While Congress vacations, Trump dominates the media spotlight.
August 1 began this administration’s second full six months. August 31 marks Iran’s deadline for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. In between those dates, tariffs are pouring in, Ukrainian peace is on the front burner, sowing division within BRICS proceeds nicely, 80-year-old Marshall Plan policies are being dismantled, and Nixon’s opening to China is being reversed. Then comes September, when Congress returns. Among August’s consequential developments and proposals are the first negative net immigration in decades, exclusion of illegal aliens from census counts to permanently cripple Democrats, and targeting Venezuela for regime change.
These were the Dow Jones August 1 top news feed headlines:
- Trump Orders Firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief
- Trump Administration Blocks Funding for CDC Health Programs
- Trump Positions Nuclear Submarines Following Threats From Former Russian Leader
- Nonprofit Funding PBS and NPR Stations to Shut Down Next Month
- Labor Department Skirts Senators’ Questions on Inflation Data
- Manhunt Under Way After Four Killed at Montana Bar
- Ukraine’s Supporters Plan New NATO Fund to Buy U.S. Weapons
- Under the Rubble in Kyiv, a Rising Death Toll From a Russian Strike
- Former Colombian President Is Sentenced to House Arrest in Witness-Tampering-Case
- U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff Visits Gaza as Trump, Under Pressure, Seeks Aid Plan
- Climate Skeptics Are Tapped by Trump Administration to Justify Regulatory Rollback
- In a Country Trump Says Nobody’s Heard Of, Tariffs Bring Chaos
- Trump Should Get Nobel Peace Prize for Brokering Cease-Fire Deal, Cambodian PM
Contrary to Autopen’s underground presidency, Trump dominated most of the list above. He controls events; events don’t control him. By August 1, through force of will, he had remade the world in 193 days, 13% into this term. Number twelve, the nation nobody’s heard of, is Lesotho. Number two relates to OMB director Russ Vought’s bipartisan wrestling with Congress. Vought asserts that congressional appropriations represent spending ceilings, not floors. He intends to make deeper spending cuts, ultimately subject to judicial resolution.
The strategic intent behind commandeering news cycles entails seizing the high ground from domestic opponents in both parties. Opponents playing defense can’t prosecute offense. Trump leaves foes gasping for the little remaining oxygen remaining in the room. He assigns congressional Republicans to investigate Democrats, keeping them out of trouble and both factions from interrupting his schedule. It’s not just the magnitude of items his administration simultaneously juggles, but the volume. It wouldn’t be surprising if leading Cabinet members are graded on their ability to meet daily sound bite quotas.
Trump doesn’t tolerate interruptions to his choreographed news cycles. He chastised Israel with the F-word for not adhering to its Iranian ceasefire, an intrusion into his upcoming NATO summit news cycle. After 12 days of war, that news cycle (and crowing about the remarkable success of precision bombing) had reached its expiration date. The Epstein chorus was chastised for distractions: “The whole thing is a hoax ... something that’s total b-------.”
While political and media opponents still grapple with news cycle A, Trump proceeds to cycle B, forcing them to regroup. The shorter the interval between cycles, the more opponents must scurry to keep up. Trump can’t be accused of is being a broken record, or of looking back. His news cycles rarely last more than several days. Some persist for hours. The 12-day war was a special exception because of the magnitude of the accomplishment.
The White House, not the White House Correspondents’ Association, now determines who covers the administration, reversing decades of precedent. If the AP won’t refer to the “Gulf of America,” it becomes persona non grata. It’s not only Trump; the entire administration floods the news zone. Optics is a continuous concern. Undeniable creativity underlies Trump’s packed agenda. He’s creating the media control template for his successors.
Leading administration officials were selected based on their ability to perform publicly. Everybody knows Trump’s border czar. Who was Biden’s? Kamala? Who knows? The defense secretary going MIA for days would be incomprehensible under Trump. Everything, from the Olympics to America’s 250th birthday, is exploited to monopolize news cycles. Walking to the chopper guarantees soundbites. Walking on the White House roof was genius.
As tariffs conclude, ending the Ukrainian conflict becomes the focus as Trump’s schedule is clearing and he can devote attention to this matter. Noticeably absent from negotiations are Zelensky and Europe. Putin and Trump will redraw the borders of a region that has experienced countless readjustments, then brief a defiant Zelensky. Russia is relentlessly penetrating into Ukraine, exceeding Putin’s objectives. Unless hostilities end soon, Ukrainian losses will mount. Tariffs are being used against Russia’s trading partners to force Putin’s hand.
The 1948 Marshall Plan fostered European rebuilding, allowing tariffs on American exports but tariff-free imports. Trillions of dollars too late, after our domestic auto industry was gutted, Trump ended that absurdity in six months. BRICS is being systematically undermined. Tariffs are now at 50% for Brazil, 25% for India (going to 50%), and 30% for South Africa. Russia’s rate will be addressed alongside Ukraine negotiations. China’s U.S. trade surplus is systematically being reduced. India’s prime minister is visiting China for talks, the first in seven years. As BRICS weakens, attempts to establish a U.S. dollar alternative crumble.
Nixon’s 1972 China opening sought to split it from the Soviets. Emergent China would be incentivized to prosper by trading with America. Kissinger realized then that the time would come when an empowered China would need to be weakened by a rapprochement between Russia and America. Fifty-three years later, that day has arrived. In a Reverse Nixon (and a Reverse Biden), Trump draws Putin closer while Xi (rumored to have had a stroke last year) appears about to be sacked, to be replaced by leadership more amenable to America.
Decades of America Last policies are being reversed in months. It’s impossible to accomplish this incrementally, whether dealing with deportations, tariffs, Iranian nukes, global conflicts, or racist university administrations. Machiavelli counseled haste:
When he seizes a state the new ruler must determine all the injuries he will need to inflict. He must inflict them all at once, and not have to renew them every day. In that way he will set men’s minds at rest and win them over when he confers benefits. Whoever acts otherwise, through timidity or bad advice, …can never depend on his subjects because they, suffering fresh and continuous violence, can never feel secure with regard to him.
Anything obstructing Trump’s messaging becomes roadkill along the superhighway to American global dominance. Woke is now broke, overnight. Colbert, Stern, Chuck Todd, Cavuto, Lester Holt, Joy Reid, Trudeau, and Chris Wallace: gone. Remember Jim Acosta?
The media became the message when television achieved prominence. With television’s decline and internet ascendancy, Trump seizes control over the new media, dominating the message. The Nobel Peace Prize announcement is October 10. Somebody may have his calendar cleared for that date.
Douglas Schwartz blogs at The Great Class War, applying pattern recognition of historical cycles to place current events into context.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.