2 December 2019 (Paris, France) – Impeachment is bringing out Trump’s instincts as marketer in chief, as he seeks to turn a perilous, shame-inducing inquiry into an aggressive fundraising and mobilization tool.
Why it matters: Democrats competing for the chance to challenge Trump in the general election are getting a preview of how he may seek to upend and monetize their arguments against him.
The big picture: From merchandise to rally rhetoric to paid media strategy, insiders say (can we believe them?) that a lot of the ideas for responses are being generated by Trump himself.
His nearly three years on the job have helped him become an expert in framing his own missteps to his advantage. While half the country already supported impeaching Trump and removing him from office, recent polling for CNN shows Democrats weren’t able to expand that to a clearer majority after two weeks of public impeachment hearings. His backers see that as evidence that his counter-messaging has helped hold the line.
Merchandise: Recent additions to the Trump campaign’s merchandise store include “Bull-Schiff” t-shirts demonizing House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, and “Where’s Hunter?” t-shirts mocking former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. The recent impeachment-focused merchandise has sold well and given the team an added bonus of tracking additional data about Trump supporters.
Facebook: The Trump campaign has been blitzing Facebook with ads urging supporters to “sign up” to fight impeachment. The Trump campaign alone has spent nearly $2 million on impeachment ads on Facebook since Sept. 28, according to data from Bully Pulpit Interactive.
TV: Republicans have spent $6.8 million on impeachment ads on television since Oct. 1, while Democrats have collectively spent $4.7 million, per Advertising Analytics.
Trump will air a reelection ad on Fox during the 2020 Super Bowl. It made a similar ad buy during Game 7 of this year’s World Series.
Rallies: Trump has railed against impeachment at his rallies in the weeks since Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry.
The bottom line: This is classic Trump. He’s continuing to upend traditional norms – and his base loves it.
And there you have it ….
The founders couldn’t imagine a scenario as wild as the one we’re living. But their basic premise was flawed, in assuming that a rogue president despot would elicit a huge backlash to protect the constitution, when the opposite is occurring: Trump’s party is embracing his corruption and abuse of power.
As wise(?) as the Founding Fathers were, no words on paper can defend a people against a demagogue. The law is not unassailable. The Constitution is subject to interpretation. It all comes down to “we, the people.” At this moment, every elected representative of one party and over 90% of Republican voters support or defend the demagogue, no matter what he does. It is the American two-party system that is the Achilles heel of its democracy. When party loyalty is the source of power, money and re-election for individual Congress members and dissenters are punished, and when the president gains total control of the party, the demagogue is safe. There will be no checks on his power by a divided Congress.
Did the Founding Fathers anticipate one party totally abdicating its responsibility?
Antonio Gramsci, among his prison writings, noted that in the interregnum between old and new regimes, “morbid symptoms appear.” This epigram has been applied to the pre-Trump period, where many voters felt betrayed or unsatisfied by the promises of hope offered by Obama that were perceived to have been dashed by those whose economic lives did not get any better or got worse after 2008. The election of a strongman, not self-identified with “the elites” and fraudulently offering to “drain the swamp” and bring jobs back to the rust belt while demonizing immigrants as the true threat, may be seen as one of those morbid symptoms described by Gramsci.
