Part of Trump's Problem: Sizzle vs. Steak (Marketing)

Let's discuss the floundering Trump empire (Trumpire?), and why not start with this TikTok crap? I will attempt to demonstrate how one of Trump's problems is that he sucks at marketing.

Something Trump Said Recently

“As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” said Donald Trump, ready to huff, puff, and hire someone else to blow a house down. Tellingly, he didn't mention exactly why we have little choice but to ban them (or force users to pull out), or why it should even face an investigation. In fact, has there been an FBI investigation into TikTok and why?

It turns out that yes, there was an investigation regarding TikTok causing "national security concerns," including that it was censoring "politically sensitive content."

However, given how these things work out, it's doubtful there was no potential conflict of interest in the investigation. In fact, such things seem like any distraction for the ever-mounting distraction and scandal pile in the United States.

Considering all the problems we're facing now, why focus on something like TikTok? Should Trump (and, by logical extension, everyone else), be focused on resolving coronavirus and fixing the economy?

Also, if you look at what many are saying on Twitter, could this renewed concentration on TikTok simply by Trump going after its popular users who mock him? After all, the New York Times recently ran an article titled, "TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally."

There's also the popular Trump-mocker named Sarah Cooper, and how about when Trump went against Twitter, calling their Trump-bashing trending topics "illegal" (they're not, but whatever)?

If you can't tell, I think Trump's ego is the main culprit here. This isn't likely about "national security" or anything according to the FBI”s guidelines. This is about Trump's fragile ego. If he could, he would try to ban every article he thought was a threat. After all, he considers any report against him "Fake News."

No News is Good News

Unless it's something positive about him being reported, it must be fake. Keep in mind, this man is supposedly responsible for protecting the nation's civil, military, and foreign espionage/intelligence activities in the United States, its territories and possessions, and overseas. This fragile, fragile man, who has never been able to live up to his own branding. Interestingly, NBC reports that his attacks on TikTok might inspire younger voter turnout against Trump. A fake news story? Possibly not this time?

What Does This Distraction Mean?

Admittedly, by writing about this issue, I am arguably participating in a distraction. However, maybe it is a big story because it hides other issues. An overarching theme of Trump (and, frankly, the Democratic Party as well) is to trump up some moral or "national security" panic to distract our attention away from other, starker issues. For example, if we look at this, it's a little harder to simultaneously examine the issues of any detention center. We'll be less likely to pressure them to improve conditions at some old facility.

However, I don't think that's quite working right for Trump right now. People are able to have these split-focuses now better than ever before. It also helps that, to a large degree, some of these issues link together. For example, Trump's tirades against TikTok and Twitter also involve free speech. For us lefties, free speech is hardly any different from free movement (immigration). And hell, even for those of us who aren't for completely opening borders, we can still advocate for extensive renovations to improve conditions at the aforementioned shelters.

In other words, we don't necessarily feel distracted, and issues can share (and create) a fair amount of common ground. Given all the restrictions Trump and crew are in favor of, it sort of makes all their talk of "freedom and liberty" seem like a hollow lie, doesn't it? I mean, Trump is going after all of his critics, one way or another, to the extent that his limited competence will allow. He's tried to block books that are critical of him, he only sends federal goons against protesters he doesn't like (Example: In my home state of Michigan, how come he didn't send goons after anti-maskers who threatened to execute our governor? Instead, the orange menace famously Tweeted: "LIBERATE MICHIGAN.").

The Near-Innate Irony of Trump

Trump will always want to do something about a negative publicity issue, yet he has chronic foot-in-mouth disease, supports a bunch of increasingly unpopular policies, is increasingly awkward at his speaking and word choice (even putting his racism aside). He is simply a walking disaster. Any honest person can see it. If everything you say and do creates a scandal in its wake, shouldn't you at some point wonder if maybe — just maybe — you're doing something wrong?

Also, his anti-science attributes haven't done him any favors, either. Had he listened to actual scientific experts, the country and economy of the United States could hypothetically have been in full (or mostly full) swing already. He could have rightly said, "Now that the situation is under control, I am planning to start work on future projects, and I will do my best to be President for everyone, regardless of political party or background." That's how normal humans might talk, right?

However, that's too good to be true under the Trumpian nightmare. Instead, he denied the problem even existed to a significant degree, advocated against both wearing masks and social distancing, wants schools to open up, and actually killed off some Republican loyalists in the process, or at least got them sick. Now we're approaching 160,000 deaths. That is approximately 53.74 September 11ths rolled into one, and growing (as of 8/1/2020).

