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Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the world’s richest man is undermining your propaganda campaign to sell a deficit-exploding tax cut, and he’s grabbing news cycle after news cycle by trashing the thing you’ve branded “beautiful”. Let’ say he’s giving cover to lawmakers in your own party who hate it, whose votes you’ll need to keep the whole, 1,100-page, $2.4 trillion deficit-causing thing together.
What to do?
If you’ve got a new travel ban in the hopper, and some new attacks on higher education ready to go, why not drop them now? Get some of those nighttime cable eggheads back on your terms. Pepper in an investigation to humiliate your predecessor and maybe even undo some of his orders? That’s what we call framing the debate!
We can’t be positive Trump chose last night specifically so that multiple high-profile announcements would knock Elon Musk and his “kill the bill” broadside against the reconciliation bill out of the headlines. But that’s sure what it did. And if Donald Trump has a superpower, it’s getting news producers to program just what he wants.
I’ll be doing another AMA at 2PM Eastern today, so members can jump in the chat or leave a comment here and we can talk all about the all of it. Other stuff I’ve been thinking about:
— New rulings by federal courts ordering Trump to facilitate the return of Venezuelans he sent to an El Salvador prison.
— The antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado and what it says about the current moment for both immigrants and Jews.
— Trump’s latest cash grab, this time a new self-branded crypt wallet (very presidential.)
— The latest on the reconciliation bill, now that Musk is in the mix and screaming for more spending cuts.
— The case of Carol, a detained immigrant from Kennett, Mo., whose community rallied around her even while supporting Trump’s deportation campaign.
— Anything else you want to talk about.
Brian will be back on Monday. Please don’t tell him what we’ve been up to. I likely won’t be posting tomorrow, as I have hosting duties on 1A on NPR. Check your local listings or podcast feed and tune in! My on-air voice is significantly better than my writing voice.
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