00:00The ability to influence mass media is an actual real-life superpower.
00:04The Kardashians for instance have earned over a hundred million dollars with that power.
00:08But by far, the best media influencer that I have ever seen is Donald Trump.
00:12While other people get buried by scandals, he thrives on them.
00:16He won the presidency through a hailstorm of scandals that, really, no one else could have
00:20come through despite spending only slightly over half of what Hillary did on his campaign.
00:25And that was because Donald was able to get the media to influence votes towards him
00:30for free despite the fact that many of those outlets were trying to do the exact opposite.
00:35And that's why in this video, we are going to talk about why Trump is able to thrive
00:39in today's media environment and how he controls the media so well.
00:43To be clear, I'm not supporting or even criticizing Trump in this video.
00:47I'm personally just interested in how all of this works.
00:50So, let's begin with what it is the Trump wants and that's pretty simple —
00:54Trump wants to have his core message repeated whatever that message is
00:58at any given time and he wants that as often as possible until it sticks in your memory
01:02and all the opposing messages are just drowned out.
01:05After all, what gets repeated gets remembered and what gets remembered gets done.
01:10To be clear, this isn't unique to Donald Trump;
brands pay big money to do this all the time.
01:16Parapapapa, I'm lovin' it.
01:20The only difference is that McDonald's has to pay every time you see one of their ads
01:24whereas Trump got over two billion dollars in free advertising
during the 2016 campaign and who knows how much since then.
01:30Now, he did that by understanding that the news media wants very specific things;
01:35they need stories that people are going to watch, click, and share because without that,
01:39the outlet goes out of business.
01:41And what people are going to watch, click, and
share turns out to be a very small group of things.
01:46First off, those things need to be sensational;
we pay attention to things that seem out of the ordinary.
01:51Not every single day is going to bring news that feel so crazy and out of the ordinary
01:55so boring and nuanced statements are often taken out of
context in order to drive up the shock value and grab attention.
02:02For small business owners, guess what, the president has a new message for you.
02:07...you've got a business, you didn't build that; somebody else made that happen.
02:15You didn't build that? Who built that?
02:17Who built that business? Who worked to invested? Who took risks?
02:21Somebody helped to create this unbelievable
American system that we had that allowed you to thrive.
02:27Somebody invested roads and bridges. If you got a business, you didn't build that.
02:32...country or trying to come in and we’re stopping a lot of them.
02:36But we're taking people out of the country;
you wouldn't believe how bad these people are.
02:40These aren't people. These are animals.
02:44I want to share what Trump said yesterday when
he was talking about sanctuary cities in California.
02:48"These are animals."
02:49I'm a lot more concerned of when he does things like call immigrants animals.
02:54...and it is a very slippery slope when you start dehumanizing people this way.
02:59It's what the Nazis did. It's what slave owners did. It's not what Americans do.
03:04We’ll take care of it, Margaret. We’ll win.
03:05Thank you. There could be an MS-13 member I know about.
03:08If they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about them.
03:12We have people coming into the country or trying
to come in and we’re stopping a lot of them.
03:17But we're taking people out of the country;
you wouldn't believe how bad these people are.
03:21These aren't people. These are animals.
03:25Within sensationalized stories there is one type of sensationalism that is king
03:30and that is stories that make you angry and riled up because nothing gets shared more
03:35than videos and articles that enrage people.
03:38And Ryan Holiday dives deep into this and his book, Trust Me, I'm Lying;
I highly recommend it if this topic interests you.
03:44Third, there is a strong preference for news that
has a strong audio and visual component to it.
03:50Now, the recent reporting of kids in cages at the border
03:53hits this hard with audio and video that grabs you emotionally.
03:57[Kids crying talking in Spanish]
04:04These images in this audio hits immediately on an emotionally resonant level.
04:09Now, there's a lot of terrible things that are going on in the world.
04:12For instance, drone strikes that are killing families leaving kids crying in just the same way.
04:16But we don't have the audio and visual component of those and therefore,
04:21it's less likely that that would ever make news or create as much of an emotional response.
