The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy - Routledge

The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy

Edited by Robert E.

Taylor and

Gutsche, Jr.

Francis. Not

for

Distribution

First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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Introduction

Translating Trump: How to Discuss the Complications

oPof lCitoicvsering New Presidential ution Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. trib Newspaper headlines from the United States on November 9, 2016, reis flected more than just who won the presidential election. "STUNNER,"

yelled the banner headline of The Record in Stockton, California.

D "BELIEVE IT," the Montgomery Advertiser headline in Montgomery, r Alabama, read below a subhead, "Donald J. Trump becomes 45th fo President of the United States." On The New York Times, "New media

again misreads complex pulse of the nation." Although, Trump's victory

t wasn't really surprising to people who paid attention to the kinetic eno ergy of the social pendulum that was ramping since Barack Obama first

took office and that was fueled by white citizens who felt an ultimate

N threat to their power. To them, their power was back. . Still, U.S. journalists, by and large, ignored Middle (read, white) and is much of America once again, and empowered themselves with tradic tional approaches to newswork that elevated access and prize journalism n over meaningful assessments of systematic power within institutions a of government, business, and culture. If decades of televised and now r in-real-time white-on-black crime, especially at the hands of militarized F police forces against the citizenry, wasn't enough to indicate something

was wrong before Trump, it is no wonder that journalists missed the se-

d riousness of a largely white constituency that had all but destroyed any n advancements in social and cultural affairs in states such as Wisconsin, a Texas, and Florida, as well as an array of local government actions racross the country that restrict free speech and personal rights to use a

bathroom based on gender identification.

loA gay marriage law that can be easily rescinded by governmental exy ecutive orders, a Black president, and a socially conscious health care a system a liberal society it does not make. T Trump's signs of power to undo these efforts at equal treatment

were there the whole time, often hidden in coded jokes, language, and mannerisms. Trump has been open about using news media as free advertising to build his real estate and entertainment empires, and he has also been consistent with audiences and publics ? well before his

2 Robert E. Gutsche, Jr.

candidacy ? about his humor, his bombastic style, and his ability to shift in populist winds when it suits him. That many knew of his loud mouth following his decades of his controversial real estate deals, his TV fame, and his political speech, helped them to normalize the crazy for mass appeal.

In turn, supporters were able to dismiss any real concerns about Trump's racist tendencies in housing policy, his lavish and over-the-top lifestyle, his reckless financial efforts that sometimes flopped, and his

n clear connections with powerful Democrats before he was forced by tio the GOP to join their ranks in order to secure the party's nomination.

Put simply, his nonsense approach made his own nonsense, nonsense.

u In fact, one of my family members, while watching news coverage ib of Trump's Milwaukee speech in August 2016 in which he took aim tr at efforts to increase law enforcement in what he seemed to describe

as out-of-control inner cities showed me some insight into the Trump-

is follower mindset, whether she supported Trump or not. I didn't ask. Already in the campaign, Trump had made the following comments:

r D ? "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. fo They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're send-

ing people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those

t problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. o They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

? "I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down.

N And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and . thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming is down. Thousands of people were cheering." c ? "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I n wouldn't lose voters." a ? "In the Middle East, we have people chopping the heads off Christians, r we have people chopping the heads off many other people. We have F things that we have never seen before ? as a group, we have never seen

before, what's happening right now. The medieval times ? I mean, we

d studied medieval times ? not since medieval times have people seen n what's going on. I would bring back waterboarding and I'd bring back aa hell of a lot worse than waterboarding." r? "[Russia] a very different system and I don't happen to like the sys-

tem, but certainly, in that system, [Putin's] been a leader, far more

lothan our president has been a leader." (Newsday, 2016) ay Such comments were replayed in coverage of the August speech when the T following conversation occurred.

"I can't believe he says these things," I said in my living room.

"I wish he wouldn't say those things," my relative said.

Introduction 3

"What's worse is that people actually believe these things," I noted, believing we would be able to discuss how and why Americans have come to believe these ideas to the degree where they would openly support a presidential candidate speaking so plainly.

"It's not that I don't believe those things," my relative told me. "I just don't think he should say them."

And that's where we are.

n Maybe where we have always been. tio Few people say what they really mean, and maybe politicians are the

best at that. With Trump, though, his comments have been in code,

u where within his plain talk holds hidden meanings. ib Trump's comments about the Mexican wall, for instance, and that tr Mexico "will pay for it," didn't mean that he would seriously seek a

check from the Mexican government for building supplies. Instead, the

is nation would pay (or ease the financial strain of the project for the United

States) through types of embargos and taxes that he could conjure up,

D or in the money lost from rescinded aid to the Mexico, or private and r corporate losses as the U.S. government would make it so uncomfortable fo for U.S.-based industry to do business there.

Trump supporters also understood what Trump really meant in

t his presidential bid announcement in June 2015 when he discussed o issues of Mexico "sending" its citizens across the border. There is N no doubt that Trump's many statements about "immigrants" and his . own business practices dealing with immigrant workers reveals a disis dain for non-American workers (or lives) in the United States. But in

the immediate context of this discussion about "sending" people to

c the United States, Trump was critiquing the Mexican criminal jusn tice system (Washington Post, 2015), in particular, the challenges a the government faces in maintaining its prison system (Hanchett, r 2015). (Yes, I know the cite for that last point was from Breitbart.) F As Trump put it:

d And frankly, Mexico doesn't care from the standpoint that they don't n want to house these people for a long period of time in their prisons. aThey say, `Let the United States take care of them. Let the United rStates put them in their jails. Why should we pay for it?' And belolieve me, it's happening and it's happening big league and this country y doesn't know. Ta (Salon, 2015)

Remember that Mexican bad-man "El Chapo" had escaped from Mexican officials and was on the run since 2001 before being captured in 2014 after a massive and international manhunt that led to concern

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