Champ or Chump, No One Misspells Trump, and That May Be the Point
Original content to TBR by Victor J. Massad
I see President Donald Trump once again dominated the news this holiday weekend with a tweet showing him taking out CNN in a ringside brawl at a WWE match. The pundits in the media went ballistic, accusing Trump of intentionally and irresponsibly encouraging violence against journalists. The usual suspects crawled out of the woodwork to debate whether Trump is mentally unbalanced and therefore unfit for office, or whether he is simply misguided and knows not how to be "presidential." As usual, there were no Trump defenders in the MSM coverage, leaving the impression that all reasonable people must believe one thing or the other.
Meanwhile, average Americans -- who were at backyard barbecues scarfing up hot dogs, potato salads and watermelon -- laughed the whole thing off as Trump serving up more catnip to the cats.
For those of us who are political junkies, the whole affair does raise the question as to whether Trump's tweets are "politically wise." Is he destroying the reputation of the GOP with his antics? Will he cost the party the congress in 2018? Is he driving down his approval ratings and destroying any possibility that his presidency will be a success? Who knows? If you are looking for answers from me, I don't have any. But I do have a bit to say on the subject, and being long-winded, I post it as a vanity.
Trump's approach is definitely unconventional, and by Beltway standards extremely crude and unsophisticated. As a marketing professor and observer of all things marketing-related, I find myself at times perplexed by Trump's tweets. I should understand and see what he is doing, but at times I am not sure. Sometimes he is so outrageous and unconventional, I think no serious public relations man in his right mind would do such a thing. But Trump does, and he gets away with it in the sense that he makes himself and his actions more interesting to both his critics and fans (which includes just about everyone) than anything else going on at the time. The MSM has basically given up all pretense of objectivity in order to run the anti-Trump reality show 24/7, knowing its audience is tuning in every day desperately hoping that Trump will fail.
To this day I still am not sure about it all. For example, does he intentionally misspell words to show that he is just an average joe? Or is he really that bad at grammar? I don't have a clue. Is he really the mad wacko who stays up at night obsessing about his enemies, or is all of this carefully calculated and choreographed? I couldn't say. But if I did know the answer to these questions, the whole thing would be a lot less interesting, so why would Trump show his hand? He goes right up to the edge where people will speculate about him, but never so far as to reveal himself to be insane or otherwise out of touch with reality. He behaves like a train wreck is waiting to happen, but the actual train wreck never comes. I, for one, enjoy watching the masses of progressives and their lapdog media standing by the tracks, hyperventilating and drooling in anticipation of the crash that does not come. I think it is hilarious.
I do know this much. Any Republican president is going to be bashed endlessly by the media. This includes presidents, such as George W. Bush and Richard Nixon, who govern as liberals. The press relentlessly went after GWB to the point that he became a pop culture pariah who could not show his face during election season lest he plant the kiss of death on any candidate he supported. Bush, being the gentleman he is, ignored the press and tried to do his job, which is exactly what Trump's detractors on the right are saying Trump should do. But what did that get GWB, exactly? Anything? In spite of his flaws as a leader, GWB was a very decent man with a great heart, and what did treating the MSM with kid gloves get him in terms of legacy? Zilch.
So I wonder what Trump has to lose by making himself the story. I doubt very much that the insiders in his administration or foreign diplomats regard Trump's tweets as anything more than a Kabuki dance to distract his detractors, and a very successful one at that. So what if Trump keeps throwing out rancid bones for the media to chew on? They are the ones who look like idiots by overreacting. The problem for the media is that their audience can't get enough, and in order to keep them tuned in to what is basically a fake narrative, they have to grasp at straws and advance conspiracy theories. This makes them look like fools.
Think about this. Did progressives not notice that all of the major networks plus PBS and NPR assured them that Hillary's victory was a certainty? Did they not notice that these same frauds are now assuring them that madman Trump, who is by their estimation guilty of treason by colluding with the Russians and stealing the election, is sure to face impeachment any moment? And what will happen when it all fizzles out, just like the election did? They will see the media for the frauds they are. Who knows? Some of these progressives in the MSM audience may actually come to realize what a fraud their political philosophy is, given that it can only be advanced by the smoke and mirrors of false narratives.
If the "inevitable" Trump impeachment is a fraudulent story, then doesn't that render suspect the other false narratives the MSM advances on a daily basis: Islam is a misunderstood religion comparable to Christianity and Buddhism in its love for peace, Obamacare is not welfare but responsible for 30 million people to be "newly insured," cuts in federal spending are wealth transfers from the poor to the rich, transgenders do not have a psychological disorder but only suffer mentally because they are not accepted by society, etc. etc. The entire worldview of the left is not just lopsided, but topsy-turvy. If Trump exposes one fraud, does that not call into question all the other frauds? So why not pull the bed sheets off the whole phony charade? The fact that Trump seems to be able to do it with a few provocative tweets is the real marvel. Who knew?
The MSM likes to compare Trump to the Roman Emperor Nero, and in one respect they may be right. He is playing them like a violin.