NOTE: This is offered as a respite from the endless stories about Joe Biden’s mental decline and the resulting coverup. Those topics were addressed in this space as far back as July of last year (“Harris gets a boost as Biden gets booted”).
Decades from now, social scientists and historians will look back at Donald Trump’s political career and attempt to extract meaning from one of the oddest periods in this country’s history.
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be understanding how the career arc of a 70-something billionaire intersected with one of the most transformative media periods on record to create a two-term president, one who defied death and savage political attacks to emerge on top.
Essentially, how has Trump navigated a complex web of lawsuits, impeachments, attacks on his character, and assassination attempts to emerge with a rock star image the world over?
The sight of Trump meeting and interacting with foreign leaders like a man at a church social was refreshing — and especially uplifting after watching Joe Biden embarrass himself, and the country, on an international stage for four years. Nonetheless, Trump’s moves of economic revival in the Middle East will eventually become pure genius or simple failure to placate long-time adversaries, ala Barack Obama. There will likely be no middle ground.
Key to understanding Trump’s appeal, and political success, is to consider that one of the benefits of expanding technology is easy access to information. This has brought greater attention to politics and culture, placing the average person in a position of an unprecedented ability to absorb or reject the information at our fingertips. Trump has artfully danced across that landscape.
Trump’s ability to use non-traditional tools — social media, podcasts, high-energy and mostly ad-libbed public appearances — lacks precedent. He has either re-invented political campaigns or created a running one-man show that will never be replicated.
Consider, however, where we would be if candidate Donald Trump had been forced to navigate a media landscape dominated by three major television networks. Technology and modern media removed the filters that for years helped obscure truth and misdeeds while savvy public relations dictated the narrative. That will always be a part of politics and entertainment, but truth and authenticity manage to find the spotlight, eventually. (Consider Joe Biden.)
Sometimes, however, tradition overshadows technology as the public places too much trust in people who refuse to let go of tactics worn thin by a changing society, too much trust in talking heads. Case in point: CNN’s Jake Tapper’s willingness to ignore Biden’s mental decline for four years on the way to writing a book about — what else — Biden’s mental decline while in office. Many newscasters such as Tapper, and the networks that employ them, remain locked into the belief that they can continue to gaslight viewers in spite of multiple news outlets willing to reveal truth.
Misinformation is, in fact, a hallmark of modern media, but Trump overcomes that hurdle. Time after time. Recall his rallies in 2016, when “fake news” became a regular part of our vernacular. Nine years later, many of the purveyors of fake news are irrelevant.
Success in politics has increasingly been about a cultivated public image in the 65 years since John Kennedy and Richard Nixon participated in the first televised presidential debate in 1960. The contrast between those two in front of television cameras has been analyzed and discussed over the decades, highlighted by radio listeners’ opinion that Nixon won the debate while TV viewers saw Kennedy as winner. Image is everything in politics.
Consider Bernie Sanders’ image as Socialist Sage — despite being 83 years old. Whether or not we like him and his radical views, Sanders is a man who presents as authentic. Unless, of course, one considers his rants against capitalism while building wealth, owning several houses, and traveling aboard private jets. Image IS perception, reality be damned.
Trump has managed to turn political success inside-out. The Trump Era is all about public image and an extension of the age-old dynamic between marketing and politics. The key difference — one lost on his opposition — is that Trump became a political force over the last two decades not through a contrived public persona but through an authentic one. To repeat a line from last week’s column — simply because it speaks to a hard truth — no one can out-Trump the man himself.
One compelling thought is how this will all play out post-Trump. How can any individual hope to inherit Trump’s place in politics and popular culture, a standing built on charisma and an uncanny ability to overcome? The attempts to carry forward the Trump mantle will be interesting.
Yet, the true test of Trump’s staying power will occur between November of 2026 and the end of his term. When voters mark a ballot, they often do so based on their personal budgets — regardless of how many jets a foreign government purchases from U.S. companies, or how many “deals” a president makes. Trump’s deal-making skills will be challenged if Democrats control the House and/or Senate during his final two years in office.
The larger question will be how the Republican Party will present itself once Trump is no longer the face of the party.
Larry Cothren
