Ch. 27: Taking Back Trump's America Serialization

Dominate the News Cycle or Be Dominated

Enjoy the read! The entire book is available on Amazon.

The bad news for President Donald Trump: He may well lose reelection later this year. The good news for his top campaign staff: They will wind up really rich either way.

S.V. Date, Huffington Post, May 7, 2020

If you spend $800 million and you’re 10 points behind, I think you’ve got to answer the question “What was the game plan?” said Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who runs a small pro-Trump super PAC, and who accused Mr. Parscale of spending “like a drunken sailor. “I think a lot of money was spent when voters weren’t paying attention.”

New York Times, September 7, 2020

Twenty people on an airplane. Fifty more in the Trump Tower War Room. A few money guys raising a few bucks. And all the free press the starry-eyed mainstream media couldn’t wait to give us. That was the ethos, strategy, and organizational culture of the come-from-behind, close the deal Trump 2016 campaign.

On a daily basis, Candidate Trump would limo out to La Guardia airport in the late morning, hop on his 757 Boeing “Trump Force One” jet, fly a few hours away to some flyover state, give a rousing rally speech in some beat up hockey rink or basketball arena, maybe host a quick fundraiser at a local country club or quasi-mansion, and then hop back on that plane and always be home and tucked into his own bed in Trump Tower by that night.

Likewise on a daily basis, Candidate Trump thickly spread himself across all of the corporate media, which at that point clearly viewed him as a novelty rather than an existential threat. It would be phone calls with Left Wing celebrities like Morning Joe Scarborough and his wife Mika on MSNBC. Evening hits on Right Wing Fox News with Sean Hannity or Lou Dobbs. And anything else DJT could get in between to rack up what is the most valuable commodity for any political candidate – “free,” or as they say in the trade, “earned” media.

Of those twenty people on an airplane supporting the Boss, the razor sharp Dan Scavino had already ensconced himself as in-resident Tweet Meister, Keith Schiller and Johnny McEntee -- two of the greatest and most competent guys you will ever meet – weighed in as the Boss’ body men; and Stephen Miller served as speechwriter.

On a daily basis, Stephen would dress-up the basic stump speech in all its fresh and local coloring glory; and it went something like this:

• Fly into Des Moines, and the Boss remind the crowd of how China had literally tried to steal Iowa’s seed corn, with such a reminder thereby reinforcing Trump’s Tough on China theme.

• Drop into Flint, Michigan and Candidate Trump would wax eloquent about how globalization was killing the auto industry.

• Pop into Miami, and the Boss would surely sneak away for a couple of daylight hours to visit his Doral Golf Club. But then he would light up the night – and a massive local Cuban-American community – with attacks on Fidel Castro and warnings about the dangers of socialism.

It was a big, beautiful barnstorming formula that only Donald J. Trump could pull off. In 2016, he literally was the P.T. Barnum of politics; and there was no question that a Trump rally was the greatest show on political earth.

Of course, after Trump won the Republican nomination, the cable networks loved to cover the rallies live because they knew it would be great for ratings – and that was surely a great earned media bonanza for the Donald.