HMPRESENTLY: Getting Inside Heads… and Under Skin

One minute he’s saying we’re probably going to be another Cuba… or he’s being persecuted, he’s a victim, they’re coming for him, all because he’s standing up for us.

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, in his words, is ‘the unselect committee.’

He doesn’t like LeBron James, according to a Business Insider article, but he suggested that LeBron James could play basketball as a woman, during his speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa on Saturday.

“If I were a basketball coach of the women’s team, I would be the greatest coach of all time,” Trump said. “I’m not a fan of Lebron James at all… I don’t like him, but I’d say ‘LeBron, did you ever think of becoming a woman? Did you ever consider, because I’d like to have you on my team. I’d love to have you on our team, LeBron. But think of it, it’s so crazy what’s happening.”

What should we call it, former President Donald Trump’s words, his narratives? Something, perhaps, sounding like Mar-a-Lago, a base of operations where he’s often spent time?

Should we call his words, his narratives… ‘Trump-a-Lingo?’

Getting folks to think what you want them to think – getting inside their heads – isn’t easy. But the ex-president seems to know a route or two, especially when he’s aiming his words and narratives at people he sometimes refers to as ‘his people.’

It’s confounding, because it really shouldn’t be working… such negativity, and even when he’s joking around, such bitterness, laced with insulting, demeaning words and narratives.

The failure-rate for PR spin can be exceptionally high, with press releases and other publicity sometimes decimated, like military equipment in war zones. Imagine, instead of burned-out battle tanks, smoldering, abandoned press releases.

Even for the influencers… PR and marketing professionals, and, these days, TicTokers, too… getting to people, capturing hearts and minds, can be daunting.

But the former POTUS’s political spin somehow keeps working its way inside heads, and under a whole lot of skin.

Things seemed so much simpler, before presidential hopeful Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, in 2015.

Good publicity was good. Bad publicity was bad.

Before the onslaught of Trump-a-Lingo, it was that simple.

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.