04:25Fourth, the news needs to be novel.
04:28We crave the new and the Kardashians are a fantastic non-political example of this.
04:33The first time that Kim had a semi nude photo, it quote-unquote broke the internet.
04:37At this point, she's done full frontal on her Instagram several times
04:41and it's not even generated quite as much buzz; you have to do something new
04:45constantly or the public just loses interest and that's very quick.
04:49Fifth, if this wasn't already obvious, the news needs to be dead simple
04:54to the point that it flat-out ignores the complicated nature of the real world.
04:58And politicians have known this for a very long time.
05:00Yes, we can. Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you.
05:05We will make America safe again and yes, together, we will make America great again.
05:14Despite the fact that politicians have kind of known these rules, if not outright
05:18describe them, the news still often would get the best of them resulting in scandal.
05:23You've got Monica Lewinsky, Abu Ghraib, Benghazi, and essentially,
05:27the news cycle would control these politicians; they
were forced to play defense for months at a time.
05:33But Trump has actually learned to reverse this; he seems to happen to the news.
05:38And he does that because he accepts that the news is going to be sensational, simplistic,
05:43novel, and enraging and that's why he crafts his messages with those things in mind.
05:48So the media literally cannot resist telling the stories that he wants told.
05:53Now, all of this comes through and some very specific behaviors from him.
05:57A few of them I've covered in other videos one that I did on Trump during the election
06:01where I predicted that he was going to win before he'd even won
06:03the Republican nomination so if you're interested in those,
06:06I'm gonna link to them and you can check them out but continuing here,
06:09let's start off with the first core tenant of controlling the news which is
06:13that you have to assert a very simple positive message and associate that with yourself.
06:18We don't win anymore in our country, Sean. We used to win.
06:22We don't win anymore. We don't win with trade, we don't win with war,
06:27and we can't even beat ISIS and we're gonna win.
06:30If I win, I will tell you, if I win, we all win because we are gonna win.
06:35The reason the message needs to be simple is because most people are only hearing
06:39sound bites and reading headlines and it needs to be grasped by those people.
06:43And it also makes it much harder to take your
message out of context if it's extremely simple.
06:48Here's Bernie Sanders breaking this rule of simplicity
and it has a very predictable outcome in the news cycle.
06:54I believe that a Medicare for All single-payer program
06:58will substantially lower the cost of health care for middle class families.
07:04So instead of paying ten thousand dollars to Blue Cross or Blue Shield, yes,
07:09some middle class families would be paying slightly more in taxes but the result would be
07:15that that middle class family would be saving some $5,000 in health care cost.
07:21A little bit more in taxes do away with private health
insurance premiums; it's a pretty good deal.
07:27You get bonus points for simplicity if you can use imagery to communicate your points
07:32and that can be an image that is a literal image that you look at or an image
07:36that you describe by painting a picture in people's minds so that it sticks with them.
07:40On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable,
physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall.
07:52The second thing that Trump does frequently is in the event of disadvantageous news
07:57which seems to be all the time these days — you don't want
to waste too much time defending yourself.
08:03Defending yourself requires actually repeating the charges against you
08:06and remember, what gets repeated gets remembered.
08:09You also don't want to necessarily paint a clear picture in people's minds in the case of
08:14disadvantageous news so restating the charges should only be done very vaguely if at all.
08:20When you walked off that bus at age 59, were you a different man or
08:25did that behavior continue until just recently? And you have two minutes for this.
08:30As I told you, that was locker-room talk, I'm not proud of it... I am a person who has
08:38great respect for people from my family, for the people of this country, and certainly,
08:43I'm not proud of it but that was something that happened if you look at Bill Clinton.
08:49Bonus points for not wasting time with your denials if you can do it without saying
08:53a single word and body language and facial expressions count for a lot here.
08:57In addition, if you do use words to deny, you can make the whole thing seem less credible
09:02by setting your denial in a more informal setting not really
dignifying it with a formal press conference like in this clip.
