Mediaboss Marketing

Donald Trump soaks up the crowd at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

By Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Long before he embarked on the ultimate ego trip, leveraging his celebrity to seize the highest levels of political power, Donald Trump spent decades obsessed with appearances. An outer-borough boy from Queens who grew up longing to make his name in Manhattan, Trump flecked his every home with gold, bleached his teeth, and blew out his hair in a gaudy simulacrum of wealth. He called gossip pages and other reporters, adopting a fictitious P.R. persona, to give scoops about himself, hoping to see his name in print. He ran beauty pageants and created his own reality show where he could star. Like a modern-day Midas, he branded everything he touched, and licensed his name so that entire stretches of Manhattans West side would bear the words TRUMP, spelled out in three foot-high golden letters, reflecting across the Hudson River. He did interview after interview picking apart the appearances of foes and friends alikeextolling the attractiveness of his own daughter, for one, while calling Rosie ODonnell a fat pig.

Americans witnessed this childish display throughout the 2016 campaign and, it seems, his fans approved. They cheered his rhetorical assault on the establishment, the status quo, bien-pensant thinking and sensibilities. Trumps core support never wavered, even when he ripped into the looks of Alicia Machado, or dismissed allegations of sexual harassment by claiming his accusers were not attractive enough to warrant his attention, or when he retweeted an image contrasting a less-than-flattering photo of Ted Cruzs wife with a stunning shot of his wife, Melania (his third spouse, all three of whom were former models).

This translates into a fixation on how Trump himself is perceived, too. Thats why he could not stop talking about how well he was doing in polls and how many people showed up to his rallies. Its why he insisted that Mexicans loved him even as he called them rapists and repeatedly promised to build a wall to keep bad hombres out of the United States. Only Trump alone would be able to save the American people from the dismal picture he painted of the state of the nation, because he was the smartest, the best deal-maker, the most respected, he would say. Perhaps this is why, too, as his doctor admitted in a recent interview with The New York Times, Trump takes a prostate-related drug, Propecia, to ward off male-pattern baldness.

Old habits die hard, particularly for 70-year-old billionaires, which is why, even with the nuclear football tucked under his arm and the weight of the free world on his shoulders, Trump remains deeply concerned about the visuals of his presidency. According to a new report from Axios, sources close to Trump noted that the president chose his Cabinet nominees based, in part, on who best looked the part (General James Mattis and his strut got the nomination over General David Petraeus, who Trump noted to aides was quite short). He expects his staff to wear tiesthe wider the betterand the women who work for him to dress like women, which often means pressure to wear dresses.

Donald Trump is far from the first narcissist infatuated with optics to work in Washington. But the magnitude of both his position and his attention to appearance while in that role is stunning. On the first morning he woke up in the White House, for instance, he reportedly personally called Park Services in order to discuss photos they posted of the size of his inaugural crowds. That same day, he used his speech at C.I.A. headquarters to again talk about how many people came out to watch him take the oath of office, and he sent his press secretary Sean Spicer into the White House briefing room to falsely claim that it was the most-watched inauguration in history. (Trump was reportedly furious with Spicer afterward, not because he blatantly lied to the American people or stormed out of the room, but because he did not approve of his ill-fitting suit, pin-striped suit.)

Trump continued to focus on superficial details and perceived slights as his presidency entered its second week, even as his hastily-written executive order restricting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries provoked mass protests in the U.S., confusion within his own agencies, and outrage around the world. When he had the chance to talk to Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, he boasted about his electoral college win and ended the call early after clashing over a refugee resettlement agreement,The Washington Post reported. On Wednesday, he turned a brief speech commemorating the start of Black History Month into a rant against the media, particularly CNN, which he called fake news. And at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday morning, Trump joked onstage that we should be praying for Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ratings for The Apprentice, the reality show the former California governor took over when Trump stepped down from the gig.

