Trump Betrayed

Boomerang.

Trump has a system to deal with problems: Deny with indignation. Bash the media. Pivot and divert to an accusation of another. Raise questions and keep raising them.

His system ensnared him.

Diversion. Accuse and Distract.

The Trump system works so reliably, and is so habitual, that it is no wonder Trump made the Ukraine call. He thought it was no big deal.

As this blog has described, Trump understands and exploits the current media and partisan environment better than any other politician. He deals with accusations by denial, then an immediate pivot to an accusation of the accuser. To cover the Trump story the media must cover the new story. The new story does not need to be true or even plausible. It can have been investigated and found to be untrue. It does not matter. 

I described the system in detail on October 31, 2017: https://peterwsage.blogspot.com/2017/10/diversion-trump-executes-on-system.html

His early dealing with the Access Hollywood tape was to point to Bill Clinton; to deal with Ted Cruz by claiming Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination. Wild, conspiratorial accusations are best. A wild claim is more newsworthy, and if vague, then the questions, doubts, and suspicions can never be answered and resolved.

The birther gambit was the first and most visible. Was Obama was born in Kenya? Maybe, probably, could be. People told him. Investigators have questions. Something isn't right. There is no finality. Same with Hillary's emails.

It made all the sense in the world to Trump to call Ukraine and suggest they re-open an investigation of something--anything--that relates to Hunter Biden or Joe Biden.  As long as an investigation is underway there was a news story. The investigation is the political interference in the election. It is the government sanctioned--Ukraine government--proof that something may not be right, that there is some problem, some lingering question. Dirt. Guilt.

Every time Rudy Giuliani would fly to Ukraine to meet with someone there--anyone--would be a new news story, some progress report on some vague, unresolved shocking developments. Endless news, endless suspicion.

Click

The response of Trump and his media allies in the past three days create an odd complication for Trump. Trump was caught red handed attempting to bully Ukraine into doing Trump/America a "favor" by re-opening an investigation. Their steadfast criticism of Biden demonstrates that this wasn't a trivial request--a no harm no foul situation. They have confirmed that Trump was asking for something consequential.

The complication is that now Trump and his media allies have to argue that the request was completely legitimate, an innocent search for the truth about a serious problem of corruption, and therefore not a cynical political ploy. Trump, the argument goes, was actually doing serious non-political good government.

Unfortunately for Trump, the facts go the other direction, that Biden was on the side of ending corruption not encouraging it. The mainstream media is now regularly reporting the Trump narrative as untrue, as false--investigated and resolved.

Click: Chris Wallace does journalism

 Meanwhile, Trump, the GOP, talk radio, and opinion shows on Fox stick to their story and call the mainstream media fake. Normally people in the conservative media bubble need never hear anything but that Trump was noble and that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden are corrupt. But Fox actually has some news shows, and the Wall Street Journal has news as well as opinion. 

Chris Wallace called the Trump narrative "deeply misleading."  He grills Steve Miller and is adamant that the actual facts vindicate Biden. 

Click the video. It is quite stunning to be found on Fox. 

Shepard Smith called it a "constant attacking of the facts."

 If Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace are allowed to call the Trump narrative dishonest, it creates dissidence within Fox and within the Republican media silo. 

If it persists it might create cover for Republican senators to break ranks. I don't expect that, but it could happen.

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