It’s hard to tell whether U.S. President Donald Trump is dumb, or perhaps the most cunning politician ever.
Like so many Trump pronouncements, his Tuesday attack on Google sounded stupid — and was. But it was also so well-timed and inflammatory that it drew attention away from his latest self-inflicted disaster of not rendering honours for Senator John McCain, who died Sunday after his long battle with cancer.
It’s a pattern that repeats in Trumpland regularly. Something bad happens, do something distracting: your former campaign chair is on trial, order the formation of a Space Force; your political opponent is making some headway, talk about her emails.
Trump certainly has a lock on telling his base what they want to hear, but he also seems to have a sense for what will most outrage non-supporters and deflect attention from his alleged crimes, mistakes and generally poor behaviour.
Because when Trump tweets about looking into regulating internet searches, we (the media) all jump on it and the story that might damage his reputation with his base gets pushed off the front page.
Those who like Trump are likely to agree that search engines are treating him unfairly by putting reputable (if unflattering to him) sites at the top of the search results. Those opposed are going to be outraged at the mere suggestion of political interference. The result? Everyone forgets about the real issue.
Most politicians, once they get elected, don’t want to leave people who voted against them out in the cold. They’d rather convince non-supporters they are doing a good job and maybe convert a few votes in the next election.
But Trump clearly has no problems with outraging the liberal side of the spectrum (who won’t be voting for him in 2020 anyway), especially when he can reinforce conservative bias at the same time.
It’s a pattern Trump repeats too often to be accidental; no one that devious can really be considered stupid. Or perhaps it’s all instinct, like how mosquitoes, with nearly invisible brains, unerringly seek out the juiciest targets.