Understanding Trump’s America: following the news won’t help

Trump’s re-election as a shock

Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 came as a shock. The first months of his second term as president overwhelmed the world with news about his actions, in such a high pace that it left the world in a state of confusion and disorientation. The world as we had long known it, had ceased to exist: The United States as the guardian of an international order, an example of a liberal democracy and a constitutional state and our ally against illiberal regimes.

Born in 1948, during the aftermath of World War 2, I have never witnessed war in my environment and I have grown up in a peaceful and increasingly prosperous and integrated Europe, which had the United States as its major economic, political and military partner. The imminent end of this seemingly stable situation, signs of which became already clear during Trump’s first term, is frightening. I sometimes meet people who find the news from the United States so scary that they tell me they have stopped following it, though apparently, they followed enough of the news to have come to that decision.

Overwhelmed of negative information; confusion and fear

To me, the avoidance of the news does not make sense: it will only increase my fear, not knowing what is going on in the world. So, from the very day Trump took office on January 20 this year, I have intensively followed the news and commentaries in the media: newspapers, television and news media on the internet, with an emphasis on US media.

As Donald Trump surprised the world with a flood of executive orders and other actions, like the imposition of tariffs on other countries and the deportation of (‘illegal’) immigrants, I was, like many others, trying to make sense of what was going on.

This was not easy, as the stream of messages often created confusion rather than insight. I began to understand why some people avoid the news: the incessant stream of negative information – disruption of international trade, violation of the constitution and human rights, threats to the sovereignty of hitherto friendly nations – makes one feel powerless and frightened.

Trump’s style of communication, based on his experience in the television entertainment business, reinforces the fragmented character of the news propagated by the media, reacting to every single item of ‘breaking news’ without providing a meaningful context. For the narcissist Trump’s narcissism attracting attention the core of his communication style. And this has contributed to making the news media extremely reactive, as Trump continues to create new incidents before earlier incidents are properly understood. Confusion is the effect and probably his intention.

The reactive media

This reactiveness of the media, which stands in the way of understanding the news, applies equally to the pro-Trump media (like Fox news) as to the media critical of Trump, like the television channels CNN and MSNBC. The  various critical news sites on the internet that I have been following intensively in the last few months, like the MeidasTouch Network and the channel of Brian Tyler Cohen, are no exception. They appear to be subject to the same ‘click-bait’ logic as other media. They tend to attract attention by messages that emphasize the stupidity of Trump and his people, and predict their imminent downfall, using headings like ‘Trump major meltdown’, ‘Elon Musk’s life is rapidly falling apart’ or ‘Trump loses all control as regime nosedives’. Ridicule and contempt of their political adversaries on the right are a fixed ingredients too.

Forced optimism and magical thinking

A major weakness of this type of messages, apart from their reactive character, is often their forced optimism in the face of a reality, which, if analyzed more carefully, would not justify such optimism. Jessica Denson, an activist and critic of Trump, who has distanced herself from the MeidasTouch Network to which she one belonged, writes about ‘magical thinking’, which offers no perspective on effective action by spreading false optimism and making fun of a dangerous regime.

A special kind of optimism can be seen in messages on critical news sites that focus on legal aspects, explaining how Trump is bound to lose in court on the basis of the law. These sites offer interesting legal analyses on the basis of solid legal knowledge and experience. But how important are the legal rules in a situation where the dominant power has decided not to play by the rules?

Comparable are news items that predict the downfall of Trump on the basis of his diminishing popularity and increasing chances of a loss of a Republican majority in the future. Such predictions, too, assume the continuity of rules and their application in the future, which is far from certain when those in power are rule-breakers.

Shifting our attention to the background: watch the gorilla(s)

Its reactive character and tendency to produce optimistic messages for an anti-Trump audience are a major weaknesses of the ‘critical’ media that I have been following in the last few months. Being ‘reactive’ makes also these news media vulnerable to the selective attention created by Trump. Everybody talks about the actions and messages that Trump and his people create and tends to use the terms in which they frame the situation.

The focus on the legal aspects, mentioned above, forms another source of selective attention in much of the critical news environment.

To really understand the confusing and novel situation in which America and the world find themselves, listening and reacting to Trump’s stories is not enough. And neither is attention to the formal systems of the law.

We need to pay attention to what Trump does not say, to what he does not do; we must observe how Trump and his people fight outside the familiar rules. We need to shift our attention from the foreground of the political show to the background, to what happens behind the scenes. What is it that we do not see?

What is needed in terms of attention is beautifully illustrated by classical experiments of selective attention. An interesting video about selective attention can be found on the internet. The observer of this video focusses on what goes on in the foreground and, as a result, fails to see a gorilla that crosses the scene in the background. It seems that, while most of us are so fascinated by the Trump show, that we miss the gorilla(s) in the background: actors and structures that condition his actions and their results.

