5 New Rules From the Trump Scandal Playbook
The “never explain” rule goes back to Ronald Reagan, who said “if you are explaining, you are losing.” The basic idea is this: If you have an unpleasant action to defend, once you start explaining it, you have lost. Instead, you must brush past the problem, apologize for it (see below) or counter-attack in the face of it—but never “explain” it.
But the Trump campaign came to understand that in today’s communications environment—where social interactions between supporters and their friends and neighbors (via Twitter, Facebook or old fashioned face-to-face conversations) are critical—a campaign’s advocates must be armed with “explanations” for their candidate’s actions. The Trump campaign thus replaced the “never explain” rule with a determination to always explain his statements and deeds, no matter how inexplicable they might seem. Trump was refusing to release his tax return because he was “under audit.” The comments on the Access Hollywood tape were “locker room talk.” His statement supporting the invasion of Iraq could be disregarded because it was made on Howard Stern, as a sort of joke that he “said very lightly.” Never mind that these explanations did not satisfy fact-checkers or the media; never mind that they ranged from outright false to downright ridiculous. The point is that Trump supporters were armed with an explanation that they accepted and that enabled them to defend their candidate in the face of withering attacks.
.. Old Rule: Apologize and move on
New Rule: Never apologize and double down.. Trump, by contrast, almost never apologized in 2016. Not for attacking John McCain, a heroic POW. Not for belittling a beauty queen. Not for besmirching a Gold Star family. Not for calling immigrants “rapists.” Not for urging supporters to beat up dissenters at rallies.
.. And not only did Trump refuse to apologize for these many errors, insults or mistakes, he often doubled down on attacks or controversial comments, re-upping his remarks with renewed intensity or further elaboration.
.. After virtually every single news event that occured in the 18 months since he announced his bid for president, Trump was the first Republican or Democrat to comment—because his comments came straight from the gut, in rapidly fired, 140-character shots.
.. Trump immediately fired off a tweet with his take, dominating early coverage of events and making sure his voice was heard.
.. Trump traded making mistakes for having more impact. Putting aside the question of whether we are living in a “post-truth” world, there can be little doubt that “narrative” is critical to public understanding of events—and shaping that narrative early is more effective than trying to reconfigure it later.
.. Old Rule: Don’t feud with people who buy ink by the barrel
New Rule: You can score points by going to war with the media.. Old Rule: Drive a consistent message, consistently
New Rule: Adapt constantly, disorient your opponents and the media.. He told 100 million Americans on television he didn’t want to raise Bill Clinton’s alleged infidelities at the first debate because Chelsea Clinton was in the live audience; then he did so at the second debate, in front of 90 million Americans and the former first family. He out-and-out denied saying many things that he had absolutely, positively, been captured on video tape saying.