Trump and the art of causing chaos

Annex Canada, invade Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico to make it the “Gulf of America”? With his sweeping statements, is Donald Trump serious? Is he just the “troll in chief”? Or does it hide the fact that he wants to create a diversion, exploit the weaknesses of certain countries and divide and conquer in the chaotic world he intends to create?

In any case, for a president who arouses the blind admiration of his supporters in particular because, according to them, he has never launched the United States into a war and because he promises to put an end to all armed conflicts In progress, it may be surprising to see him engage in trade wars and not rule out the possibility of an armed invasion of certain countries and regions. But where has Donald Trump, the isolationist of “ America First »?

For some, the future president behaves like a real estate agent who sees the world map as a giant Monopoly, where the most slobbery can win the day by intimidating his closest allies. In any case, he has the merit of being the master of the game by placing, unconsciously or not, his pawns to generate defensive reactions.

The intimidated on the defensive

After MAGA (Make America Great Again), place at MGGA (“Make Greenland Great Again”, or “Return Greenland to its former greatness”)? Not so fast, said the Danes, owners of the frigid autonomous territory, through their Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen who, while welcoming the increased American interest in Greenland, stressed that everyone must respect the decision of the Greenlandic people.

After Donald Trump’s threats to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian products, Justin Trudeau, not very affectionately nicknamed “governor of the future 51st American state” by the American president-elect, rushed to the Florida estate of Mar-a -Lago to assert his country’s position. Some would rather say to kiss the king’s ring.

The fact remains that with this attitude of bully in chief (after all, the United States remains a military world power first and foremost, an economic one second), Donald Trump keeps his hand, making his threats play out in a controlled or freewheeling manner. , depending on perception.

And both the media and politicians seem to be doing what cats do when they see the beam of light from a flashlight: they “follow the puck “. Like an obligation to react and defend oneself, while Donald Trump and his troops, behind the scenes, sharpen their knives in order to fulfill their promises to change everything in the balance of power.

Diversions?

During his press conference on Tuesday, whose belligerent and revanchist tone was evident, the American president-elect seemed combative when discussing the result of the November 2024 elections. They are still counting votes in some areas, it’s unbelievable, what a horrible placehe declared.

Surprising (or not) on his part, while the day before, the certification of the presidential results had taken place without a hitch, confirming his clear and clear victory, far from the chaotic situation of four years ago, during the storming of the Capitol. As if it wasn’t enough to savor your victory.

We are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration, and it is doing everything it can to make it even more difficult. Inflation continues to rage and interest rates are way too high. I was disappointed to see the Biden administration attempt to block the reforms the American people voted for. Let us remember, however, that the American economic situation is solid. Even though inflation remains high, the economy is growing at a sustained pace, in a labor market that is easing slightly.

Would Donald Trump be worried about not being able to fulfill his nearly 60 election promises, including that of lowering all prices for consumers? Hence the idea of ​​creating a diversion by evoking countries so far from concerns, just to appear as a strong man who dictates his law to the whole world? The near future will tell us…

And the media in all this?

Which brings us back to the media treatment of the turbulence generated by Donald Trump. During his first mandate, he fed his Twitter feed, as he was called at the time, with inflammatory statements and held press conferences where everything was covered: attacks, threats and promises, without giving details on the realization of those. -this.

In rapid news cycles, journalists had to deal with this turmoil of more or less relevant “news” while trying to distinguish the true from the false or the crazy, depending on the president’s moods.

Four years later, the media is left with the same question: how can we cover a Trump 2.0 presidency?

There is, however, a trend that could worry some since the coverage of the November 2024 presidential campaign. That of the sanewashingthis practice of trying to focus on the few sensible points in Donald Trump’s speeches and press conferences to make usable and content-relevant news, ignoring everything else, made up of statements sometimes crazy and half-serious.

We must now add to this a certain “letting go” on the part of certain media companies. Joe Scarborough, from the show Morning Joe on MSNBC (liberal channel usually allergic to Donald Trump), decided to go meet the Republican at Mar-a-Lago just after his victory, perhaps in order, by being more docile and more open, to guarantee better access to the future president. A decision which aroused the opprobrium of its viewers, who accused the host of make a deal with the devil.

A “letting go”

ABC Newsthrough its host George Stephanopoulos, suffered a defamation suit from Donald Trump because the host had declared that the Republican had been tried responsible for rape (instead of sexual assault) in the civil lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll in 2023.

Rather than fighting, ABC News preferred to pay 15 million US dollars as part of an out-of-court settlement. A surprising concession, on the part of a large press group, and a rare victory for a politician, enemy of the media, whose previous trials against media companies had often ended in failure. However, many believed that ABC News could have won its case, given the high threshold required by the courts for a public figure like Donald Trump to be able to prove defamation.

Finally, to guarantee access to the presidency, even social media platforms seem to be getting in tune. Latest example: Meta (parent company of Facebook) has decided, through the voice of Mark Zuckerberg, to stop using third-party fact checkers and to instead rely on users to add notes to publications.

Enough to delight Donald Trump and his conservative allies. It’s time to return to our roots of free speechthe Meta boss said, adding that the company’s fact-checking system had reaches a point where there are too many errors and too much censorship. Mark Zuckerberg must have told himself that with a little luck, if he fell into line, maybe Donald Trump would leave him alone.

Still, for a man who campaigns on border security (even though, last year, US immigration services deported the largest number of undocumented immigrants in nearly ten years, surpassing the record for first term of Donald Trump) and, above all, on the fight against inflation, his voters, between expansionist aims and promises of trade wars, must ask themselves: And the price of eggs and milk in all this?