While Trump seems to care a great deal about his electoral win and his crowds and his ratings, he does not appear to give that same attention to keeping key allies, advisers, and partners in his good graces. Both Rex Tillerson, who was sworn in as secretary of state on Wednesday, and Department of Homeland Security chief John Kelly were reportedly upset with the president for not giving them enough time to review Trumps immigration order before he signed it on Friday. On a call with Mexican president Enrique Pea Nieto last week, after Trump blew up their planned meeting with a series of tweets about the country paying for his planned wall at the border, Business Insider reports that Trump was offensive, told him that he was going to pay for the wall whether he liked it or not, and threatened to use military force to fight the drug trade if they couldnt handle it themselves (both sides have called the phone conversation friendly). A source told me last week that the canceled meeting infuriated Trumps usually unflappable son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, who had spent a full day brokering it.

Political observers have long hoped that Trump might rise above his insecurities now that he understands the grave responsibilities of the presidency, with all its attendant briefings on secret intelligence and sobering insights into national security. Yet, Trump does not seem to be sweating this big stuff. Instead, he seems to be becoming smaller, and more petulant, every day. Spicers tie, the number of people who watched his Supreme Court nomination announcement, these get under his skin. Alienating and prematurely hanging up on a critical American ally trying to talk about Syrian refugees? Who has time for that when there are Apprentice ratings to poke fun of and cable news pundits, talking about him, to watch?

Seth Meyers

John McEnroe and Diane von Furstenberg

Claire Bernard

Jimmy Buffett

Kelly Meyer, Carey Lowell, and Jean Pigozzi

Peggy and Mickey Drexler

Rhea Suh and Hasan Minhaj

PreviousNext

Seth Meyers

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

John McEnroe and Diane von Furstenberg

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Claire Bernard

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Jimmy Buffett

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Cocktail service at the after-party.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Andy and Betsy Kenny Lack and Imran Khan

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Robyn Todd Steinberg and David Steinberg

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Harvey Weinstein and Lloyd Blankfein

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

A box of popcorn was placed at each seat ahead of the performance.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

John Oliver

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Mike Birbiglia

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

A scene from the after-party, also held at 583 Park Avenue.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Leslie Moonves, Tom Freston, and Bryant Gumbel

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Jane Buffett

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

David Zaslav, Len Blavatnik, and Richard Plepler

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Ronald O. Perelman

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

George Lopez

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Kelly Meyer, Carey Lowell, and Jean Pigozzi

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Peggy and Mickey Drexler

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Rhea Suh and Hasan Minhaj

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Link:
Donald Trump's Vanity Is Destroying His Presidency - Vanity Fair

President Trump has chosen Colorado appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch as his pick for the Supreme Court. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump has now been president for all or part of 13 days. It's a testament to just how rocky his time in office has been that Tuesday his 12th day as the 45th president was the first really good one he has had since Jan. 20.

The highlight of the day for Trump was the selection of Neil Gorsuch, a Colorado appeals court judge, to fill the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by the death of Antonin Scalia. Trump used his unique ability to build suspense the two men, Gorsuch and the other judge being considered, Tom Hardiman, were reported to be headed to Washington for a Bachelor"-like showdown! -- to dominate the day's news coverage. And he used the newness of his presidency as well as his indisputable knack for TV ratings to secure a prime-time slot to make the announcement.

He and his team also managed to keep his selection largely secret. (National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru reported the pick a few hours before Trump made it.) The ability to operate stealthily and show the discipline to keep a secret, well, secret was something that many Trump critics didn't believe he was capable of.

When the official announcement came, it was exactly what every conservative who voted for Trump despite their doubts about him had dreamed of: a true conservative justice with the sort of pedigree (Harvard, Oxford) that will make it tough for Democrats to stand in unified opposition to the pick.

Trump's speech introducing Gorsuch was (relatively) brief and (relatively) modest. Gorsuch then stepped to the mic and knocked it out of the park, delivering a humble thank you that any politician no matter the party couldn't have been anything but impressed by.