09:08Why did Michael Cohen make those if there was no truth to her allegations?
09:15Well, you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. And you'll have to ask Michael.
09:21Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?
09:26Third, if you do get into these hot water situations where you are
denying with your body language or your image realest statements,
09:32you need to quickly counter-attack and you want to do that with vivid imagery.
09:36...but Bill Clinton was abusive to women.
09:39Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and
09:42attacked them viciously — four of them are here tonight.
09:46One of the women, who is a wonderful woman, at 12 years old, was raped at 12.
09:53Her client she represented got him off and she's seen laughing on two separate occasions,
09:59laughing at the girl who was raped.
10:01Cathy Shelton, that young woman, is here with us tonight.
10:06This point is key because the more sensational you make your attacks,
10:09the more the media cannot resist them; they must publish them
10:13or lose the eyeballs to other competitors and that means that your counter-attacks
10:18are going to get more coverage then the original accusation does.
10:21After all, what gets repeated by these news outlets gets remembered.
10:25It's just awfully good that someone
10:27with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
10:32...because you'd be in jail. [Audience cheers]
10:36...attack of fake news and attacking our network. I just want to ask you, sir—
10:40I'm changing it from fake news though — very fake news.
10:44Aren't you... [Audience laughs]
10:47Notably, spending a lot of time apologizing is not in this playbook.
10:52Validating the other side's good intentions isn't in here either.
10:55Nuanced arguments, not in here.
10:57And that's all because those things do not play well with the media;
11:01they're prone to be taken out of context, misunderstood,
11:04and simplified to assert a message that disrupts your own.
11:08And Trump avoids all of those things whenever possible
though obviously, extreme occasions, are going to
11:13warrant an apology as long as there is a good opportunity for a counter-attack in there.
11:18Anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am.
11:22I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize. I've said some foolish things
11:28but there's a big difference between the words and actions of other people.
11:33Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied,
11:37attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims.
11:41Now, half the state again this isn't meant as praise nor is criticism of Trump.
11:45I'm just trying to illustrate that he is an excellent
media manipulator; he gets how this works.
11:50But this process isn't necessarily new.
11:53The photogenic JFK beat Nixon in the first televised debates.
11:57Charming Bill Clinton handled George Bush Sr. in the Town Hall debates.
12:00And W just felt like the guy that you'd rather get a beer with compared to John Kerry.
12:04All of these men were talented in using the media of their day to accomplish their goals.
12:09Trump is really just the latest iteration.
12:12So if all of this feels alittle bit icky to you and you don't like it, what can you do?
12:16Well, first off, I want to stop you — don't blame the media.
12:19The media does all of this because this is what we pay attention to.
12:24Sensationalism, rage, simplicity, striking image, constant newness,
12:28the media only demands these things because that's what people click on, watch,
12:33and share and that probably goes for you as well; just think about the things
12:36that you're clicking and how you wound up on this video for instance.
12:39So if you don't like it, I have two pieces of advice.
12:42One is to learn to communicate in media-speak
if you're going into any sort of public-facing field.
12:48And you can watch our video on word choice; check out our other videos on Trump
12:51if you want to learn more from someone who has been practicing this from decades.
12:56Second, if you want society to resist the urge towards
simplicity, sensationalism, and all the rest start with yourself.
13:02So if you read or you watch something that makes you upset,
13:06recognize what is happening to you and don't share the outrage.
13:10Instead, go and donate to a cause that actually helps solve the issue at hand.
13:14And that can mean through your time volunteering or even just giving five dollars.
13:17That will genuinely make the world a better place and begin a cycle of changing things
13:22rather than just starting rage for the sake of advertiser eyeballs.
13:26So thank you very much if you've made it this far and for watching.
13:29If you like this video and you want to see more like it,
make sure to click the subscribe button and that notification bell.
13:34I'm gonna be doing some other big names in the coming weeks and
13:38this is the best way to make sure that you don't miss a new video from us.
13:40So I hope that you enjoyed this video and I look forward to seeing you in the next one.
