Donald Trump needs to create a distraction. His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty in court today to two felony crimes while agreeing to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation into the alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Kremlin-linked operatives.
Since one tweet from earlier in the week managed to distract the media and the American people so well the first time, he doubled down.
There truly is nothing more despicable than denying the deaths of 3,000 American citizens as a president of this country. Trump knows it, and it’s possible that he truly believes it’s okay to attack this news to protect himself, but it’s far more likely that he knows exactly where the focus will shift, and it will be far away from the Mueller probe.
Trump is not knew to the media game. He’s been chasing celebrity for decades and has actively worked to shape a narrative about himself in the public eye that, clearly, a lot of his supporters completely bought into. What’s important, however, is that no one falls for it.
That’s not to say that Trump shouldn’t be held accountable for making horrifying statements like the one above. Balance is key. What happened today in the Manafort trial could lead to the impeachment or forced resignation of a president. The coverage, and the informing of the American electorate on Trump’s crimes, needs to include both stories. When that happens, Trump loses this Twitter game.
Twitter made their feelings known to the president, as well. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Marc Nozell under a Creative Commons license
