A Retrospective Approach To Covering The White House May Be More Beneficial To News Consumers

Ten years in, the news media still struggles with questions about how to cover Donald Trump. The daily coverage decisions are made more difficult by the enhanced second term strategy of flooding the zone with so much information, so many different stories, that it becomes almost impossible to keep up.

If we didn’t know this before we know it now. Trump’s personal imperative is to be the most talked about human being on the face of the earth on an hourly basis. Whether that is also his political strategy is anyone’s guess, but what is clear is that some members of the administration see the torrent of daily news as cover to achieve their own policy goals while the boss gets the headlines he so dearly craves.

We don’t know whether flooding the zone is actually Trump’s preferred political strategy or not, because we don’t know if he has any political or policy goals beyond the personal. Beyond his own fame and the attention he derives from it.

John Bolton, one of the Trump’s former national security advisors, has often been asked whether Trump is a fascist. Bolton’s answer is “no,” because to be a fascist requires knowing what fascism is and then pursuing fascist goals as a matter of policy. To Bolton, everything Trump does is a matter of how it effects Trump personally. If, in the pursuit of his own interests, something he does appears fascist to others, it’s a coincidence, not the intended result.

I think Trump’s media strategy can be described in the same way. On a personal level, he is not trying to dominate the news cycle in pursuit of some higher goal, that’s for others to deal with. Trump just likes to see his name in print and his face on television. It’s why “transportation week” never worked as a concept during his first term. He had no interest in achieving policy goals related to transportation, but he did realize the picture of the president in a big rig would be seen everywhere.

The conundrum these public relations tactics and strategies create for journalists is obvious. The press sees its job being to record — as accurately as possible — everything the president is doing as he does it. If the president does it or says it, it is news, by definition. The down side of this approach to covering Trump is that it leaves no room for understanding. By the time the analysis begins, the news cycle has moved on.

Writing on politics, public relations and journalism on Substack in recent months has led me to adopt a new retrospective strategy. It is still important, in my view, for the daily press to cover everything the president does and says(for the most part), but equally important is to go back in time and consider the real world consequences of what he does and says.

For instance:

• What are the real world consequences of deporting people from this country without due process to a prison for terrorists in El Salvador and what is the status of those prisoners? Will they be there for life even though most have never been convicted of a crime?
• How has U.S. influence around the world been changed as a result of Trump’s meetings with Nayib Bukele or Volodymyr Zelenskyy?
• Does Trump’s tariff policy have merit? And where exactly do things stand now with those countries subject to his announced tariffs?
• Where is Congress? How has congressional silence on most of Trump’s most controversial policies changed the power of the presidency and the United States as a country?
• How is Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants changing the perception Americans have of law enforcement in this country? How is it changing America’s reputation in the world as a place of justice for all?

After the headline, what’s the effect? After the momentary headline that satisfies Trump’s craving for attention, the world moves on. The war between Russia and Ukraine goes on with thousands of deaths on both sides. Israel is still at war in Gaza with hundreds losing their lives each week. Families are still being separated as a result of Trump’s immigration policy on a daily basis. Real families, real separations. Hundreds of men are still being held, unlawfully, at the direction of the United States of America, in a prison in El Salvador.

The press cannot allow the real life policy consequences of Trump’s headline grabbing media strategy to mask the actual results.

While most traditional news organizations have been challenged by the maturation of the internet as a source of news, there are also more individuals and organizations than ever devoted to covering the news. Not all need be devoted to the daily goal of covering incremental developments. A more effective way to deliver useful information to news consumers is to look back and reconsider what has already happened rather than chasing the next hourly development or presidential utterance.

Inflection Point
May 20, 2025

For more writing on politics, public affairs, public relations and journalism from Dean Pagani visit Media Attaché on Substack.