The author of a new book on Donald Trump says that even though the front-runner GOP candidate is getting more negative press than anyone, he’s still found a way to master the art of media manipulation, and is coming out on top every time.
That has frustrated reporters and the political commentary class to no end, which is part of Trump’s plan, says Jeffrey Lord, a conservative writer who is one of Trump’s most ardent supporters.
In a new book, “What America Needs: The Case for Trump,” Lord says Trump has infuriated the “Washington establishment” and the news media, “whose loathing of Trump is driven in large part because he makes a mockery of them.” But that loathing by the press is helping Trump gain strength among the electorate.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner media desk, Lord, a CNN contributor, said coverage of Trump is largely partisan and intentionally unfair, often driven by reporters and opinion columnists who feel slighted by the billionaire developer.
The political chattering class, the Washington conservative opinion makers in particular, have been entirely ineffective in their analysis of Trump. Popular columnists like Charles Krauthammer, Rich Lowry and Bill Kristol have all criticized Trump as inauthentic, unserious and incapable of becoming the Republican presidential nominee, only to watch his poll numbers rise higher.
“Some of these folks in Washington and the journalism community do not like being ignored … and they are, and they’re being overridden,” Lord said. And he says there’s another element at work.
“Republicans are constantly frustrated with their candidates for not fighting back,” he said. “They just kind of put their tail between their legs and Trump jumped on that immediately. He said if he were to run, he would fight. He talks about how some [journalists] are good but a lot are dishonest. He’s making fun of them, going after them. And I’m sure these folks don’t like it and don’t appreciate it.”
Trump regularly mocks reporters and TV anchors, sometimes in personal ways, for, he says, failing to honestly cover the things he says, his standing atop most national state-level polls and the size of his mega rallies among other things.
Last weekend, for example, during a campaign rally in Biloxi, Miss., he directed the thousands of people in attendance to look at a new cameraman.
“Look at the guy in the middle. Look at the guy in the middle,” Trump said. “Why aren’t you turning the camera? Terrible. So terrible. Look at him, he doesn’t turn the camera [to show the size of the crowd]. He doesn’t turn the camera … I’ll tell you, it’s disgusting.”
The press is helping Trump in his mission, Lord says, by criticizing him. One example was after his speech last June announcing his candidacy, when he railed against illegal immigration and said that criminals and “rapists” were coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“All of what he was saying was in the context of illegal immigration,” Lord said. “I can’t tell you how many stories I read the next day that said he was talking about Mexicans, legal Mexican immigrants, or just Mexican immigrants in general, which is decidedly not what he was talking about.”
That was only the first controversy of Trump’s unlikely campaign. Lord recalled a still-ongoing spat between Trump and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that started in August, after the first GOP debate, where Kelly confronted Trump with a series of past statements he has made disparaging some women.
Afterward, Trump accused Kelly of unfairly targeting him and said she had “blood coming out of her eyes, coming out of her — wherever.” It was widely seen in the media as a reference to a woman’s menstrual cycle.
“It wasn’t until he next day after the interview that I sat down and started reading the headlines that said he was talking about her menstrual cycle,” Lord said in defense of his preferred candidate. “I heard him exactly and that thought never crossed my mind. Never. They made something out of nothing.”
Republicans are especially skeptical of the national media in general, believing that it harbors a liberal bias (which has been proven to be more or less true in multiple studies). Lord said that Trump has harnessed that sentiment and effectively portrayed the media as a foe of his and his supporters.
“I just think that to some degree plays a role in the crowds and the rallies,” said Lord. “They’ll be damned if they’re going to be pushed around by [the media].”
Lord’s book publishes on Jan. 18.
