How to Drink from a Firehose

A former Obama speechwriter on Trump’s week-one rhetorical strategy—and how you can help beat it

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/how-to-drink-from-a-firehose

https://archive.ph/1TMil



Among presidential speechwriters, “laundry list” is a devastating insult. It refers to a bland recitation of policy proposals with no coherent theme or inspiring message to bind them. (Another devastating speechwriter insult is “Christmas tree,” which means a speech that has something for everybody but no central focus.) Trump’s second Inauguration Day was a laundry list of Christmas Trees.

First, he gave a speech in the rotunda that promised a “golden age” but was really just a disorganized to-do list. Over lunch, he added more items to the to-do list. Then he went to the Oval Office and signed a whole bunch of executive orders and pardons, a few of which fulfill campaign promises, many of which push the limits of presidential power.


Any traditional “messaging expert” from either party would tell you this was a mistake. Presidents usually try to avoid loading up their speeches and media appearances with too much policy, because policy is boring. They also want to introduce new plans—and the rhetoric behind them—one at a time, to get maximum coverage for each. Trump, for all his general unhinged-ness, frequently tried that approach in his first term, which is how we got “infrastructure week.” Trump’s second-term message strategy seems to be throwing dictatorial spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks. And it’s pretty smart.

I wish I could take comfort in the fact that Trump sucks at rhetoric, or that he regularly steps on his own message. But right now, the laundry list is the message. What Trump recognizes—and what many of us didn’t recognize for too long—is that Americans want to see their leaders getting things done. Fairly or unfairly, lots of voters felt that Democrats spent four years saying, “We’d love to make an omelet, but we just can’t break any eggs.” Trump is taking the opposite approach. He’s betting that Americans might not approve of breaking each respective egg, but are desperate enough for omelets that they’ll go along.

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