Trump News

In the process of researching this assignment, I was actually surprised to see such a wide gap in the way the media covered Trump. The goal of each publication is very apparent from the start of each article. Either the news shows Trump in a favorable light, an unfavorable light, or a neutral one. From my searches, and maybe this is just Google trying to profile me, it appeared that there were far more negative articles in the news tab than positive or neutral. While, this could just be that my Internet history blinders are up, I still find it surprising that I had to deliberately seek out Fox News to find something good said about the President.

I can't stress enough how much he looks like my grandmother.

My first example gasses Trump up more than your mother’s facebook friends. All the story covers is an interview with Donald Trump’s son DTJR, talking about the incredible things his father has accomplished in the first two months, at one point even stating he had “gotten more done for the country in two months than Presidents Obama and Bush”. There’s not a single fact or analysis of this statement, or anything that could lead the audience to believe that DTJR’s statement is false. The only

This example is humorous to me mainly due to the lengths it goes to make Trump look bad in a story about the attendance of baseball players at a white house visit. There appears to be bias here because the main focus is on the players that didn’t go than the players that did. I found several articles on the topic of the Patriot visit, but most of them focused on the visit itself, unlike this one that emphasized the missing players already by the headline. This is clearly an example of journalistic bias. The fact that some of the players on the New England Patriots baseball team do not agree with Trump or could not make it to the White House on that specific day isn’t really news. However, this article seems to point out a disconnect between America and their president, which is a pretty powerful take on something as insignificant as baseball players visiting Donald Trump.

This final article is actually the only one I came across in all my generic searches that only intends to deliver nothing more than factual news. The article goes on to detail the plans for Trump’s meeting with Pope Francis this May. There is no aim to make commentary about whether this makes Trump a good President, or a bad President, but rather covering the plans for a meeting between two important people. The increasingly polarized nature of our media makes it difficult to find coverage like this. The Wall Street Journal has a good reputation for talking about news in a way that doesn’t conflict with party affiliation of any kind. This is the kind of publication we should seek out more often to get a neutral and fair take on current events in this nation.

Trump Party

“We are proud to have a President whose jobs agenda is guided by the principles to buy American and hire American! #MadeInTheUSA”

Above is an excerpt from the introduction on Donald Trump’s website.

 Hm. Interesting.

There are actually a lot of interesting things you can find on his website, but fascinatingly…there is no page dedicated to his plans for the country or his platform on the issues.

Thankfully, the Internet does not forget, which allows us to measure up Trump’s previous statements to his party’s principles.

Trade

As Trump said in his inaugural address,

“From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first.”

            The traditional GOP member would likely agree with such a statement. However, the strategies manifested out of such beliefs are pretty unique. In opposition to his party, Trump has criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump functions under the opinion that Americans would be better off paying for more expensive goods made within the US than partner with other countries on trade. It is precisely this kind of discrepancy that gives him a reputation as a non-traditional, or un-republican politician. 

Immigration

"I will build a great wall -- and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me --and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

Such a familiar phrase.

However, the Republican Party does not want to be known by such brash statements.

             According to LATimes, “Party leaders, in a postmortem following the 2012 election, called for an end to divisive rhetoric and for passing an immigration overhaul that could provide a pathway to citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.”

It seems much of the party had their fair share of cognitive dissonance in voting Trump this election.

Social Security

             An important and longstanding element of Donald Trump’s rally speeches were his promises to leave social security alone along with his refusal to cut benefits. This is a major way he and his party differ. As explained in the Time article, Donald Trump and the GOP Have Different Plans for Your Money, “almost every GOP office holder avers that Social Security is on the edge of a financial cliff. Fixing Social Security is a cornerstone of Republican philosophy. In 2012, replacing Social Security with private accounts was a key part of the GOP platform.” 

that kind of party.

              It almost seems like our President isn’t on the same page as his party. I don’t really think you can lump Republicans in with Trump supporters. I think Trump is more his own party, and Trump supporters and Republicans should not be assumed to get along.

