Out Trumped

What could be more topical than ‘Donald’. I don’t think anyone in history has been called so many names – and not many of them are complimentary. It’s especially interesting to me because he used the media so expansively to arrive at where he is today and yet he never seemed to learn the lessons of the obvious. Obvious, because with the media it is inevitable that the hand which feeds you will one day bite you.

It demonstrates a lack of understanding of the animal you are riding and boy was it a great ride, all the way to presidential candidacy. Sadly for Donald he forgot that the animal is not taking you where you want to go, its heading where it wants to go and the destinations are different. The media operates from a unique perspective, it is incestuous. It gets its kicks from the good or the bad and usually the bad is better.

If you use it, you had better understand that when you’re good it’ll crown you, when you’re something else they’ll bury you and Donald that’s exactly what is happening to you. You lived by the sword and now you look like you’re going to die by that same saber.

Apart from the fact that most people in the rest of the world don’t think much of Donald’s rhetoric, which is mostly supercilious nonsense and talk of building a fortress to deprive the Mexicans of entry, there is a lack of real policy substance. As a consequence Donald has nothing to act as a barrier to his appalling behaviour; albeit 11 years old. If you’re short on policy and strong on personal slogans, the media will always concentrate on you and your personality. As a politician, when your behaviour doesn’t meet the public’s expectations and you want to distract them with policy spin you’ve got nowhere to go.

The media is highly skilled at building you up and even better at bringing you down – it’s a double earner for them and if you play that dangerous game you better have a plan B. Donald doesn’t have one and he’ll go down as a victim, hung by his own petard.

Celebrity status or not, there’s a lesson for all of us normal people here. It goes like this. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, don’t make promises you can’t keep and don’t play around with the media and think you’ve got the upper hand, because you never will have.

Steve Capus the Executive Producer of CBS Evening News once said, “The news media tends to act like the kids on a young soccer team. We all follow the ball as it moves from one side of the field to the next – like a kids’ soccer game. And the kid who ends up scoring a goal was the one who’s off to the corner by himself just waiting for the opportunity.”

Donald, the kid’s in the corner were just waiting for you and now they’ve got you. To paraphrase the old saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s probably Donald!”

“You’re fired!”