Smokescreening: Why More Bad News Is Better
What if I told you leakers were the Trump Administration's most useful tools, almost as close to the cabinet as Putin's GRU?
You would likely laugh it off, right? The Trump Administration has been plagued with damaging leaks since its inception, even since campaign season. The President as well as various members of his cabinet have come out against leakers, even publicly firing suspected leakers during press conferences.
While it has made for a hell of a fireworks show, this is a very deliberate tactic, one that is working very well in Trump's favor.
I'm going to begin explaining why with a brief recap of recent events concerning the Trump Administration.
Trump Fires Spicer, Hires A Drama Queen.
Spicer was on his way out, let's be honest. The oft parodied dunce that somehow managed to keep his spot behind the presser podium for so long was finally axed, leaving SNL's Alex Baldwin without a partner in crime. Spicer was known for frequent gaffe's, an odd appearance by an NFL player backstage, and a well-rehearsed continuance of his master's War on the Media.
Spicer's replacement, though, is an incredibly contentious point in the story. Anthony Scaramucci appears to be the least popular person in Washington, a title that is highly contested it would seem. He somehow managed to ruin his relationship with Reince Preibus, White House Chief of Staff, before Trump even began to pick his cabinet. Reports by the New Yorker indicate that Scaramucci was picked for the job before Spicer, but Preibus blocked his chance up until the point. According to the now-viral New Yorker report, Scaramucci will report directly to the President instead of the Chief of Staff, an unusual way of organizing the cabinet.
Scaramucci took absolutely no time to ruin his reputation as a Press Secretary, going on an insane rant about how he wants to "fucking kill all the leakers" and "eliminate the entire comms team", before diving deeper into his evident psychopathy by moving to insinuate that Steve Bannon "sucks his own cock" and implying that Preibus will be fired in the coming days.
Trump Begins a War of Words With His Attorney General
Trump has publicly expressed his discontent with his appointed AG recently, following Sessions' recusal from the Russian Collusion investigation and his refusal to prosecute Hillary Clinton for... EMails? Besides the unbelievably dangerous ethical implications behind demanding your Attorney General investigate your direct political rival, this feud has been long-lasting and nasty, beginning at the inception of the ever-contentious email scandal during the campaign season.
The main feud between Trump and Sessions has forever been the recusal, a verbal "I'm not gonna back you up" from one of Trump's earliest supporters. The media took this as an admission of guilt, or at least an admission of involvement in the Russian collusion.
Trump Announces a Ban on Transgender Individuals Within the Military
Not much needs to be said about this one. Trump blindsided the world, including the Generals he allegedly consulted, by announcing via Tweet that he was banning transgender individuals from entering the military. It was later clarified that currently serving members were not being included in the ban, but that because of the overhead cost of reassignment surgeries and further therapies, transgender individuals would no longer be able to join the military.
Sessions Breaks the Dark Web
Ever the War on Drugs' greatest crusader, aforementioned "beleaguered AG" Jeff Sessions lead an international effort to take down two of the biggest Darknet Marketplaces on the dark web at the time. I documented the takedown in a blog post earlier, but essentially the entire event was documented with as much fanfare and ego-stroking as possible. The takedown came at a time when Darknet activity was ramping up, even after the very public takedown of Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0 during the last Administration.
Why All of this Matters: It Doesn't
This is a popular Information Warfare tactic I call smokescreening. Trump has taken part in this kind of deception since his campaign began, but it has recently become more and more integral to his Administration's survival. Smokescreening, as I see it, is flooding the public's view of the true situation with chaffe, to where they cannot focus on what is behind the smoke and can't focus on any given piece at a time. This tactic is much like a barrage of bad news covering up what one consider's the worst news of all.
I'm fairly certain that this is what the Trump Administration is taking part in. There are multiple reasons for this certainty, which I will document below, but I will begin by explaining the effect this tactic has had on the public and the danger that it poses.
Media attention has been unbelievably scattered, no matter what side of the spectrum the media source falls on. CNN, MSNBC, Faux News, and others all cannot "seem" to pay attention to any one scandal, any one story. This means that viewers have fallen prey to this tactic just by tacit viewership. You simply cannot watch the news to hear more about the one important story. Viewers are constantly being bombarded with a new scandal, a new story every single day.
Don't get me wrong, I don't view media outlets as victims in this, nor do I view them as the core perpetrators. Media outlets have long been a puppet for the party or ideology they support. That's a completely different post though, one that I look forward to writing in the future.
The bombardment of news that viewers consume has left the Administration's constituents constantly angry, yet inable to focus their anger on any one thing. Without the ability to control one's anger or frustration, it lacks purpose and control, it lacks the ability to organize. The reason this is dangerous is that nothing gets done with uncontrolled anger. You see groups like AntiFa, ones that have absolutely no idea what it is they're angry about and generally resort to, as stated, uncontrolled anger backed by illogical rhetoric while they bust up coffee shops in the street and ruin college campuses. That is the effect this tactic has had on the populous: we're angry, but we're constantly angry about a new thing every day.
The Proof
Sudden tweets announcing the banning of transgenders entering the military. Illogical feuds with your appointed AG. The appointment of a crass, ethically corrupt moron over a simple moron as the comms director. Running a country on a social media site meant for short, unimportant status updates. Continuing a grudge that has no bearing on current politics with a woman you've already beaten in an election. Ridiculous statements made without any forethought, quickly switching to the next incomplete thought without finishing the last.
These are all signs of a psychopath, in one of two shapes. Either the individual is entirely incompetent to lead and has no idea what he is doing, or he is a master at manipulating the media and the populous into a frenzy, unable to concentrate on the real scandal behind it all. I believe President Trump is the second type of psychopath.
Whether you support Trump or not, you have to marvel at the fact that he is even sitting in the Oval Office. A newly minted politician, he climbed the political ladder using his vast wealth to skip every rung but the top. This isn't done by a simply unintelligent man. It's done by someone who has a deep knowledge of how to control information. It's a feat only possible by someone who knows how deception works. Donald Trump knows that deception is not always hiding behind something: sometimes, it's moving obstacles in front of your enemy and bombarding them with fake paths and forks in the road to distract them from the real destination.
The ridiculousness of the entire escapade is what first turned me on to the fact that this is an incredibly elaborate smokescreening campaign. Trump tweets, ridiculous gaffes that make not a lick of sense in front of millions of people, his tendency to make ridiculous statements before falling back on them hours later... that level of ridiculous behavior doesn't make sense until you view it as smoke that hides the fire.
My recommendation, then, is to stop focusing on the chaffe. I don't know what the true fire is. The Russian collusion story is likely to be the true story the Administration is covering up, but there is also a good possibility that there is a deeper, more sinister story that the Administration is trying to cover for. Don't focus on the ridiculous tweets, the Beltway Brawls between Bureaucrats. Focus on one story at a time, the ones that truly matter, and only then can we organize and resist this level of deception.
Do Not Fall Victim to the Smokescreen.