Trump planned that press conference

How leaders operate is crucial to building a strong team.

Last week, President Trump went out and issued threats against North Korea and Venezuela, while his staff was left, once again, doing damage control.

One of the constant leaks from this White House staff is that President Trump went off message or “went rogue”.  Yesterday was another one of those days, with his press conference.

Immediately following that press conference, many reporters were reporting on their WH sources telling them that the President’s comments were not in the prepared speech.

However, President Trump did not go out there and just lose it.  He planned to do exactly what he did.  That is obvious.

Watching how Trump operates from the beginning of his campaign, yesterday was exactly how he plans his attacks on his enemies.  So let’s analyze the Trump modus operandi, in my typical LB timeline fashion:

Saturday, August 12, 2017:  President Trump issued a statement on the deadly violence in Charlottesville. His choice of words drew heavy condemnation.

Sunday, August 13, 2017:  The media backlash and demands that President Trump come out and condemn alt-right, neo-nazis and white supremacists grew.

Monday, August 14, 2017: President Trump issued a stronger statement on Charlottesville, sticking to prepared statements and reading from a teleprompter.  There was still a lot of criticism that the remarks weren’t strong enough and in the afternoon, the president tweeted:

Tuesday, August 15, 2017:  President Trump, at a press conference that was supposed to be on infrastructure, engaged in a back and forth verbal battle with the media.

Yesterday morning, before his press conference, President Trump retweeted 2 tweets.  One was from an alt-right figure, Jack Posobiec about “Meanwhile: 39 shootings in Chicago this weekend, 9 deaths. No national media outrage. Why is that?”, linking to a news story.  The other tweet was a cartoon of a Trump train running over CNN.  That cartoon tweet was quickly removed.

Watching General Kelly, the new chief of staff, during yesterday’s press conference, it was obvious he was not expecting the president to “go rogue”.

I suspect others around the president were fully aware that the president was going to come out fighting – he sent the signal to his alt-right followers on Twitter in the morning with that cartoon and Posobiec retweet.

Last night FOX News was in full Trumpathon mode.  They are part of the Trump propaganda circle.

I expect some in Trump’s circle of sleazes were in on the planning, but his own chief of staff was left out of the loop.  The WH staffers, who were caught unaware, were not in the loop.  He undercut most of his staff, who were urging him to act presidential and befitting the office.

Ann Coulter was gleeful last night on Twitter about Trump being back “fighting”.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017:  The media reported Trump will be in Arizona next week for another rally – to keep the agitation propaganda going.  The media reported the White House ordered the Republicans to get behind the President.

During the “GOP Insurgency”, Trump did not bother with details or policy,  but he came with his pockets loaded down with dirt to throw and vicious, petty name-calling.  He walked into that presser prepared to say exactly what he said and the FOX News agitation propaganda blitz, to back him up, was planned in advance too.  President Trump’s media collusion with FOX News is just as corrupt as the Left’s.

This is how he operates – classic Trump.

PS:  The American people should want to know who the president really listens to!