The Traditional Order is Secure

Trump is good at turning the story to his advantage.  He did it again.

He turned a bad story into a good one for him:  the traditional order is beset by annoying upstarts, but don't worry, the order is still intact.

Could you have found it?

America just stumbled onto the fact that we have soldiers at risk and dying in Niger.  A reporter asked Trump about it and whether he had been in contact with the widows of the four men who died.

Alarm bells went off. Trump understands a messaging problem when one presents itself:  A whole new war zone, four dead American soldiers, Trump neglected some duty.  Trump was quick to perceive a message disaster, one that linked war, dead Americans, Trump, and neglect.  

Trump did not use the question to explain why Americans have some vital interest in Niger.  Instead, he did what Trump does: the deny, pivot, accuse, and de-legitimize Trump formula.

He denied he had failed to contact the widows, saying the letters were in the mail.  He pivoted to an accusation against Obama and Bush, who he claimed had disgracefully failed to contact families, and then de-legitimized the people who brought up the question, calling CNN "again, fake news CNN. I mean, they're just a bunch of fakers."  

Trump was shown to be incorrect in accusing Obama and Bush, he was shown to have been ham-handed in his own condolence calling.  Then it appears to get even worse.

In the followup Chief of Staff John Kelly, pulled into this by Trump, defended Trump, and used the Trump formula, pivot and accuse.  He said the real subject was not whether Trump made phone calls that consoled but that Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was listening in on the call, and that, besides, she was a grandstander who hogged credit at the dedication of a FBI headquarters building in Miami.   The real issue is the outrageous behavior and character of the congresswoman!

Then even that blew up.

She wasn't eavesdropping. The phone call from the president came to a soldier's mother onto a speakerphone held by a serviceman, and Rep. Frederica Wilson was present in the car with the mother along with others with the permission of the mother.  Moreover, there was videotape of the supposed grandstanding incident.   It shows her deflecting attention onto the FBI agents, and not grandstanding at all.  

Disaster, right?  

The simple, straightforward way to think of this issue is that it blew up in Trump's face.  After all, Trump was revealed to have made a false accusation against Obama and Bush, he was revealed to have failed to have made phone calls he said he would make, his Chief of Staff was revealed to have made an inaccurate accusation, and he was publicly called on it by the media.  What could be worse?

Washington Post

Actually this turns out to be good for Trump.  There is the supposed message, and then there is the big, important, unspoken message of who is who and what side Trump is on.

The sides are drawn and Trump found the perfect enemy, a black woman accuser.

There she is, armed only with the truth, witnesses, and videotape, helplessly demanding they acknowledge the truth.  Kelly refuses.  Trump responds by calling her "wacky".  Trump and Kelly are sending a strong message, that powerful white men in leadership are untouchable by their critics, and indeed can dismiss them at will, even when they have videotape evidence.  A great many Americans find this reassuring.  White privilege is secure.

What about the media?  Aren't they a referee, speaking truth to power?  No.  They are weak and pathetic, dismissed as "fake" or ignored completely.

The big message is that Trump and Kelly stand tall, apologize for noting, and their critics lack the legitimacy to complain.

Strip away all the facts.  Dismiss any nuance or subtlety.  This is a story about identity and status, white men beset by black women and their weak, dishonest media allies.  Trump does not need to explain himself to CNN, the Washington Post, or anyone, and Kelly does not owe the likes of Rep. Wilson anything. They don't merit respect. The social order of traditional power is in place and the agitators against that power are playing traditional roles.  

In the optics of politics, the truth is overwhelmed by the message, and it is a message that is generally reassuring to a significant body of American. The traditional order is secure.  It is not pretty, but it is real:  Trump is winning with this message. Look at him.  Look at her.  

Hillary Clinton's campaign said there was a great deal of endemic low-grade race consciousness in America and that white America was pushing back against the just grievances of multiple groups, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays, women.   She described it, and said it was wrong.   Donald Trump also recognized it, but he had the better strategy.  Donald Trump took the side of white resistance and this is a white majority country.

Trump turned the issue of Americans dying in Niger, his misstatements and Kelly's into the frame of racial grievance.  Who is that wacky black woman to question him?

Fox News story