Divide, Distract, and Conquer: Trump’s War With the Truth

Thursday afternoon two of President Trump’s top aides, his chief of staff Reince Priebus and his chief strategist Steve Bannon, made a joint appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference to argue that they are the ideally mis-matched duo capable of guiding this administration through whatever rough waters may be ahead.

In his first public appearance since the election, Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart news, strolled in sporting khakis and a button up looking like a well-dressed but sleep deprived Sam Healy. Priebus, on the other hand, arrived in a crisp suit and tie looking just as he did during his many public appearances as chair of the RNC. The difference in their appearances symbolized their divergent philosophies as they shared their own unique diagnoses of the current political climate.

Bannon seemed to be most interested in attacking what he claims is wildly inaccurate reporting by the “opposition party,” the term he uses to refer to the press. Meanwhile, Priebus reminisced about his old job — recalling that “after overseeing 16 people kill each other” in the Republican primaries, he knew “it was Donald Trump that was able to bring … this party and this movement together.”

Whether intentional or not, Bannon’s rhetoric about the media as “the opposition party” actually did relate to Priebus’ seemingly innocuous comment about the President’s primary victory on a much deeper level. Achieved via a vicious divide and conquer strategy, then-candidate Trump’s victory over a crowded Republican primary field in many ways mirrors the strategy his administration is now employing against the press.

Just as he thrived best when presented with an enemy in the form of an opposing candidate who needed to be taken down, Trump seems perfectly in his element focusing his Administration’s wrath on the media — particularly those who continue to investigate his campaign’s contacts with Russian officials.

In a move that veteran journalist Dan Rather referred to as “an effort to divide and conquer” on Friday the Trump Administration canceled a scheduled press briefing and replaced it with an off-camera event to which only certain outlets were invited. Among the list of those excluded were some of the organizations most thoroughly investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia, a story which continues to nag the administration and already cost Trump his National Security Advisor, Lt. Michael Flynn.

While The New York Times, CNN, Politico, Buzzfeed, and others were denied entry, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held an off-camera briefing for other organizations. Invited to this event were the ‘big three’ — ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as more right-leaning outlets such as Brietbart and Fox. Both Time and the AP were invited, but decided not to attend out of solidarity.

Prefaced by President Trump’s Friday appearance at the Conservative Political Action Committee in which he also railed against the media, this bold move in the administration’s ‘war’ with the press marks the crossing of a significant line in U.S. politics. “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times said in a statement released after the incident.

Many have pointed to the hypocrisy evident in Press Secretary Spicer’s actions in particular, noting his comments in a December interview when asked about the Trump campaign’s tendency to “blacklist” certain news outlets from campaign events. At the time, Spicer said “We have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something you can’t ban an entity from.” He added, “I think that is what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

Considering that the Trump Administration’s unprecedented new battle in its war with the press meets the standards of a ‘dictatorship’ by its own Press Secretary’s standards, it’s worth noting the slippery slope that the government viewing the media as their ‘opposition’ can lead down.

In Russia, this is nothing new. After Trump’s heated January press conference, Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev published “a message to my doomed colleagues in the American media”, a pointed warning about the nature of our new President’s relationship with the press.

Kovalev drew some startling comparisons between Trump’s views on the press and those of a man he loves to praise — Russian President Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian ruler responsible for the 2006 murder of Anna Politkovskay among many others and well-known for his maintenance of absolute control over media in the country by any means necessary.

This adds a level of irony to the sight of numerous crowd members at CPAC waving tiny Russian flags branded with Trump’s name (the flags were passed out as a prank by activists) while he spoke on Friday.

The President proceeded to add more propellant to the flames already engulfing any bridge between his administration and the media, tweeting on Saturday that he won’t be attending this year’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

Several news organizations had already announced their intentions to boycott the event, and it’s unclear whether President Trump’s decision is in response to the unfair coverage he feels he’s gotten, fear of the criticism he might have to endure at the dinner, or a left over chip on his shoulder from the time Obama roasted him at the event in 2011.

Regardless of why he won’t be attending the dinner, the most relevant aspect of this story remains the Trump Administration’s ongoing war with the truth.

The President is hardly alone among his predecessors in feeling some animosity towards the press, it was revealed upon the release of Nixon’s tapes that he told the Joint Chiefs of Staff “The press is your enemy” — however Trump stands alone with his assertion that the free press is “the enemy of the people”.

It is abundantly clear that President Trump’s problems aren’t with the ‘tone’ of the New York Times or the Washington Post’s reporting. He obviously has a problem with the facts that they are reporting, the scandals they are investigating — particularly his campaign and administration’s relationships to the Russian government.

Trump’s real problem is ultimately a free press with the power to uncover lies that force his national security advisor to resign. In an authoritarian manner that should surprise nobody (those who claimed he would moderate once taking office were merely making extreme rationalizations), the President has concerned himself primarily with consolidating power since assuming the oath of office.

As Alexey Kovalev’s warning starts to seem increasingly prescient, Americans who value a free press can find some solace in the fact that a recent poll found 52% of registered voters trust the news media to tell them “the truth about important issues” compared to 37% who trust President Trump more.

However, the new divide and conquer strategy being employed by the Trump Administration has the potential to change this dynamic. At a time when the business of news itself is struggling, Trump realizes his value as a commodity — especially in the one sector of the industry still growing, cable news.

Attempts to segregate access to information and briefings by outlet has the potential to pit organizations who are already competing for profits against each other. While Time and the AP stood in solidarity with the New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, and the other organizations barred from Friday’s briefing, some of the largest news outlets such as CBS, NBC, and ABC still attended.

It is fair to give those outlets the benefit of the doubt so far, especially considering how confusing the scene seemed based on tweets from various White House correspondents at the time. However, from now on if more segregated, off-camera briefings are held and are met with anything less than complete solidarity from the news media they represent a serious threat to the free press guaranteed by the first amendment.