Controlling the narrative
19 May 2025
Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s essay describes how Trump wants his message to be front and center before the public, partly to displace the results of his disastrous policies:
In his newsletter today, retired entrepreneur Bill Southworth tallied the times Trump has grabbed headlines to distract people from larger stories, starting the tally with how Trump’s posts about Peanut the Squirrel the day before the election swept like a brushfire across the right-wing media ecosystem and then into the mainstream. In early 2025, Southworth notes, as the media began to dig into the dramatic restructuring of the federal government, Trump posted outrageously about Gaza, and that story took over. When cuts to PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and the U.S. Agency for International Development threatened lives across Africa, Trump turned the conversation to white South Africans he lied were fleeing “anti-white genocide.”
Southworth calls this “narrative warfare,” and while it is true that Republican leaders have seeded a particular false narrative for decades now, this technique is also known as “political technology” or “virtual politics.” This system, pioneered in Russia under Russian president Vladimir Putin, is designed to get people to vote an authoritarian into office by creating a fake world of outrage. For those who do not buy the lies, there is another tool: flooding the zone so that people stop being able to figure out what is real and tune out. Full article
While it might be tempting to tune out the news, standing up to the Trump administration requires us to stay informed, especially about the issues we care most about, and not get distracted by his theatrics.
Norm Eisen of The Contrarian has an essay about Trump’s continuous illegal actions, lest we forget or somehow normalize how outrageous his actions are:
In a 7-2 decision that represents the latest in a virtually uninterrupted streak of failures for him at the High Court, it ruled that deportees must be given real due process–even alleged gang members. The Trump authoritarian approach of “notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster.”
One of the advantages of doing this weekly column on the state of our democracy and The Contrarian’s coverage of it is that it forces me to lift my eyes off the trees and take a look at the sprawling forest. Well, here the forest consists of over 160 court orders checking Trump, of which this is only the latest. We’ve never seen anything like Trump's illegality—or the pushback on it, including from all of his own appointees (in this latest decision).
I had to laugh on Friday when I saw this X thread complaining about the frequency of Trump's court failures from a Stephen Miller-founded, Trump-aligned organization. They kvetch as if the disproportionate number of reversals compared to other presidents were caused by anti-Trump animus! To paraphrase my friend James Carville, it’s the illegality, stupid. Full article
Trump has shifted the boundaries of what is considered acceptable behavior in public life. It's hard to imagine anyone else sharing something like this without facing immediate consequences:
HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO??? I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter. Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic “entertainers,” this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!! Source
I recommend three key ways to respond to Trump’s corruption and authoritarianism - approaches I personally follow:
Get More Politically Involved
Commit to taking at least one political action each week. This could mean emailing a public official, supporting a candidate, contributing to a cause or backing an institution you believe in. For other ideas, see my index of essays under “Activism”.Spend According to Your Principles
Use your wallet to reflect your values. Prioritize small businesses or large companies that have taken a stand against Trump. In my case, that means most of my spending goes to local restaurants and hardware stores. I avoid major chains and use Costco for gas. I also steer clear of big banks, choosing credit unions or community banks whenever possible.Support Independent Media; Reject Propaganda
Boycott Fox News and other outlets that spread misinformation or align closely with Trump. Instead, support independent journalism. I contribute to many blogs whose reporting both informs me and helps push the world in a better direction, and I’m glad to pay for that integrity.
The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.
I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
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