be bought, broken, traded, or stolen.

CASE STUDY: DONALD TRUMP AS AMERICA’S LEAD GRIFTER

If the Grifter Frequency had a face, a brand, and a global microphone—it would be Donald Trump. From the lens of frequency, he exemplifies nearly every distorted energetic pattern (from the shadow side) in the Personal Excellence Profile™ spectrum. Here’s how:

GRIFTER TRAIT #1: Narrative Over Reality

1. Thousands of false or misleading statements documented during presidency and campaigns

2. Constructs alternative realities to maintain power and emotional control

PEP Frequency Zone Distortion: Yellow (Confidence), Blue (Communication)

Hijacked Life Abilities: Decide, Expand, Communicate

He projects certainty where there is contradiction. Repetition replaces truth. Illusion becomes leadership.

GRIFTER TRAIT #2: Conspiracy as Performance

1. Amplified conspiracy theories: election fraud, deep state, etc.

2. Positions himself as victim or savior

PEP Frequency Zone Distortion: Indigo (Spiritual Authority)

Hijacked Life Abilities: Perceive, Command, Certainty

Uses spiritual and justice-laced language to create tribal loyalty and bypass accountability.

GRIFTER TRAIT #3: Profit from the Persona

1. Monetizes MAGA identity, donations, legal defense funds, and media appearances

2. Operates like a brand more than a servant leader

PEP Frequency Zone Distortion: Orange + Red (Identity + Survival)

Hijacked Life Abilities: Value Self, Interact, Produce

Leadership becomes spectacle. The audience becomes the currency.

GRIFTER TRAIT #4: Radicalized Division & Dog Whistles

1. Repeated attacks on immigrants, Black-led cities, and diversity initiatives

2. Uses coded language to divide and inflame ("inner cities," "law and order," "woke agenda")

PEP Frequency Zone Distortion: Green + Indigo

Hijacked Life Abilities: Build Rapport, Command, Perceive

This isn’t just a political strategy. It’s a betrayal of moral and energetic integrity—and Black people are often the first targets.

Donald Trump’s words and policies have repeatedly activated radicalized fear and resentment, even while claiming to be “for all Americans.”

FINAL FREQUENCY READING:

With This Understanding, and according to the definition of the word, Donald Trump has positioned himself to be America’s Lead Grifter.

He embodies the shadow side of the PEP Zones:

1. Red Zone fear-mongering

2. Yellow Zone overconfidence

3. Indigo Zone weaponized authority

4. Green Zone bypass and division

He does not build wholeness. He builds performance. He does not model alignment. He models allegiance. This is not leadership. This is illusion. This is distortion on a national scale. Learn more about the PEP Zones and see where your feelings, views, actions, and results are right now.

IT'S BEYOND POLITICS, WE NEED A NATIONAL FREQUENCY SHIFT, Y'ALL

This isn’t just about politics anymore. It’s America’s new energetic climate. The Grifter Frequency is no longer limited to campaign stages or headline soundbites. It has infiltrated boardrooms, where image trumps substance, slipped into pulpits, where performance replaces presence, saturated social media, where optics override truth, penetrated schools, where narratives are legislated and history whitewashed, and polluted wellness spaces, where charisma is confused with calling.

It’s not just a crisis of leadership. It’s a crisis of frequency. We are living through the rise of an Artificial America — one where curated personas have replaced authentic embodiment, and attention has replaced intention. But clarity isn’t found in louder microphones. It’s found in aligned presence.

AND WE NEED TO REFRAME: Call Their Frequency What It Is

This is not leadership. This is energetic distortion. This is manipulation with a mic and a marketing team. But here’s the truth: You were born to see through it. You already do. Trust your gut and your ability to perceive.

These grifters are not moving with divine vision. They are tapping into the survival circuits of the disempowered—many who are not allowed to think critically and define words for themselves. But we’re not here to mirror that mentality or behavior. We’re here to transmit clarity, restore energetic integrity, and build sovereign systems of power that don’t need applause or allegiance—only truth.

THE PERSONAL EXCELLENCE PROFILE™ (PEP) FRAMEWORK

The grifter class distorts what you were born to master. Your 12 Life Abilities are your original software. When you live in alignment with these abilities and zones, you become immune to energetic manipulation. You stop reacting and start transmitting. You stop surviving and start creating.

YOUR INVITATION

The grifters are not going away. But their grip can be weakened when we embody energetic clarity, lead from our zone of divine assignment, and align our lives with truth frequency.

✔️Take your Personal Excellence Profile™ for your frequency reading

📍 "See Your Current Frequency & What To Do. Shift Your Life With Awareness.

Grifters can sell chaos, but they can’t sell clarity—because clarity can’t be bought. It must be embodied.

With presence, power, peace, truth, and love,

Chloé Taylor Brown

Founder, The PEP Institute™

Architect of SaaSS—Software as a Sacred Service

📎 References & Sources

The following links were referenced to ensure accuracy and integrity in the creation of this white paper.

SCRIPTURE

John 1:1

THE PEP INSTITUTE

Personal Excellence Profile™ (PEP) Methodology

Zone + Shadow Guide by The PEP Institute

RESEARCH, MEDIA, JOURNALISM

The Washington Post Fact Checker Database

Politifact: Donald Trump Statements

Wikipedia: Conspiracy Theories Promoted by Donald Trump

The New Yorker: “Donald Trump’s Latest Grift May Be His Most Cynical Yet”

Forbes: Trump's Business Dealings and Brand Profits

CNN: Trump’s History of Racist Statements

PBS: Race and Trump’s Rhetoric

ProPublica: “The Big Lie Inc.”