The Brilliant Strategy Behind All of Trump's Seemingly Erratic Tweets




President Donald Trump is the greatest marketing President our country has ever seen. Almost everything he says or Tweets is incendiary. If he were any other President, each one of his Tweets would be headline news. Instead, he Tweets so frequently, the media must decide which Tweet is going to get top billing for coverage that day. Which, in and of itself, is also a genius PR move. If you’re a member of the media, do you choose to cover a story about the local farmer’s plight or a name-calling, controversial Tweet that’s going to drive 100x the amount of clicks/views?

With dozens of Tweets a day, he gives the media plenty of fodder to work with, so they always have options. And most of the time the majority get covered, which pushes other stories and narratives out of the limelight.

As a PR/Marketing professional and a former news reporter, I can tell you the reasons why he Tweets so many of the things he does. There is a pattern and reason behind his logic. And it’s genius.


TWEETS CRITICIZING DEMOCRATS

This is gang warfare tactics. In gang warfare, members of the Bloods and Crips don’t get to look at each individual issue and decide whether they want to participate. Members cannot look at a planned drive-by shooting of a rival gang member and weigh factors as to whether it’s justified or whether the circumstances preceding the drive-by are facts or rumors — they MUST participate in the drive-by shooting. It’s the same with members of a mafia or any country’s military. They must follow their leader. 

This is why Trump frequently draws a line in the sand and mentions Democrats as his opponent in everything he does. He knows that he must have members of the Republican party view their allegiance to the group above all else. Republicans must view the Democrats as enemies. Trump cannot have them look at line item issues and weigh facts or look into Trump’s own record. They must see it only under the scope of, “the Democrats support this, so we must be against it.” It’s no longer about the issue, but about your allegiance to the group.

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 TWEETS ABOUT THE "FAKE NEWS" MEDIA

Throughout the history of time, in every country, there has been corruption. There are very few people who have power and do not want to hold onto it... at all costs. There are fewer people who wouldn't take a bag full of dirty money if no one ever found out. 

Would you spend your own time, while you’re working, tending to your family, and worrying about your own bills, calculating how much your city takes in taxes and how that money is being used? Almost certainly not. People must understand that the media does this. It is the greatest, and in many cases, the ONLY checks and balances we have on a corrupt government and politicians. Do you think the government has enough manpower or resources to regulate themselves or their coworker friends? The media spends their time making sure that society is aware of the issues surrounding their communities. They have full time employees doing this. 

Trump knows that the biggest threat he has to his presidency and politics is the media reporting about his transgressions. He MUST undermine the media to ensure that damaging information about him is not seen under a lens of analysis, but seen immediately as lies -- as the word of the "enemy", the "fake news media." Like the gang warfare mentioned above, by only labeling the media as an enemy and grouping them with "Democrats,"  people will no longer look at each individual piece of information, but look at it all as being fake, even when they are facts. 

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 TWEETS ABOUT CROWD COUNTS

Trump has harped about crowd counts for some time. He did it with his inauguration and he does it with campaign rallies. The reason he does this is mostly for other Republicans to take notice. He knows that there are people within the Republican party that are wavering in their support and some that have kept silent. He cannot have those people join outspoken Republicans who have distanced themselves from him. By constantly talking about how much support he has, he is reinforcing the notion that if you break ranks with him, you are joining a minority of people and not a growing number of people. It’s important for him to keep up appearances. 

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 TWEETS CRITICIZING REPUBLICANS

Under the same premise as above, he cannot allow a Republican to break from his ranks without a torrent of Tweets criticizing that Republican. John McCain. Mitt Romney. Justin Amash. If he did nothing, it might encourage other Republicans to verbally criticize him as well. In gang warfare, if you don’t follow the rules of your leader, mob boss, or commander, you get killed, imprisoned, or tortured. In dealing with the recent Ukraine/Biden controversy, Trump has alluded to the fact that he wouldn’t mind a situation where the whistle blower is retaliated against (insinuating assassination).

If there were no checks and balances, you’d be foolish to believe that Trump would not have this whistleblower disappear in some way. Since he cannot make someone disappear, he has to do everything in his power to make life miserable for the whistleblower. Like any gang leader, he must show that there will be repercussions if you don’t fall in line. If a mob henchmen decides he wants out of the family and loses a hand or family member in the process, the next guy must decide whether they want to go through same ordeal. Trump wants people to know this.

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 TWEETS ABOUT BIDEN

There’s a reason that Biden is the frequent target of the President. Biden is the candidate that can most likely beat Trump in an election. Candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are so much further to the left, that the lines that Trump (previously) drew in the sand become deeper and more pronounced. Policies that matter to wavering Republicans become more threatened with a Sanders or Warren in office. Republicans then must decide whether they can support a candidate that they may not like, but can save their most passionate policy issue.

Surely, Trump cannot be the figurehead for religion and family values when the man has had three wives, almost all with documented affairs and speaks openly about sexually molesting women. Yet, he will always be the choice for those staunch anti-abortion advocates, because that is the only policy that matters to them. As a centrist, Biden’s policies seek to create common ground amongst more Americans, as opposed to alienate one section or the other. Trump needs you to see Biden as flawed. People don’t hate Biden, like they did with Hilary Clinton. People don’t feel strongly against Biden, as they do with Warren or Sanders. That, in itself, is why Biden is the most frequent target forTrump. 

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Unlike other Presidents in the past, Trump doesn’t even try to “unite” the country. Every President in modern times has used their inauguration to at least give the appearance of bipartisanship in an effort to unite the country. They have minimized their use of admonishing the other political party — Democrat or Republican — in public settings, so as not to alienate half of the country. Trump has completely thrown that out the window. He has to do this. He is so controversial in his policies and ideology, that he cannot win (his next term) by trying to appeal to both sides. It would be a losing battle. Therefore, he MUST make the people CHOOSE one side or the other. 

 Alternatively, the great thing about any gang or mafia is you don't ever have to join. And most people don't. They're free to always think for themselves, rather than follow a gang leader.

 Sincerely,
Kevin Leu

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