After watching Donald Trump’s political media strategy for two years, his opponents, in the GOP, in the media, the panoply of enemies arrayed on the Left, and those who consider removing Trump from office a patriotic duty or perhaps revenge( Comey & friends), you’d think they would have learned how Trump operates. They haven’t learned anything and it’s pathetic to watch Trump outmaneuver them over and over and over.
Trump’s attacks don’t depend on facts or truth, they depend on optics. It’s a show and he takes charge of the stage every time. Trump’s opponents, many of them Tweet warriors, attack him relentlessly on Twitter and they recycle through all their old talking points – Trump’s taxes, his multitude of bold-faced lies, his chaotic White House, etc., etc., etc. Some hope the constant negative drumbeat will erode Trump’s poll numbers and aid in taking Trump down. I suspect only the political geeks follow all of this closely and most Americans just go about their daily lives, tuning it out.
Trump foes overplayed the “Russian collusion” hysteria and Trump has now seized the Russian issue and used the Friday, big Washington Post story to turn the tables on President Obama, leaving the big “Russian collusion” hysterics in a position where they were forced to admit that President Obama didn’t do enough last summer to counter the Russian cyber attacks.
Trump now controls the Russian narrative and his loyal sycophant, Sean Hannity has begun spreading the talking point that “even if Trump had colluded with the Russians, that’s not illegal”. They are working to inoculate Trump from any damaging revelations that might come from Mueller’s investigation, by convincing Trump’s most loyal followers that this investigation is just an unfair witch hunt.
So, with all this being played out last week, you’d think the Comey group, who are working to takedown Trump, would be wary of Trump’s ability to use the media to his advantage. Nope, Comey’s friend, Benjamin Wittes, on Friday, after the big Washington Post story on the Russian threat, tweeted:
TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK
To be clear, fuse length on this one is uncertain. Could be today. Could be Monday.
Why on earth would anyone, who has watched Trump operate, give Trump a head’s up of more damaging information on the way? Trump quickly seized on “Obama didn’t do anything to stop the Russians” and flipped the Russian collusion attack on its head.
His opponents have hurled the same talking points, over and over, since November. They haven’t produced any credible evidence of “Russian collusion”. And Trump, sensing another wave of attacks, preempted them by pushing Obama’s inaction on the Russian threat, the Loretta Lynch meeting with Bill Clinton and the DNC/media corrupt collusion to do in Bernie Sanders out front.
Trump just steamrolled them.
Trump isn’t a great strategist, but he’s an expert at stealing the show and sucking up all the oxygen.
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