Internet Trump

I really like when popular music artists get political. Plenty of rap artists dissatisfied with the status quo have been criticizing Trump by name well before he was elected. But rap has always been a genre on the fringes of society that interacts with politics quite frequently. I think we’d all be lying if we said we never wondered what it would be like if an emo band wrote a song about Trump. And from my field research, Such Small Hands by La Dispute is a pretty emo song that could easily fit the bill. Inversely, if Trump wrote his own emo song, it would sound something like this:

This artifact makes a pretty clear political statement and criticism of Trump. I think there comes a point in satire where you can’t just see it as an impolite joke anymore. Media has a hypodermic effect, and associating Trump with a laughable emo tweet music video isn’t the kind of thing you’d want for the candidate you support.

This piece of satire interestingly enough did very little to exaggerate. Aside from a dramatic voice and background music, there is no new content in this video. The tweets used are all real things Trump posted. In doing this, the creators are highlighting a specific feature of his character they believe the American public should oppose.

This video pushes back against the image Trump is attempting to curate that paints him as a confident and poised leader. He intends for his tweets to be read in a specific way, probably assuming everyone in the audience can imitate his voice in their heads. Instead, the emo vocals and dramatic guitar expose the theatrics of Trump’s tweets and his child-like perspective in his concept of the world. In parodying his boastful tweets, it takes the power out of Trump’s small hands and into the nation.

American Horror Story: Trumpcare

The video begins with cheery music and soundbites of Team Trump™ remarking on the Trump plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Air horns, whistles, and other sound effects play as the creator sequences clip after clip of republican leaders contradict themselves and fail to predict reality. Zooms and other visual techniques are used to satirize the situation. It’s amazing to me that a major health care policy transformation is happening in our government right now and our instinct is to seek comedic relief from the Internet such as this.

 Making comedy of our nation’s politics takes us outside of the madness of our everyday lives to think: This is really happening. A man that has said those words and done those things is doing this with our country. Obviously, republican leaders want their party to be viewed as a very well-oiled machine, but this video exposes them as uncoordinated and confused as ever; especially in the highly manipulated clip of Jeanine Pirro yelling at Paul Ryan as he is depicted dabbing in sync with launching cannons. It’s content like this that makes the ridiculous things Team Trump has said in the media sound even more ridiculous. I can’t decide if I think this is a uniquely skewed perspective of reality, or reality.

Trump ATTACK

Most of us want to be remembered for our best qualities, greatest achievements, and proudest moments. Politicians, however, in a desperate grab for votes, choose to advertise themselves differently. In true Darwinian fashion, candidates have recognized the way to win the race is to beat out the strongest competition by targeting their weakest. Even pre-Trump, attack ads have worked extremely well in a polarized America, and they’ve become even more prevalent in the last election. A September 2016 report from the Wesleyan Media Project put it best in stating, “Just over 60 percent of Clinton’s ads have attacked Trump while 31 percent have been positive…Trump, on the other hand, has by and large used contrast ads, which both promote himself and attack Clinton. He has aired no positive ads.” Let's see what Team Trump™ has cooked up for us.

This is an issue advertisement attempting to appeal to women, specifically mothers. While I’m quick to object to the legitimacy and sincerity of the advertisement, it was probably a smart move for Trump to target middle aged white women, who really turned out for him on Election Day. By choosing Trump’s daughter Ivanka as an advocate for women’s policies he allegedly supports, he likely created sway in the minds of voters with the belief that he doesn’t have women’s issues on the agenda.

Team Trump™ did a whole lot of work last election season smearing the Clinton campaign with accusations of corruption and crooked behavior. In the following advertisement, Clinton is accused of engaging in pay to play politics, accepting money from dictators, selling out American workers, exploiting Haitians, and giving US uranium to Russia. “Hillary Clinton only cares about power, money, and herself.”

I think the top Youtube comment on the video is a good example of the reaction Team Trump™ was gunning for with this advertisement:

Team Trump™ employs a few nifty strategies in this advertisement. As one Washigton Post writer wrote, “This is Trump as his Trumpiest” This advertisement relies on a lot of assumptions about Clinton. The video begins with a fearful voiceover of international crises: Iran promoting terrorism! North Korea threatening! ISIS on the rise! Libya and North Africa in chaos! A montage of sick Hillary pictures play. This is two-fold. First, the fear mongering drives the audience into danger control. In order to avoid the collapse of the modern world, they are urged to vote against Hillary. Second, if the fear was not enough to drive the audience away from casting a ballot in favor of Clinton, her health scandal just might be.