# The Best Analysis of Trump's Style I have heard: NPR interview with Reality TV Exec **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 3, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899 "2017-02-03T13:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/1 "2017-02-03T13:55:14Z")
Link to audio and a transcript here: [With Conflict And Drama, Trump Hooks You Like A Reality TV Show : NPR](http://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/513194862/with-conflict-and-drama-trump-hooks-you-like-a-reality-tv-show) Tom Foreman was a journalist and now produces TV shows. With that context, he provides a plainspoken, non-judgmental breakdown of Trump’s approach and how it plays out. He discusses how it is frustrating to him as a citizen, and to journalists, but to the larger population it is very effective at getting them engaged and talking. [QUOTE=Tom Foreman interviewed on NPR] **On the media’s role in making the campaign feel like reality TV** The media loves a good story, right? I think he knows the degree to which we like a simple story told well, and is doing his best to give us one. I think Obama, smart though he was, an unbelievably talented speaker, was operating at that 30,000-foot level. He wanted to talk about policy. Obama would talk about the relationship between the federal government and state-funded education. And the federal government’s role in helping people at a state level go out and get a college education. And that’s unbelievably important, but it’s dry. Trump tweets about withdrawing federal funding, and suddenly you’re impassioned and you have a point of view — and he’s hooked you. What he’s actually talking about is nuts, and certainly less important than the actual policy discussion. But he’s made it understandable, he’s made it personal, he’s added a conflict-driven narrative. And look, those are the techniques we use every day, because they work. [/QUOTE] It sums up what we are seeing: he takes some superficial action or tweets he will defund UC Berkeley, say, gets people engaged and talking and then takes no action and/or modifies his approach over time based on what he confronts. It is effective in how it feeds his base and tips a hat towards looking like he is acting on his promises. It is incredibly ineffective, like reality tv show relationships in general, in actually recovering from the high-drama engagement and having a healthy productive relationship. Just like a relationship with a Real Housewife or a Kardashian may be engaging in its way, but ultimately toxic and weird as hell, this is what is playing out with standing non-partisan sectors of government and foreign leaders. We so, totally, live in an episode of Black Mirror now. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/2 "2017-02-04T15:34:39Z")
This article from Jan 31 supports the _reality show mode_ that he likes: [Donald Trump’s White House is in chaos. And he loves it.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/31/donald-trumps-white-house-is-in-chaos-and-he-loves-every-minute-of-it/) My bold. > [@](#): > > On Monday night on CNN, Carl Bernstein made this proclamation: “The president and his presidency is in chaos.” > > It’s a remarkable statement given that we are only 11 days into the presidency of Donald Trump. It’s also very hard to dispute. > > …_[Story then cites travel ban and disgruntlement of administration staffers over being left out of the decision loop on it.]_… > > Read any one of those stories and the word “chaos” jumps to mind. Or “turmoil.” Or “dissension.” All of them convey the same thing: Less than two weeks into his presidency, there is a knife fight happening daily among Trump’s top aides. > > Bernstein clearly meant his chaos comments in a negative way. Chaos, in traditional political thinking, is bad. It suggests a president who doesn’t really have control over his people and a White House that resembles a roller coaster car shuddering as it travels at too high a speed down the tracks. > > And, maybe that’s all true. It’s possible that the Trump train is on the verge of jumping the tracks. (Mixed metaphor alert!) > > But, every indication from what we know of Trump the businessman and reality TV star suggests that **he revels in the chaos, that he believes the chaos produces just the sort of results he likes.** > > Think back to the “boardroom” on “The Apprentice.” Bring everybody in. Let them attack one another and level allegations. Consult with a few of your consiglieres — George for the win! — and then make a bold and, often, unpredictable decision. Yes, that was a TV show. But it was a TV show created by Trump (and Mark Burnett). That means that the way the show worked came directly out of Trump’s brain and generally speaking represents his view of how things should work. > > \*\*Remember that for Trump, appearances matter most. And he likes the perception of himself as the decider, the buck-stopper, the only one who can cut through all of the noise and battling egos to make the call. \*\*In order to make that image truly work, you need noise around you at all times. So Trump put in place a senior leadership team that would create it. > > The other important point here is that Trump believes all of life — business and politics included — amounts to a sort of survival of the fittest/toughest. His critique of Hillary Clinton’s health during the 2016 campaign was based on the idea that anyone who has a weak moment — as Clinton did at a 9/11 memorial service — can’t possibly be up to the top job in the country. … ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/3 "2017-02-04T15:50:07Z")
Jesus Christ. We’re gonna need another amendment establishing the separation of Hollywood and state. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/4 "2017-02-04T16:03:53Z")
When asked about the released order on immigration ban, Trump said to reporters: “You see it at the airports, you see it all over, it’s working out very nicely" So, he is either deluded **or** he does know about the problems it caused, loves the approval of warmonger/bigoted Bannon and followers, and he wants more of that love that more chaos will bring… I wish that was a false choice. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/5 "2017-02-04T21:31:52Z")
Yep, he’s deluded. He believes every lying, deceitful word that comes out of his mouth, no matter how outlandish. Unfortunately, the chaos isn’t good for anyone. Nor is he backing down. He can’t, it’s too much part of his personality that he’s the Big Cheese and the only one who’s ever right. (Cue the William Shatner Airplane II moment.) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-analysis-of-trumps-style-i-have-heard-npr-interview-with-reality-tv-exec/778899/6 "2017-02-04T23:50:05Z")
Yup. When Trump says _“I alone can fix it”_, what he means is _“I alone can make the dramatic loud decider-y noises about fixing it that don’t actually get it fixed, but make me look tough and in charge.”_ If the situation isn’t sufficiently controversial to seem to call for some dramatic loud decider-y noises, he just stirs the shit till it is.