Trump Pragmatism

Not Populism

Geitner Simmons, a former Omaha World-Herald reporter, noticed the 60 Minutes Ben Sasse interview. Former Nebraska US Senator Sasse has multiple cancers and is taking an experimental drug.

What hit me is Simmons makes the cliched, continual reference to Trump as a populist. This viewpoint is extremely faulty and reflects Simmons’ provincialism. Trump is not a conservative, and he is most similar to President Bill Clinton, but even Clinton was a bit more conservative. Trump pushed on old-fashioned labor economics, such as immigration and tariffs. At the same time, Trump pushed for tax breaks and government reform.

So why all the hostility? First, there is a wide conflict between corporate media pushing narratives versus digital media exposing facts and breaking such narratives. The corporate media runs on schedules and deadlines, but the digital media is an unrelenting24 hours, 7 days a week news cycle. Corporate media has largely become yellow journalism.

Also, China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. If there is anything which ended the liberal world order of the 20th century, it was Communist China’s entry into this organization. Few took notice, but Trump had seen it for decades. American workers took notice as well.

Trump has two personas. His public persona comes from experience in performance wrestling, which is pure theater. This is why his posts to social media can be so inflammatory and can cause outrage. The other persona is highly contemplative and constantly asking questions and listening. His lengthy speeches show how complex his mind actually is. From Art of the Deal, to his relations with Roy Cohen and his communications with Nixon, he was demonstrating techniques and acquiring them. When election rules were changed in 2020 due to COVID, people spotted irregularities and evidence of fraud. Trump listened and sounded off on it. Those who claim there was no fraud, fail to address the change of election rules and the irregularities which appeared.

What is also problematic is the assumption of Trump being a narcissist. I have to laugh at this because it is so false. So why do people think this? When the media is involved, a light switch goes on in his head, and he goes into character. In such a character, he insists on being the lead actor. I have listened to Jim Rose and Scott Voorhees on KFAB. They are audio heads. They focus on the sound. As seasoned corporate radio guys, they are on a fixed schedule and subject to FCC rules. They often miss this complex dimension of what Trump is doing. Not finding fault, it is just so.

One minute, Trump is calling a reporter “piggy”. Next, he posts an image of being an anointing of the sick, but deletes it when some think he is portraying himself as Jesus. With the 60 Minute interview, he took issue with the reporter’s reference to an assassin's manifesto, but he did so because he knew the audience he was confronting. This is the style he has on the public stage. He views it as sport just like wrestling, yet so few catch on that news has become just as much about entertainment as information, or yellow journalism.