Trump Was Winning -- Until Now
The national security debacle involving a Signal chat and the editor of The Atlantic has Dems going on offense. Finally.
Until yesterday, Trump was winning. And by winning, I mean he had a better PR game and was playing it well. Using his preferred strategies of exaggeration, lies and social media, he was absolutely crushing the PR game while his minions worked to destroy the government and all the institutions we hold dear.
Josh Marshall put it well in his article about Schumer not realizing the can of whoop-ass he unleashed when he caved on the budget resolution on March 14th.
If you’re in a fight for your lives and you’re pulling your punches or lying low to slow the pace of the assault, you’re at best delaying getting to the final destination. The only way to change the equation is to upset the apple cart. By definition that involves taking risks. The real division now among Democrats is not principally ideological, it’s fight vs risk aversion and the old proceduralism. They think the left/center and fight/no fight spectra overlap more or less perfectly. They’re wrong.
I’ve made two points again and again. This fight is fundamentally over public opinion. And the actual hard powers the Democrats have are minimal. The one real cudgel the Democrats had was the continuing resolution. That’s gone.
That’s it in a nutshell. And until yesterday, Democrats were losing this fight. Badly. As my friend Steve Gillmor wrote, “Trump is winning. His intuitive understanding of live media is as shocking as was JFK’s mastery of live press conferences in his term in office.”
It’s true. Much of my frustration comes from that simple fact.
But today, some things have changed. After Jeffrey Goldberg’s shocking article in The Atlantic about his experience of being added to a Signal message group with VP JD Vance, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, NSA Mike Waltz, SecDef Pete Hegseth, SecState Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
In any other era in this country, these officials would be resigning before they were fired. Instead, Trump is disparaging Jeffrey Goldberg and issuing statements like this one, just fired out as I was writing this:
“This is a coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.”
Yep, Trump is on the back foot, and I understand he’s going to be doing some interviews because he really IS good at spinning and lying things away.
Not this time. Democrats initially had a pretty weak response (including a fundraising ask — don’t do that, Dems!!!) but seem to have gotten their act together this morning.
After suggesting the entire national intelligence team should be fired, Virginia Senator Mark Warner grilled DNI Tulsi Gabbard in a committee hearing this morning with Kash Patel, John Ratcliffe, and Gabbard, challenging Gabbard to release all the texts if there was nothing classified.
Colorado Senator Mike Bennet went after CIA Director Ratcliffe, letting him know in no uncertain terms that it was not okay for Trump Russian envoy Michael Witkoff to be texting into a Signal conversation while he was in Moscow waiting for an audience with Putin. YA THINK?
On social media, Senator Elizabeth Warren outright called for Pete Hegseth to resign. “If Pete Hegseth had even a tiny bit of honor and sense of responsibility, then he would hand in his resignation this morning,” she wrote on Bluesky.
Senator Mark Warner’s lukewarm social media response yesterday was followed up today by the right, strong response, also posted on Bluesky. He wrote, “When the stakes are this high, incompetence is not an option. Pete Hegseth should resign. Mike Waltz should resign.”
Senator Jon Ossoff also ripped into John Ratcliffe over the content of the text conversation.
Democrats are setting in motion a chorus of calls for resignations. HEADS SHOULD ROLL. Pete Buttigieg dished out some righteous indignation and absolute fury at what happened, calling it “the highest level of f-ckup imaginable.” Buttigieg was an intel officer for seven years, so he knows of what he speaks.
Over on the Social Security side, Senator Ron Wyden just caught Social Security director Frank (Fiserv) Bisignano in a flat out lie during his confirmation hearing.
My point here is that Democrats are going on offense, which is exactly what they must do every single day with every single scandal this horrible administration brings down on our country. This one is too big for them to be nice about. They know it and they’re bringing fire. But this is what they must do. All the time. They should have a war room and a battle plan, as Senator Harry Reid’s senior leadership aide Murshed Zaheed explains.
If Democrats and progressives writ large are serious about taking on the right’s enormous communication apparatus, which has now fused with a Republican White House, they need to first commit to a resistance strategy that will rally people, then build a communications strategy to complement it, and draw more people in.
I recommend reading the whole article and suggesting your elected representatives read it too. His point is well-taken.
We’re off to a slow start, but if Democrats take this moment to agree on an opposition strategy, support the rally strategy that Bernie Sanders and AOC are implementing, and then use a communications strategy to really hammer home our shared values and messages, we can win this PR war. We have the better message. We just need to make sure we’re heard.
Those of us who aren’t elected can also do our part to lift a consistent message on social media and make sure we’re amplifying the right voices. Instead of talking about what Trump says, let’s be lifting what Dems say.
Keep up the pressure by attending #TeslaTakedown protests and 50501 events. Be public about your opposition. Recruit friends and neighbors where you can.
Be unafraid.
And where possible, enjoy the truth and humor in posts like this one from Mrs Frazzled.
Bonus Link: Marcy Wheeler gives Seven Reasons Trump’s Entire National Security Team Should Resign In Disgrace