Trump, New York City and the Tabloids

New York City is the city of a million stories. The

tabloids help explain the rise of Donald Trump: pages full of celebrity gossip, divorce, crime, sex scandals, and scantily clad Page Six girls. Tabloids speak very directly. Like Trump, they have strong opinions, pull no punches but are sometimes sketchy on the details. They go for emotions. Large print headlines jump off the page and many photos stimulate the reader.

We are not talking NY Times, the paper of record. Too intellectual. Trump calls them the “failing New York Times” but secretly wants their approval. Trump rises from the NYC tabloids--the conservative New York Post and the liberal New York Daily News. If it bleeds it leads.

Credit Donald Trump with one sign of genius, his decision to stick with New York City. New York struggled in the 1970s when things looked bleakest—gangs, graffiti, and unemployment. Why did he stay? Trump is a sucker for a story and Gotham thrives on stories. And New York City has many celebrities of various stripes. Trump loves celebrities, more than almost anything else.

And then New York made a comeback. Ironically, immigrants played a big role in invigorating the city. Creative young people returned to the Big Apple, especially Brooklyn. Gentrification followed. Crime decreased. Wall Street’s massive profits trickled down across the city. The Big Apple was back. Trump Tower stood proudly in the middle of the renaissance.

Trump learned from the tabloids. It’s all about exposure and building a brand. All publicity is good publicity. And Trump got a regular gig on television—The Apprentice.

When it came time to run for President, Trump figured out the cable news game better than Hillary. Say outrageous things and arouse emotion. Tabloid newspapers influenced cable TV with its confrontational style. Donald Trump’s oxygen became cable TV. He loves being the performer and the watcher. He digests CNN programs  and reacts. As President, he sealed the deal by mastering Twitter. Trump’s tweets became his own media outlet.

We usually get the President who figures out the media environment more accurately than his/her competition. Trump wanted to be the most famous man in the world. Mission accomplished. Trump now controls the news cycle—24/7. He cannot be moved off of Page One.

Trump: rain-maker or hatchet man?

Hatchet Man--  definition

• a person employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks, such as the   dismissal of a number of people from employment.
• person who writes fierce attacks on others or their work.

Donald Trump has roared into power like an unknown racehorse storming to the front of the pack and crossing the finish line before the competition. Rather than sit on his laurels and savor his victory with a cigar and glass of champagne, he seems more fired up than ever. What does this intensity mean?

Trump's critics perceive a scary future in the whirlwind of tweets and attacks he has leveled in almost every direction. What should we expect from The Donald? Take a look at a few things we have learned.

Donald Trump loves the states and the voters that voted for him-- especially the states not expected to go his way, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He loves Ivanka, his attractive daughter. Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband and Donald's son-in-law, has a talent for strategy. Jared played a key role in engineering Donald Trump's campaign and unexpected rise to the front of the pack. Jared Kushner has risen to the top of Donald's inner circle. He may have helped with Donald Trump's understanding of the effective use of electronic media.

Donald is fond of Twitter. He tweets the electronic environment as a means of bypassing committees, bureaucrats, enemies, fellow Republicans, and the mainstream media. Donald's inflammatory tweets propel him to the front of the mainstream media-- cable TV news shows, etc., and he becomes mainstream media.

Donald portrays himself as a master dealmaker, presumably a peerless negotiator. Donald Trump is in an enviable position for expanding his own wealth. The accumulation of personal riches has been a life-long goal. He is having trouble separating himself from this commitment to his own wealth. He claims to have switched his hierarchy of goals. Now he wants to do great things for America. Does he know how to do this? What does this look like for America? He plans to win many jobs for Americans. 

Donald likes to play hardball. His deal-making style is to keep the other guy off balance. Does this aggressive style work on the world stage? The stock market does not like off-balance. Parents like their children to feel the world is a peaceful place. Trump enjoys keeping everybody on edge and himself firmly planted on center stage, the only man who can pull us from the fire, the skilled super-hero able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.

We will learn if Donald Trump truly has any talent for making other people richer-- the great expanse of humanity, the American citizenry feeling the most pain. Most rich people devote themselves to their own riches. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, and a billionaire like Trump, showed an interest in the day-to-day operations and details of running of the city. Bloomberg never employed braggadoccio or threats. He had a talent for steering New York City down a path to success.

Donald Trump reminds me of a hatchet man (see above). A hatchet man arrived at my place of employment, an office where I worked about fifteen years ago. He had a confrontational style which ran totally contrary to the bureaucratic environment. People shook in their boots-- wondering if their job was in jeopardy. The guy's name was Sean. He brimmed with confidence and was not afraid to seem a bit eccentric. Sean broke the mold. I left that office for reasons not related to Sean's arrival. I later heard he left under a cloud of controversy. Turns out Sean had skeletons in his closet, had committed acts of bad judgment, far worse than anything he had accused of others. Sean shook things up-- changes were made that only he had the courage to act upon, but his demise came quickly. 

The question will be answered in the coming weeks, months and years. We will learn. Donald Trump may be a rain-maker, the greatest job producer every place by God on this green earth... or maybe he is just a hatchet man, acting on society's impulses, and forcing change upon us all.