Although the Gorsuch pick was clearly the centerpiece of Tuesday in Washington, Trump got some help from other places, too. Homeland Security Chief John Kelly pushed back hard on reports that he had not been adequately briefed on the travel ban before Trump signed it into law on Friday.We did know the executive order was coming, Kelly told reporters. We knew it was coming, it wasnt a surprise it was coming and then we implemented it.

And that was mostly it. It's odd to say that a day when a Supreme Court nominee gets announced was quiet. But, when compared withthe previous 11 days of Trump's presidency, Tuesday was, relatively speaking, a slow news day.

That's a very good thing for Trump, whose executive orders, tweets and other machinations over the first week and a half in the White House left lots and lots of people including some supporters a bit shellshocked. Although Trump revels in keeping people on their toes, it's not always the best thing to have the first question everyone asks every day be, What the heck is he going to do next?

What Tuesday showed, broadly speaking, was a level of discipline from Trump to Kelly to White House press secretary Sean Spicer that had been sorely lacking in this White House up until then. It showed that Trump and his administration can adhere to a single message even if they haven't often done it.

As always with Trump, of course, one day means not very much. By Wednesday morning, Trump was back tweeting about the travel ban-but-don't-call-it-a-ban.

Fighting a rhetorical battle over the controversial policy that even Republicans acknowledge was confusing when rolled out is picking the wrong fight if you are Trump. And it suggests that day 13 of his presidency won't go as well as day 12. But, given how the previous 11 days went, Tuesday counted as a major victory in Trumpland.

See the rest here:
Donald Trump just had the first good day of his presidency - Washington Post

Does Donald Trump actually know who Frederick Douglass was? The president mentioned the great abolitionist, former slave, and suffrage campaigner during a Black History Month event Wednesday morning, but theres little to indicate that Trump knows anything about his subject, based on the rambling, vacuous commentary he offered:

I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody whos done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact. Within moments, he was off-topic, talking about some of his favorite subjects: CNN, himself, and his feud with CNN.

My President Was Black

Trumps comments about King were less transparently empty but maybe even stranger. Last month we celebrated the life Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., whose incredible example is unique in American history, Trump said, employing a favorite meaningless adjective. But this wasnt really about King. It was about Trump: You read all about Martin Luther King when somebody said I took a statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. Its one of the favorite thingsand we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King.

Even beyond the strange aside about Douglass and the digression from King, Trumps comments point to the superficiality of his engagement with African American culture. He named perhaps the four most famous figures in black history with no meaningful elaboration. (Trump was reading from a sheet, but at least he was able to name Tubman, unlike his vanquished rival Gary Johnson.)

In a way, Trump isnt totally wrong about Douglass getting recognized more and more, though one is left to scratch ones head at where precisely he noticed that. Douglasss heyday of influence was in the mid to late 19th centurywhen he was also among The Atlantics biggest-name writersbut he may be better known than ever among the broadest swath of the American public thanks to his ascension into the Pantheon of black history figures taught in schools since the United States established Black History Month in 1976.

It is a real and praiseworthy accomplishment for Douglasss name to keep spreading. But the frequent, and often valid, critique of Black History Month is that it encourages a tokenist approach to African American culture, leading everyone from national leaders to elementary-school teachers to recite a catechism of well-known figures, producing both shallow engagement and privileging a pass Great Man (and Woman) theory of history. Hardly any politician is immune to this; faced with the necessity of holding an event to mark the month, they too recite the list. But even by that standard, Trumps comments are laughably vacuous.

George W. Bush, for example, recalled in 2002 how February was the month in which Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born, two men, very different, who together ended slavery. Bill Clinton exhorted audiences to visit Douglasss home in Washingtons Anacostia neighborhood, at a time when that was well-off the beaten tourist path. George H.W. Bush admired Jacob Lawrences depiction of Douglass. Ronald Reagan repeatedly quoted Douglass in his own remarks, and was fond of boasting that Douglass was a fellow Republican.

