I sat there shaking my head in frustrated denial at the lunch table staring at my best friend’s newly updated phone. Through mouthful bites, he chuckled as he pointed at the words that stood out on his blue screen. They read “Gulf of America.”
Our dining hall food was bland, but our group’s political discourse was heated as we argued about President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. Walking out of the dining hall, it dawned on me in a moment of epiphany. We had been distracted from the real issues affecting normal people in their everyday lives. This is exactly what the Trump administration wants us to do.
To understand Donald Trump, one need only look to his greatest mentor, New York City lawyer Roy Cohn. Described by associates as a “scoundrel” and “a new strain of son of a b*tch,” Cohn became Trump's lawyer in 1973 when the Department of Justice was suing him for racist renting practices.
The two would quickly become the closest of allies, with Trump as the dedicated student and Cohn as the well-connected man who would form him. The strategy Cohn imparted on Trump was to “Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.”
Trump the businessman made this mantra his life’s mission. Trump the president continues to recycle the same Cohn-blessed strategies that led to his unlikely comeback.
My friends and I had wasted the entirety of our lunch together arguing about a name on a map that would never directly affect any of us. This was Roy Cohn’s playbook of “deflect and distract” run to perfection. Somewhere, this slimy snake was smiling in his grave.
The American people are being tricked. We are drawn to care about one thing, so preposterous, ludicrous and counter to our core beliefs that we are unfazed when the Trump administration is meddling with something completely different. By the time we realize what their actual goals are, the Overton Window (i.e. the range of policies that are acceptable) has expanded to include their formerly fringe fantasies.
I am far from the first person to make this claim. However, in the last few weeks, a revamped and vengeful Donald Trump has captured headlines with political stunts fit for reality TV using Cohn’s Art of the Distraction.
Americans will notice that annexing Canada and buying Greenland (potentially renaming it Red, White, and Blueland) may be a lot to undertake in one presidential term.
This is a distraction from the America First policy agenda that has done anything but put Americans first. Trump’s threatened government cuts affect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the National Institute of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Because of these moves, more children will go hungry, countless more will die from cancer and Americans will wake up poorer at the hands of corporate greed.
But Americans will be distracted by senior Trump advisor Elon Musk saluting Hitler after the inauguration last month.
This is an appalling diversion from the fact that the second Trump term will strip millions of Americans of their rights if left unchecked. On his second full day in office, the president revoked civil rights protections that dated back decades. The Republicans' SAVE Act, which passed in the House during the 118th Congress, would leave nearly 70 million American women without the right to vote because they changed their last name when they married. Do not let distractions stop you from seeing that leading American officials do not believe women or people of color should be in roles of authority or full citizens.
But instead, Americans will discuss the terrifying avalanche of executive orders Trump has signed since returning to the Resolute Desk.
This is a distraction from the autocratic moves Trump has already taken to slowly implant himself as an American tyrant. President Trump has eliminated positions meant to keep his administration in check and surrounded himself with those who hold his same extreme beliefs about executive power. In addition, he has seriously implied that he will be in office for a third term.
In the White House press room, Trump has welcomed and given attention to reporters from right-wing outlets that serve as propaganda outlets for his agenda. While Turning Point USA, Real America’s Voice and the Daily Caller get to ask the President softball questions, legitimate news outlets like the AP are blocked from events for not recognizing the Gulf of America.
Trump has also given his ally Elon Musk access to all of the sensitive personal payment information stored at the United States Treasury. Like any bank robbery, do not let the noise in the Oval Office distract you from what is going on behind the scenes.
President Trump's efforts to distract the American people to successfully enact his agenda may seem like an inventive new strategy. Rather, it is the same set of schemes he has pulled since his days as a New York scumbag. Some may criticize him for his lack of creativity, but we have just been caught in his carefully crafted Art of Distraction.
