It’s going to be a wild ride for media in the United States to try and squeeze anything out of Donald Trump over the next four years, that’s for sure. He’s taking a tactic we in Australia know all too well: the Scott Morrison brick wall strategy, where all info and media is carefully managed, few specifics are mentioned and the narrative is tightly controlled.
Trump hasn’t done an actual press conference with reporters in yonks, and his supporters would have no issue with that – they think the mainstream media are all liars anyway. He’s pushed out a YouTube address about the transition process and it’s very good at seeming like a plan without nailing any pesky specifics.
Trump’s transition process has been described in the media as being in disarray, but it’s probably not worth dwelling on, tbh. Whether or not it’s true, it’s pretty clear what we’ll be getting at the end of it: a mishmash of establishment Republicans and anti-establishment DRAIN THE SWAMP mutants. The process it takes to get there is immaterial.
Trump’s main plans for his first 100 days, which he says will be executed largely through executive orders – which don’t require the input of Congress – are withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, cancelling restrictions on American energy, cutting regulations, protecting American infrastructure, investigating abuses of the visa program and initiating a ban on lobbying for ex-members of the executive.
Of course, the specifics aren’t quite there. For example, though Trump is heralded as the man who will initiate a FDR-scale renewal of American infrastructure, it currently looks like his plan there involves tax credits for developers and construction entities, rather than an actual public works program. That’s the reason Bernie Sanders has abandoned any pretence of working with Trump on infrastructure.
Trump’s plan to repair our infrastructure is a scam that gives massive tax breaks to large companies & billionaires. https://t.co/05JEyOwddR
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 21, 2016
It’s going to be a tough time for the media – it’s likely that Trump is going to continue his scheme of providing updates directly to the American people without having media pick it apart. That’s fine in one respect, and will certainly make his fans happy, but it will make it radically more difficult to hold him to account.
So, a lot of media and notably panicking about this, as you might imagine.
dear broadcast media: do NOT play Trump’s video statement in full unless you want to fully cede press freedom
— David Mack (@davidmackau) November 21, 2016
Even if you’re a Trumpista, you should be slightly concerned about it. Sure, you’ve thrown a grenade into the establishment, you’ve blown the whole sick enterprise to Hell… but c’mon. Simply having the scuzzy orange rodent in the driver’s seat isn’t going to Make America Great Again. Someone’s gotta hold him to account.
Source: YouTube.
Photo: YouTube.
