President Donald Trump certainly was not kidding when he declared war on the conventional media, or more commonly known as the “Press Corps,” assigned to cover the President’s words and actions. Within 24 hours of his inauguration, the President announced during a speech at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, “As you know, I have a running war with the media.” Mr. Trump also went on to call journalists and reporters “the most dishonest human beings on earth” and chief White House strategist Steve Bannon was hit with media and public opinion backlash after he called up the New York Times, raging at the newspaper that the “media should keep its mouth shut.” Now Mr.
Trump is in a heated exchange of words with Senator John McCain, after Mr. McCain said on ‘Face the Nation’ today that the President's immigration ban on some citizens from mainly Middle Eastern countries gives terrorists more propaganda. President Trump responded immediately on Twitter stating, “Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration, and border security instead of always looking to start World War Three."
Donald Trump as Provocateur in Chief
It is something of a spectacle to see time and time again, both the mainstream media, as well as political icons within Mr. Trump’s own party, such as John McCain, take on the fight with President Trump, not seeming to realize that these battles are part of the ongoing Trump Team playbook.
It is how Mr. Trump won the election! Mr. Trump is continuing to be very appealing to his supporters by engaging the icons, the political elite and making them look very foolish, much to the delight of the American public who distrusts both the media conglomerates and the representatives of both political parties. Newsweek summarized the political theatre this way, “The media believes that everyone believes what it believes.
The Trump strategy is to program for over-reaction.” (Newsweek ‘Why the media keeps losing to Donald Trump’ 1.26.17)
How to make everyone jump on Twitter
The website RedState.com got to the heart of the matter weeks ago, when they pointed out that Mr. Trump’s provocative tweets are a foil, a tactic: “That’s what it is, a tactic.
Every time Trump tweets an outrageous comment, the media is already falling over themselves to cover it with all their smart takes, without realizing this is who many voted for in November. The guy who doesn’t care what the media thinks or says.” (RedState.com ‘Donald Trump plays the media, again’ 11.29.16) Therefore, to Senator John McCain, politicians, reporters and such: read that paragraph over again or it will be a very long four years for the rest of us.
