Back in 1998, Donald Trump told the BBC’s Hardtalk that he used to struggle with critical stories, “but the one thing I have learned is it’s a one-week phenomenon. It doesn’t matter. At the end of a week, usually the end of a day, but usually by the end of the week, it's totally gone, you don’t even remember the story.”
There may be truth in this. Each bit of bad press may be a one-week phenomenon. But Trump’s problem is that he launches a new damaging story pretty much every day.
In fact, during these first six months of the Trump presidency, there hasn't been a single week of calm waters. Instead, the nation has been treated to a never-ending White House version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
A few weeks ago, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and then assured the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak—a central figure in Russia's interference in the 2016 election—that the “great pressure because of Russia” had now been “taken off.” This after The New York Times reported that Trump had earlier asked Comey for his loyalty and even privately asked him to drop an ongoing investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
The man who was elected largely on the premise that he would use the same businessman acumen he demonstrated on The Apprentice has presided over the most absurdly mismanaged White House in U.S. history.
Even when there is good news, he manages to overshadow it. Take this week’s announcement that the Taiwanese firm Foxconn was bringing thousands of jobs to Wisconsin. Instead of basking in the glory, he trumped his own headlines, first by publicly attacking his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and then tweeting that he was going discriminate against thousands of transgender soldiers by firing them.
Even when there is good news, he manages to overshadow it.
Then Trump was off to a Boy Scout jamboree, where he managed to politicize the event in a way that prompted the scouts to apologize—for inviting him. Then he suggested to a group of cops that they should be going the extra mile to rough up suspects in custody—again drawing condemnation from his target audience.
Then Trump’s brand-new communications director, Anthony “Mooch” Scaramucci, called a reporter to lambast White House Chief of staff Reince Priebus and adviser Steve Bannon in shockingly vulgar terms.
Trump responded by promptly firing Scaramucci, as any reasonable leader would have done.
Kidding! Instead, he fired Priebus, the target of the Mooch’s foul-mouth ire, and hired former Marine General John Kelly as his new Chief of Staff. Kelly not only canned Scaramucci, he had him escorted out of the White House.
But even this was not chaos enough for the guy who shrugs off bad press as fleeting. Next came the revelation that President Trump had personally dictated a misleading statement for his son to give defending his meeting Don Jr. with representatives of the Russian government who promised damaging information about Trump then-opponent Hillary Clinton.
Oh, and somewhere in all that, despite controlling the House, the Senate, and the presidency, the Republicans failed to repeal or replace Obamacare. Like all real, consequential policy making, even this colossal defeat has been overshadowed by Trump’s own flapdoodle nonsense.
Surely, Trump is shrugging and telling his head nodders, “it doesn’t matter.” Most people think it does matter, though, with the latest Gallup tracking poll showing that a whopping 59 percent of Americans disapprove of the job he’s doing.
Still, he’s repeatedly argued that he’s gotten to the office of presidency with this attitude.
And you can’t argue with that.