Friday, February 28, 2025

Something to think about

The negative reaction to President Trump's public humiliation of Ukraine's President Zelensky in the White House last month is intense and widespread. Though Trumpers claim to understand what the president was trying to achieve- something to do with U.S. pride or saving money- many feel he's more like a crazed person breaking out of an asylum with a sledge hammer then bashing everything he sees, whether a federal agency or established foreign policy.

But the crazed person view, convincing though it is, does not tell the whole story. It does not explain what Trump is doing in the practical world. Regarding negotiations with Zelensky, Trump is trying to maneuver Ukraine's mineral deposits into Russian hands- while restraining Ukraine with a peace deal - so corporations can negotiate just with Russia because, as Trump explained, "...it may be easier to deal with Russia." In essence, the president is replacing rule by traditional government, which is accountable to some extent to voters, with rule by corporations, accountable to their boards to make a profit.

Most American network news and newspapers are excoriating Trump over the spectacle of the White House exchange with Zelensky, and it's a safe bet that the architects of our new Ukraine/Russia policy do not like the flak. The Trump administration has for weeks been assaulting national media with lawsuits against corporate owners and threats to broadcast licenses, but public awareness and private ownership have made the media less immediately vulnerable to executive branch invasion than federal agencies are. Private networks like CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and PBS (run by a non-profit corporation), as well as the nation's privately owned newspapers, have been enabled by the extra time to air intense and persistent criticism of Trump since his inauguration. Many prominent media commentators depict Trump as a would-be autocrat in the fashion of Russian president Putin, prepared to use any method to subdue critics. If they are right, the coming crescendo of Trump criticism triggered by the combined impact of his many dislocating policies could lead to increasingly dramatic blows against the media. Consider this: How would Putin react if most of the Russian media attacked him every night? We know how he would react: something untimely would befall the Russian media.

If American media buckles and accepts censorship of anti-administration commentary, much of the public would notice (certainly everyone who watches 60 Minutes would notice), and this could generate enough protest to slow down the process, or even prevail and sustain America's remarkably free press. If Trump's war on media faces strong enough opposition, he will need a big distraction to get away with it, big enough so people won't notice if David Muir starts praising Putin. What could be a big enough distraction to provide that cover? Something to think about.

Update, 3/8/25: Check out my guest commentary, "What is our ideology?", on Harry the Human's blog: http://harrythehuman.harrythehumanpoliticalthoughtsfrombeyondthepale.com/
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Something to think about

The negative reaction to President Trump's public humiliation of Ukraine's President Zelensky in the White House last month is int...