The illusion of leadership and the importance of context

Trump focuses our attention on himself as an influential leader, an image that is replicated by the media. This also applies to the media that are critical of Trump, which portray him as a leader who destroys America and the world. In so doing they inflate his importance, neglecting the importance of context or situation.  Situations create leaders, contexts offer opportunities. This is logic that I presented long ago in my dissertation on organizational change: the context created the opportunities and restraints for leaders and change agents. Political change processes, should not be expected to be much different.

The news, as presented by most newspapers, television channels and internet sites, is obviously an insufficient basis for understanding the complex processes evolving in American and international politics. To understand the emergence of Trump as a leader, his actions and their effects, we must focus on the contexts that have made this possible. Only by understanding Trump and his actions in a wider context, can we really make sense of what is happening as part of a broader picture. The high-paced, fragmented and superficial information concerning Trump’s actions in the last few months is hard to understand without an idea of how they are embedded in broader contexts. They are confusing because the news does not seem to make sense in the absence of concepts to interpret its fragmented contents. The news can be scary or frightening when familiar frames have lost their meaning.

Relevant themes and information

This is why other sources of information than the daily news are essential for making sense of what is happening. In-depth analyses and creative ideas are needed, based on careful study and expert knowledge, regarding major relevant contexts: the international political, economic and military environment and the US political and social system.

That is why I am now, after months of feverishly following the news, changing my emphasis to a search for material on relevant contexts, for knowledge that helps me make sense of the confusion that the daily news creates.

There are roughly three themes about which feel that I need to understand more as a context for political processes in the US. The first theme is the changing international political and economic situation and the position of the United States in the world. The end of a world system under US guidance seems a major context for the emergence of a movement that paradoxically purports to ‘make America great again’, but may be a symptom of the diminishing weight of the US in the international geopolitical system.

The second theme, about which I feel I need to know more, is the US political system and its development. How can we understand the emergence of Trump as the outcome of long processes of change with roots in the past? Do we need to go back to the times of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal, to the times of McCarthy and the suppression of the left in the 1950’s or even to the Civil War, to better understand the present political situation? I have read interesting suggestions in that direction, but must admit my ignorance in this field.

A third field in which it would be useful to know more is the person of Donald Trump, to get a more nuanced view of who he is and to understand the role he plays in the present situation.

Websites, channels and books

Websites and channels that offer room for reflection and maintain a certain distance from the issues of the day turned out to be a good supplement to the daily news. For example: The Bulwark, the David Pakman show and the British Times Radio. I already mentioned Jessica Denson, with her site LightsOn, whose critical view of the situation gives attention to relevant themes and information. Letters on the political situation by Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American) also connect the daily news to broader themes and contexts. The critical comments by the British political economist Richard Murphy should also be mentioned here, as they often show ‘the gorilla in the background’ quite effectively, with an emphasis on the power abuse of Big Tech.

Such channels often show the way to interesting books, interviews and websites that provide knowledge on American politics, economy and society. This type of knowledge does not provide quick answers or simple solutions, but it helps sense-making in a situation where familiar frames no longer apply.

Many books written by historians, political scientists and investigative journalist could of course also be mentioned, on all three broad themes, but I am still trying to find out what I need and wish to read. I hope to come back to interesting books on my blog after I have read them.

Slow thinking: from vague fear to realism

Reading and thinking take time. Do we have this time? Maybe we don’t. But there is no alternative, as panic and confusion do not help us operate in a world that we no longer understand. Magical thinking and forced optimism do not offer a way out of the problems the world faces. Neither will pessimistic doom scenarios of inevitable negative futures. We must slow down our thinking to grasp the new reality that is unfolding and from which we cannot escape.

Reading and thinking over the last few months have not increased my worries about what is happening to the world. Neither have I become optimistic about the world: we are in a very dangerous situation (in terms of democracy, human rights and safety), not only in the US, but also in Europe. But reading, listening and communicating help to make sense of this situation, to move from confusion and fear, to understanding and realism.

Future contributions to this blog

In the title of this essay I wrote ‘following the news won’t help’.  I should add ‘without ideas to make sense of the news’. In this blog I hope to contribute to such ideas by contributions based on what I read, hear and see.

Sources

Television

• Fox News @foxnews
• CNN https://edition.cnn.com/
• MSNBC News @msnbc
• NOS (News on Dutch television and internet)

News and comment on Internet

• Meidas Touch Network (MTN) @MeidasTouch
• Brian Tyler Cohen on YouTube @briantylercohen
• The Bulwark (https://www.thebulwark.com/)
• David Pakman show (https://www.youtube.com/MidweekPolitics/videos )
• Times Radio (https://www.thetimes.com/radio ).
• LightsOn, Jessica Denson (https://www.youtube.com/@JessicaDenson07)
• Richard Murphy (https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/)
• Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson
  (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

 

Newspapers

• New York Times
• Volkskrant
• NRC-Handelsblad

Books

• Johnston, David Cay, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump fleeced America and enriched himself and his family. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021
• Wolff, Michael, All or Nothing: How Trump recaptured America. New York: Crown Publishing, 2025.