Trump's media strategy by Miriam Henkel

Trump’s Conflict With the Media

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:03:22 UTC

Truth Social- Trump’s Mouthpiece

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:03:40 UTC

Donald Trump’s Nonstop News-Making

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:03:57 UTC

Trump's Anti-Media Rhetoric

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:04:26 UTC

Group 1

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:04:49 UTC

Group 1

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:04:56 UTC

Group 1

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:05:05 UTC

Group 1

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:05:13 UTC

Group 2

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:05:20 UTC

Group 2

Miri_HEN — 2025-03-28 08:05:49 UTC

2025-03-28 10:15:02 UTC

-Trump bans certain media outlets from press conferences and participation

-> replaces them with conservative media

-provokes radical actions (like the Jan. 6th riots)

-discredits free media (“fake news”, “enemy of the people”)

- excludes negative opinion about himself

-> manipulation of the people

-forces the media to publish positive news about him

2025-03-28 10:15:06 UTC

Enemy: Media outlets that don‘t align with his agenda

2025-03-28 10:16:42 UTC

• Ronald Reagan used to be the "great communicator" because he spoke well to the public

• Trump could become the new "great communicator" because he generated much more content than Reagan did

• He gives many press conferences, posts on social media, and makes news every day

• People expect him to talk all the time and he does not stay silent

• he creates more news than past presidents, making him a strong communicator

Trump always stays in the news by speaking at conferences, signing papers, or posting online

His goal is to keep the attention on himself

He organizes and partakes in big events (signing executive orders,...) to get more media coverage

His team believes that controlling the media means controlling the public

By producing too many news, people get tired and do not question his actions

• the cartoon shows Trump who dances with the media -> personification

• The media is holding a microphone

• His facial expressions can be described as confused and overwhelmed

• Trump looks very confident. He closes his eyes

• This shows that he controls the media and “plays with it”

• Trump tricks the media into having trust in him and believe him

2025-03-28 10:16:57 UTC

Opinion of the public depends on the media

2025-03-28 10:18:08 UTC

Threatens news agencies: Broadcast licenses

2025-03-31 16:22:22 UTC

-excluding hostile reporters from media events (inauguration)

- disdains free press

-punishment for journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology

-creates privilege for White House

-threatened to revoke broadcast licenses

-local TV shows are dependent on government

-sues news agencies for interviews with political opponents

-dislodged several news outlets from Pentagon office spaces

-shrinks access of anti-republican news outlets from blocking and punishing reporters

- retaliation against critical coverage

- state-mandated terminology

- escalation from verbal attacks to policy actions

- legal threats

- fake news

- institutional bias

Miri_HEN — 2025-04-01 06:25:01 UTC

Title: “Trump's world” -> his perspective on the world
All things described with the word “fake” for example: "Fake news", "fake polls", "fake tan"
He perceives all the new organizations as fake / writing wrong things about him
Polls between Biden and Trump as "fake"
"Fake newsers"
97.6% write bad about him
Calls news organizations "fake," "dishonest," "crazy"

Miri_HEN — 2025-04-01 06:37:50 UTC

Analysis

title: „Truth Social“ (by Signe Wilkinson, 2024)
cartoon embodies Donald Trump being wired to a machine, questioning him about his app —> results show whether he is telling the truth or not
on the platform´s screen: Many arrows point toward „false“

Dangers of using „Truth Social“

platform spreads false information —> lack of truth and honesty
the trustworthiness of the content is being questioned
many arrows go out of the machine= the consequences (social conflicts, trust issues, chaos etc.)

2025-04-01 20:20:21 UTC

Trump has a very strong relationship with the media, especially with the outlets that support him.
He often calls the media "fake news" or the "enemy of the people" when they criticize him.
He also blocks journalists from covering important events especially those who don't use the terms or ideas he prefers. For example, he stopped the Associated Press from attending White House events because they didn't use his new names for things.
He has also removed reporters from the Pentagon and replaced them with media that support him.
Trump uses the media to stay in power.
A free press is important in a democracy because it holds leaders accountable, but Trump's actions make it harder for the press to work freely. He uses threats and legal actions against critical media to scare them into changing their coverage, and this can cause journalists to censor themselves.
Trump rewards media that support him and punishes those who don't.
In the political cartoon "The Hand That Feeds Him" by Adam Zyglis, Trump is shown as a dog with a hand in his mouth holding a microphone. The hand is labeled as "the
media", showing that Trump depends on the media that supports him. The dog image shows Trump's loyalty to these media outlets. He gets attention and support from them which helps his public image. The cartoon suggests that Trump controls these media outlets because they "feed" him, helping him stay in power. It also hints at the fact that Trump ignores or punishes media that criticize him. The cartoon shows how Trump uses the media to benefit himself and control his image.