Maybe if this President had addressed coronavirus far better, made less racist comments, and attempted to actually address police brutality concerns, the economy wouldn't be headed straight down the shitter, with many fearing a Mad Max-style future. In fact, maybe Trump could learn something from looking into the Mad Max-style past.

Another Irony of Trump

I'm not a Democrat, so I'll keep it real here. Ironically, Trump could have done some of his stuff and retained his popularity by not being such a jerk about it. For example, the aforementioned issue of immigration. It's now increasingly conceded that Obama actually deported more people than any other President.

Why isn't he known as anti-immigrant? In addition to having the "D' next to his name rather than an "R", he was nice about the deportations. He emphasized "Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids. We’ll prioritize, just like law enforcement does every day."

His deportations weren't truly just of violent criminals, but it sounded more like that might have been true. Obama didn't just say "They're all a bunch of bad hombres," or whatever. He stood on immigrant's necks with a certain refinement, with style. He gave them the boot but made people think the state was wearing dress shoes and an elegant tuxedo. Trump, on the other hand, comes across as a spoiled rich 8-year-old wearing a Burger King crown, but the baby's somehow able to get gun-toting thugs do his bidding.

Trump, who is supposed to be a business genius, doesn't grasp that old law of marketing: "It's the sizzle, not the steak." Because of how he frames himself, he always comes across as some erratically and rapidly pushing out immigrants he doesn't didn't like. Merely his word choice makes him more susceptible to lawsuits from the ACLU. He should better appreciate the perceptible difference between Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd.

What Trump's Failure Means For Immigrants and Protesters and Such

It could be that I'm very wrong, but it actually seems like more people might sympathize with immigrants now than before, and it's partly due to just how hostile and "nasty" Trump is when talking about them. He is literally starting to craft his targets and critics into the underdogs by always portraying himself as the overdog, and this hits anyone with a cynical sense of marketing as a probable mistake.

If Trump was actually a smart a-hole, he could be speaking very sweetly on behalf of immigrants while building more detention centers across the country, and plenty of dolts out there might buy into this re-branding. You can be evil and nice at the same time. After all, that's exactly the kind of arrangement one would expect from a successful businessman.

Trump Embodies Our Decline

How is Trump possible anyway? Well, think about what America is versus what it so often claims to be. Try not to either laugh or gag.

Now, some intellectual giants might read that sentence and say I'm an "America-hater." To that I say, "Whatever, man." Seriously, though, just look at the basics of what this country has done since, let's say, the 1990s. The United States is always seeking to have its military operations overseas exempted from laws. It wants to do what it wants while demanding everyone else follow decorum and play nice.

If we want to invade a country that can't really fight back, we just flow right in, for the most part. This was even true during the Clinton administration, which was eager to get off the chain against Yugoslavia. Not many people even seem to remember that, let alone care.

However, James Bissett, a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia, wrote in 2006: "Under the eyes of the UN and NATO, more than 200,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma and other non-Albanians have been expelled from Kosovo. Those who remain are in constant danger." He says it's thanks to the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was supported by the United States and NATO. In fact, he says "U.S. military advisors were accompanying the KLA terrorists." How does that song go? "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, then start a conflagration in whose glow I may bask."

With this kind of setup, why be so shocked that Trump would greenlight the DHS to swarm on places like Portland or Chicago? If we can do it elsewhere, why wouldn't our government eventually do it here?

Also, we shouldn't be shocked that the president of the United States uses fear as a PR front for its prison regime — rather than reform, sunshine, puppy dogs, and lollipops. The main difference is, Trump has been skilled at cultivating, well, a cult, so he hasn't quite needed a PR juggernaut. A cult is certainly good for Trump's kind of business, even if it's not, say, the Clinton administration's style. However, his cult has lost some members, and some of those who were never fully convinced might've left before the proverbial Kool-Aid was injected like disinfectant.

See, there were people around the world whose lives were devastated by the Obama regime, but he had finesse to it here at home. He made us seem like a less warlike, less greedy place, all while being a sellout, corporate-militarist Democrat.

In Closing

There is something profoundly disturbing about a power that has historically built its crimes on justifying slavery and atrocities on foreign soil justifying more crimes here. Obviously, Donald Trump is not who we need in the White House to protect black people from such a system.

If we follow the Dems, we will indeed reject Trump and his bad PR strategy, then pathetically accept someone who better pretends to care while doing their bare minimum to improve our lives — while still engaging in wars, beefing up the police state, and giving massive sums of bailout bucks to billionaires and the like. Again, it's the sizzle, not the steak. So let's climb out of that fire and get back into that frying pan, baby.