Being there everywhere, all the time, on all subjects. Since his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump has continued to announce more radical measures than the other, in a desire to upset the policy implemented by his predecessor, Joe Biden. A logic defended from the first day of his mandate, with a very offensive inauguration speech. The Republican has moved far from the usually polite codes of the American tradition during this speaking, predicting in particular “a new golden age of American grandeur” under his presidency.
The hours following the enthronement of the American president set the tone. A succession of announcements was immediately communicated by relatives of the Trump clan. Release of the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), thanks to the 1600 Capitol rioters on January 6, 2021, official recognition of only two sexes, massive expulsions of migrants to Guatemala or Brazil … so many controversial measures presented with great fanfare by the American president, without giving way to the debate on these subjects.
A scheme that is repeated
For ten days, the same diagram has been repeated. The Democratic opposition, still struck by the defeat of Kamala Harris, does not have time to organize to react to a decision by Donald Trump that another plan is announced. The American media, they are continuously running on the new choices of the billionaire in power – each presidential initiative by quickly hunting another. This saturation of the public debate is, according to several specialists, exactly what the tenant of the White House seeks: it is for him to “flood the area” of information concerning his action.
This strategy -of the American name “Flood-the-Zone”-was theorized by the ex-procurement of Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, figurehead of the extreme right spheres. When he still had the president’s favors during his first mandate, the latter had already encouraged him to multiply the statements to the media. In this model, Steve Bannon had erected journalists as the true enemies of the Republican Party, much more than the Democrats. “The way to take care of them is to flood the space [médiatique] With shit, “he recommended at the time.
A tactic that again seems to be that chosen by the Trump administration for this second term. After his election at the beginning of November, the discovery day at the day of the various names of his future government team, with sometimes abracabrant profiles, has already made the headlines. The rise of his support for Elon Musk in politics, the successive meetings organized with several leaders in his personal residence in Mar-A-Lago, his provocative and bellicose statements against Canada, Panama or Greenland … for The last months under Democratic governance, Donald Trump has indeed drawn attention to him.
One of the American president’s faithful, the deputy chief of his cabinet Stephen Miller, would have favored the “Flood-the-Zone” method for his second term. “It is a classic public relations strategy: submerging, distracting and controlling the media story before others can do so,” deciphers Evan Nieman, founder and managing director of the agency specializing in crisis communication Red Banyan , quoted by AFP. “It is his way of ensuring that no controversy lasts long because there will always be another to replace it.”
Defrosolized Democrats
A way, too, to scuttle any counter-argument on the Democratic side. The opposition also appears to be completely confused by the media surprise of Donald Trump and his relays. The elected officials of the party are trying to find the right formula to succeed in existing in the face of this logic. “I think we have to choose our fights,” urges California senator Adam Schiff, according to comments reported by NBC News. “The name change in the Gulf of Mexico and the other absurdities of this kind, we just have to leave them aside.”
The manager calls for his democratic peers to “concentrate” to fight on “things that really matter”, such as “commercial wars” or “tax reductions for very rich people who will bring nothing to workers” wanted by Donald Trump. Is this the right solution for Democrats? Choosing the files to be defended to reoxygenate the American political debate with divergent ideas of those of Donald Trump seems in any case necessary before any reconstruction of the party.
But for the moment, the Democrats are cornered by the repeated proposals of the White House. “At one point, I am on the phone with a person who performs clinical trials of anticancer drugs for the government and who has been returned because a small part of his work consists in raising awareness. , I speak to lawyers from the Ministry of Justice and I tell them that they will be reallocated against their will. THE New York Times James Raskin, elected Democrat of Maryland in the House of Representatives.
Others call not to rush to launch the “counter-offensive” against the Republican, betting on the upcoming shortness of breath of his administration. “They will soon trip”, predicted the Democrat representative of Virginie Gerry Connolly, still in the New York daily. “In their hurry to reshape the federal government, they will make big, big mistakes.” The confusion around the freezing project of billions of dollars in federal expenses desired by Donald Trump, then announced as canceled, before being new topical by the White House, appears as a first hiccup.
Can the “Flood-the-Zone Tactic” last over the next four years? “Even his most faithful supporters can get tired of this constant agitation,” judges Evan Nieman in his interview with AFP. And rather than new decisions constantly highlighted, “undecided voters could end up preferring stability to the show”.