The Trump hurricane
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign feels whimsical, like a practical joke or publicity tour gone awry. But it turns out the Donald is running a long way. A new report in Politico suggests Trump has been plotting this election for years, and he knew exactly what he had to do to succeed.
Trump knew all that his celebrity and media power were sufficient to support his campaign. Although they didn’t believe him, Trump told the Republicans in that room in 2013 that he would dominate the race without spending much on paid advertising.
His ability to control the narrative, to dominate the coverage, is all it takes. Trump’s amorality coupled with his gift for self-promotion has turned the Republican presidential race on its head. He’s made the race about him, and anytime he isn’t the main story, he lurches back into the headlines with an outrageous comment about women or Muslims or Mexicans or disabled people – anything to win the news cycle.
Here is a summary (ironically, delivered by Hillary Clinton) on Trump’s most outrageous comments :
The biggest takeaway here is that Trump is indeed a professional showman. And whatever else he is, he’s not stupid. He doesn’t believe half the absurdities he utters on the campaign trail either. Everything he’s done and said was designed to dupe the media into funding his marketing strategy.
Trump’s a TV man; he understands the landscape. He knows interesting is preferable to informed or reasonable or lucid. Trump’s free-wheeling approach means he could say literally anything at any moment, and that’s the kind of thing people want to watch. The pitch about Mexicans being criminals and rapists, for example, was entirely improvised during Trump’s announcement speech, and while it was an egregious thing to say, the sheer craziness of the remarks won him a week’s worth of headlines and catapulted his campaign.
Trump’s strategy is nearly perfect. On the one hand, he’s tapped into a vein of resentment in the country, and in a way no serious politician could. And on the other hand, he’s free to say whatever he wants, no matter how controversial, because doing so breathes more oxygen into his campaign. Even more advantageous, he’s entered the race at an ideal time. The public — for good reasons — no longer trusts Washington. Trump maybe is « a man who can’t fix anything » (quoting Bernie Sanders), « like Kim Jong Un, a buffoon and a danger » (quoting Arianna Huffington, co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post Arianna Huffington Intervention ) or even « a man with tiny fingers » (quoting John Oliver, star host of Last week Tonight with John Oliver John Oliver on Donald Trump ) (yeah, Donald Trump has a problem with his fingers , which CNN called TRUMP’s Achilles Heel : CNN Video ),but people make bad decisions when they’re anxious or angry, and Trump is offering them an alternative to the status quo. This is what demagogues do, and it usually works.
As a candidate, Trump appears uncontainable. His risk tolerance is unmatched, and that gives him a freedom no other candidate enjoys. He can offend anyone, promise anything, and circumnavigate the entire process without ever having to apologize. It also forces the other candidates to play his game, to react to the tone he sets and the issues he raises.
Everything Trump does has to be seen in the broader context of his media-centric strategy. No one should ask if Trump believes what he says; it’s impossible to know. If he does believe something he says, it’s a happy coincidence, because his campaign is an experiment in modern marketing, not an expression of his political worldview.
If you want to know more about the american election, I really advise you to check those references :
* See you on 19th, for the NY primary.
Arnaud and I think that M Drump is really scary... but what is really scary is the fact that he came to the conclusion that being a showman and being super provocative could help him win the primaries. And that we can see that so far at least, maybe he's not wrong... (Arnaud D and yours truly!)
ReplyDeleteother comments??? don't be a lurker! Do it...