Killed by His Own Words: The Media and Trump's Poor Communication Skills During the Coronavirus Briefings Jeopardized His Political Career

Volume 4, Issue 3, June 2020     |     PP. 103-119      |     PDF (202 K)    |     Pub. Date: June 19, 2020
DOI:    186 Downloads     5907 Views  

Author(s)

Aysar T. Yaseen, Arab American University-Palestine

Abstract
More often than not, the president in democratic countries is the role model for his people as they expect him to work for the welfare of the public and the welfare of the country and its institutions. Right from the outset of his presidency, president Trump evinced signs of ethnocentrism, discrimination, and love of power and authority. Furthermore, he showed affection and admiration for dictatorship governance. He fired a number of his aids after serving only for a short period of time in the White House, secretary of state Rex Tillerson for example. Trump enjoys playing the role of an omnipotent God. This was so prevalent since his inauguration. He downgraded countries. In his inauguration speech, he said: “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products steeling our companies and destroying our jobs.” The slogan “only America first” which carries racist connotations is repeatedly used by Trump on countless occasions. Trump humiliated journalists and downplayed their TV networks. He accused mainstream media of peddling “fake news”. As for correspondents, Trump seized every opportunity to humiliate and belittle them; on many occasions, Trump sarcastically answer their questions. He called many of them derogatory names such as, “terrible reporters”, “hush, you are a very bad reporter”, “your network is bad”, “you are fake”, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself”, and “I think it is a nasty question”. The mainstream media realized that it is evident Trump’s narcissism, racism, bigotry, misogyny, ignorance, and lack of empathy. Getting rid of this dictator in a democratic and well planned way became a patriotic duty and a priority of the American mainstream media. The media found in the White House coronavirus task force briefings the only opportunity to get revenge for the unfair persistent humiliation by president Trump. They facilitated and participated strategically in these briefings. They came to these briefings knowing that Trump’s poor communication skills along with his affection for power and authority will put an end to this nightmare.

Keywords
communication; media; briefings; jeopardize; ethnocentrism; narcissism.

Cite this paper
Aysar T. Yaseen, Killed by His Own Words: The Media and Trump's Poor Communication Skills During the Coronavirus Briefings Jeopardized His Political Career , SCIREA Journal of Sociology. Volume 4, Issue 3, June 2020 | PP. 103-119.

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