When President Donald Trump kicked off a multi-day tweet storm ridiculing the London Mayor’s response to terrorism attacks, blasting the courts for blocking his “travel ban” and blaming endless leaks on the “fake news,” people in Washington were stunned by his audacity and lack of filter.
His supporters loved it. And that was the point.
While politicians wring their hands and the media focus on the expanding controversy surrounding his team’s ties to Russian operatives, and allegations that the president himself tried to derail an FBI investigation into those connections, Trump has gone back to his roots—ignoring professional advice and speaking plainly and directly to the people who sent him to the White House.
“It’s a good thing he’s fighting back,” said Dave Saluan, a retired police officer from Petaluma, California, who recently attended a Sonoma County celebration honoring Trump’s first 100 days in office. “You don’t turn your cheek when they’re stepping all over you. You better punch them back. And he’s doing it.”
White House officials and those close to the administration say it’s a part of a return to a more offensive campaign-like communications style to focus the public’s attention—or at least his core supporters’ attention—onto issues important to Trump and away from Thursday’s much anticipated congressional testimony by James Comey, fired by Trump while he was conducting a former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“It’s effective for the same reason he won the primary and the campaign,” said a former campaign adviser who remains in close contact with the Trump White House. “He’s goes directly to the people. Of course, some of the things he says are eye-brow raising, but a lot of it is common- sense, cut through the crap.”
It’s not just a matter of reframing the conversation. It reflects the Trump team’s belief—backed by anecdotal evidence in battleground states that supported him—that many voters are simply uninterested in the Russia controversy that is dominating the media’s attention.
“All the hankering that goes on by the D.C. elite, your average voter doesn’t relate to that,” said the adviser. “But they can relate to someone saying how it is.”
The change was abrupt. After a relatively buttoned up foreign trip where he didn’t hold a news conference and didn’t tweet much, Trump reembraced Twitter, launching a series a tweets about the “fake” media soon after landing late Saturday May 28.