Just six months into Trump’s administration, a new communications strategy seems to be emerging. Michael Dubke has resigned as the White House’s second communications director, it was announced that both Trump and Pence are scheduled to host rallies around the country this summer, and there’s still a faint rumor about a press briefing shake-up.
But will these efforts allow the administration to hit reset and better control the narrative?
Of course, we can’t predict the future, but based on the campaign we watched for months and his first 100 days in office, it’s easy to make an educated guess. And my educated guess says that Trump’s loyal supporters will cheer him, the left will attack him, and the persuadable middle will be unmoved.
{mosads}Same problem, different symptoms. Let me explain.
Navigating your way through the media is a game. Donald Trump has made it clear that he refuses to play that game and will instead circumvent the mainstream media and their nasty spin.
How has that been working for him?
While he has a fair argument against often biased and ridiculous reporting, his supporters hunger for more of the “stick it to ‘em” attitude while the Left responds in shock and awe at every tweet and misstep. But the persuadable middle, the voting bloc you want to win over before the mid-term elections next year, will likely tire of the constant back-and-forth.
I’m not suggesting President Trump stop circumventing the media altogether. There is value in inviting nontraditional outlets to press conferences and holding rallies to better spread your message without the threat of media bias. But if he’s going to convince the persuadable middle, he has to show up and meet them where they are — watching the “Very Fake News” produced by CNN.
To play the media game isn’t to become a media darling, but rather to agree to interviews and come ready with a main message and sharp talking points. Stay on offense; be prepared. If you stop supplying the ammo — ammo in the form of nonsensical tweets after midnight, mixed messages between Trump and his surrogates, etc. — you’ll weaken their attempts to undermine you and your administration.
But offense requires a strategy understood and executed by all players in order to gain control.
It’s been rumored that Trump criticized his communications team shortly after the Comey news cycle and recommended they “get on the same page.”
We saw it happen all over again when the media reported that Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner created a “back channel” to communicate with the Russian government. When news of this alleged “back channel” broke, we were met by several different responses from the White House:
- Press Secretary Sean Spicer spent most of his daily briefing sidestepping backchannel questions.
- Senior Advisor KellyAnne Conway referred to it as a “regular course of business.”
- Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said a back channel was a good thing.
- Trump retweeted an article that said the backchannel was the Russians’ idea.
The persuadable middle doesn’t have time to stick around and decipher what you meant to say, and you risk losing your most ardent supporters in the process. Show up, play the game, and stay on message.
It’s likely that fear of losing his supporters has led Trump to not only talk about a communications shake up, but double down on a strategy that worked well for him on the campaign trail — rallies.
Rallies allow Trump and his surrogates the ability to deliver an unfiltered message to a lot of voters at one time. However, the persuadable middle isn’t in attendance. These rallies help preserve and energize his base, which is great and necessary. But many were persuaded to vote for Trump because he was the lesser of two evils, not because he knows how to organize a rally.
Like or not, Trump needs to start playing the game, and soon. While rallies might suit the president’s “shoot-from-the-hip” style best, the tough, day-to-day messaging coming out of the confines of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue remains chaotic. Come midterms, this is something the persuadable middle will need help forgetting.
If your communications strategy is broke, you should probably fix it. Here’s hoping this new attempt gets the desired result.
Beverly Hallberg (@BevHallberg) is the president and founder of District Media Group where she conducts media training for members of Congress, CEOs, policy wonks, and politicos. She is also a visiting fellow in communications at The Heritage Foundation and 2016 winner of the William F. Buckley Award.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.