The gulf between Trump and his predecessors is particularly poignant, of course, in the wake of the presidency of Barack Obama, a man who by virtue of his own skin color never had to resort to the detached tributes of white presidents. When the museum Trump cited opened, Obama spoke, saying as only he could have:

Yes, African Americans have felt the cold weight of shackles and the stinging lash of the field whip. But we've also dared to run north and sing songs from Harriet Tubman's hymnal. We've buttoned up our Union Blues to join the fight for our freedom. We've railed against injustice for decade upon decade, a lifetime of struggle and progress and enlightenment that we see etched in Frederick Douglass's mighty, leonine gaze.

Trump, by contrast, has long spoken of the black community in fundamentally instrumental terms, from his business career to his political one. African Americans were a monolithic demographic to be won or lost, depending on the occasion. The young real-estate developer first made headlines when the Trump Organization was accused of working to keep blacks out of its real-estate developments; the company eventually settled with the Justice Department without admitting guilt. The question in that case was not the personal prejudices (absent or present) of Trump and his father Fred. Instead, the company appeared to have decided that blacks were bad for business and would drive out white tenants, so the Trumps allegedly opted to keep them out.

During the campaign, Trump viewed black voters with similarly cool detachment. He spoke about blacks and other minorities in conspicuously distancing terms, as they and them. His leading black surrogates included Omarosa, most famous for appearing on The Apprentice with Trump, and Don King, a clownish and past-his-prime boxing promoter notable for killing two men; Hillary Clintons campaign, meanwhile, called on LeBron James, Beyonce, and Obama. When Trump spotted a black man at a rally in California, he called out, Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?

When Trump decided announced a black-voter outreach operation, he mostly delivered his message to overwhelmingly white audiences in overwhelmingly white locales, and employed a series of racist and outdated stereotypes about inner-city crime, poverty, and lack of education, in what he appeared to believe represented benign patronization. Meanwhile, his own aides told reporters their political goal was to suppress black votes by encouraging African Americans to sit the election out.

In the end, Trump won 8 percent of the black vote, according to exit polling, besting Mitt Romneys showing against Barack Obama but falling well short of the recent GOP high-water mark of 17 percent in 1976 (to say nothing of his prediction that hed win 95 percent of African Americans).

Trump continues to indicate he holds a view of black Americans that is instrumental, as he showed on Wednesday at his Black History Month event. If you remember, I wasnt going to do well with the African American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting, I wont get into details, but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who have run in the past years, he said, somewhat misleadingly. And now were going to take that to new levels. February might be Black History Month, but every month is Trump History Month.

Continued here:
Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - The Atlantic

The Atlantic

Donald Trump, Democrats Dig In for Fight Wall Street Journal WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump's aggressive White House debut is stoking a war with Democrats and creating unease with fellow Republicans, dimming chances for cross-party compromise and potentially limiting the scope of what he can get done ... How Trump Could Rearrange the US HouseThe Atlantic all 194 news articles »

More:
Donald Trump, Democrats Dig In for Fight - Wall Street Journal

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

The president boarded Marine One at the White House White House with his daughter Ivanka Trump, as Vice President Michael Pence, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and chief of staff Reince Preibus, watched him leave on the South Lawn.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

The departure was deemed off the record by White House staff until the president landed, but Trumps visit will remain closed to the press.

Chief Special Warfare Operator William Ryan Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill was killed during a raid on an al-Qaeda camp in Yemen on Saturday.

Trump spoke with the family over the phone offering his sincerest condolences to Owens wife, his father and their three children, according to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday.

Owens was also praised by Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

Ryan gave his full measure for our nation, and in performing his duty, he upheld the noblest standard of military service, Mattis said in a statement. The United States would not long exist were it not for the selfless commitment of such warriors.

Follow this link:
Donald Trump Pays Respects to Navy SEAL Slain in Yemen - Breitbart News