“During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety.”
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
On June 14, 2015, then-citizen Donald Trump called his family over for dinner. The day marked his sixty-ninth birthday, but it also marked the start of a life-changing journey that would end at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “Guys, I want to do it. I want to run for president,” one family member remembered him saying. “What does everyone think? It’s not going to be easy. Our family will become a target.” Donald Trump had the foresight to know a candidacy intent on changing Washington, not conforming to it, would be controversial, subjecting his whole family to unfair and unsubstantiated media attacks.
His reluctance to drag his family into the national spotlight comported with what he had told Oprah nearly three decades earlier: “I just don’t think I really have the inclination to do it. I love what I’m doing . . . but I do get tired of seeing what’s happening with this country, and if it got so bad, I would never want to rule it out totally.”1 America had finally gotten to the point where Trump knew he had to sacrifice and make a bid for the nation’s highest office. “If you run, you’ll win,” his wife, Melania, assured him.
With the full-fledged support of his family and two thumbs-up, Trump descended that Trump Tower escalator on June 16, 2015, with his wife by his side, departing the world of business for the realm of politics. Cameras flashed and Trump signs shot into the air as Trump took the stage, joining his oldest daughter, Ivanka, who stood waiting to introduce her father to an exuberant crowd of onlookers. The words he prepared to say would begin the process of changing the political landscape forever, setting the country on a promising trajectory but not without consequences for his family. In the years leading up to Trump’s announcement, the media celebrated Ivanka Trump, the young, successful businesswoman, whom Trump now proudly embraced onstage.
“Thank God: Ivanka Trump Is Redefining the Idea of the ‘Working Woman’ ”2
“Ivanka Trump Celebrates #WomenWhoWork with a Bold New Business Venture”3
“Ivanka Trump knows what it means to be a Modern Millennial”4
The media lauded the innovative female CEO, entrepreneur and inspiring role model with headlines like these. Fortune magazine awarded her a coveted spot on their “40 Under 40” list, recognizing “the most influential young people in business”; and Vanity Fair listed her on their 68th Annual International Best-Dressed List.5 But in the months to come, many of these same media outlets would take a vicious turn in cutting down the thirty-three-year-old businesswoman and the rest of her family simply because of their last name.
Standing before eight American flags in his signature red tie and American flag pin, then-citizen Trump began, “Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore . . . [W]hen is the last time anyone saw us beating China in a trade deal? . . . When did we beat Japan at anything? . . . When do we beat Mexico at the border?” After posing these questions to the crowd, Trump proceeded to lay out a fresh set of ideas foreign to many Republicans. His message was anti–unbridled free trade, anti–Iraq War, anti-globalism, and—perhaps most important—antiestablishment. “Politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing’s going to get done. They will not bring us—believe me—to the promised land. They will not,” Trump declared. “I’ve watched the politicians. I’ve dealt with them all my life . . . they’re controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, by the special interests.”
Near the conclusion of Trump’s forty-five-minute speech, the New York businessman emphatically stated to roaring applause, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again!” In that moment, citizen Trump became candidate Trump, offering voters a new type of Republicanism, imbued with conservative principles but tempered with populist concern on issues like trade, foreign policy, Medicare, and Medicaid.
At the time, few recognized the potency of a Donald Trump candidacy. The media dismissed it out of hand. The day before Trump’s announcement, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell quipped, “He is obviously never going to be president. He is obviously never going to be the Republican nominee for president.”6 Chris Matthews agreed, erroneously predicting, “It still looks like Hillary is the next president.”7 The Washington Post’s Philip Bump described Trump’s campaign launch as “spectacular, unending, utterly baffling, often-wrong.”8 He wrote, “If nothing else, let his candidacy serve as a reminder that no matter how rich or powerful you are, it’s useful to have someone around who can say ‘no.’ ”9 CNN’s Chris Cillizza warned his media peers, “Trump has every right to run . . . But what he should not get is covered as though this is an even-close-to-serious attempt to either win the Republican nomination or influence the conversation in GOP circles in any significant way. It’s not.”10
By June 30, 2015, the Huffington Post was already touting “The Super-Quick Implosion of Donald Trump’s Candidacy.”11 Even Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, which prides itself on accurately calling elections, ran an article called “Why Donald Trump Isn’t a Real Candidate, in One Chart,” predicting “Trump has a better chance of cameoing in another ‘Home Alone’ movie with Macaulay Culkin—or playing in the NBA Finals—than winning the Republican nomination.”12 CNBC’s Ben White went so far as to make a wrongheaded bet with rather grave consequences for his physical health, stating confidently, “Donald Trump is not going to be the next president of the United States. This reporter is already on record pledging to eat a bag of rusty nails if the real estate tycoon . . . manages to snag the GOP nomination.”13 It is unclear whether White ever made good on that promise.
The so-called analysts that fill our TV screens were not just off base in their 2016 analysis; they were dead wrong. Although these political analysts were hired to predict accurately the political will of the people, they instead made it their mission to malign the future president. In most professions, perennial failure to do your job would cost you that job, but in political punditry the never-Trump resistance is rewarded. “They were constantly saying we had no chance of winning,” Jared Kushner said. “They were looking at our campaign through a traditional lens and were just talking to each other.”
The political pundits just didn’t seem to get it. Their failure to recognize the powerful movement of frustrated Americans and their continual underestimation of Trump’s candidacy would become somewhat of a trend. Consider the long litany of false narratives spun by the media throughout the primary alone:
First, we were told Donald Trump would never run for president.
“Stop pretending—Donald Trump is not running for president,” said the New York Post.14
“Donald Trump says that he’s forming an ‘exploratory’ committee for president. And mermaids have been spotted near Atlantis,” a Newsday editorial quipped before continuing, “The perennial game Trump plays with the American electorate, and with the media, where he pretends to run for high office to get his name back in the headlines, has become more than just disingenuous. It’s downright insulting at this point, not to mention undignified.”15
A piece in Time magazine echoed the “Trump’s not running” narrative, pointing to all of the previous times Trump had teased about running before ultimately concluding, “[He] sounds pretty serious, unless you have a memory of what he has said before . . . The echoes of past feints haunt Trump’s latest tease like a poker tell.”16
Trump, of course, did run for the highest office in the land, but that didn’t stop the next flawed media narrative:
“Trump will drop out.” Convinced that Trump would never throw his hat in the 2016 arena, the media couldn’t help themselves in predicting a quick and embarrassing exit for the New York businessman.17
In listing three “truths” about Trump, the Atlantic offered, “We know what will happen—that Trump will drop out—even though we don’t know exactly when. We know too that each day spent covering his alleged ‘campaign’ means a day of lost time for the Republicans in choosing their real candidate.”18
GOP strategist Stuart Stevens predicted that Trump would exit the race before primary votes were even cast, telling CNBC, “I don’t see that Donald Trump has the temperament to subject himself to the voters in Iowa and be judged.”19
In a New York Times article called “From Donald Trump, Hints of a Campaign Exit Strategy,” another Republican strategist erroneously predicted, “[Trump] would not leave himself to have his destiny settled by actual voters going to the polls or the caucuses.”20
But voters perceived Trump’s seriousness a bit differently, with the Times article concluding, “In Iowa, people ‘think he’s in for the duration,’ said Doug Gross, a Republican strategist. But, he added, ‘I think he’s peaked.’ ” Republican voters saw Donald Trump as not just serious but necessary—a needed fighter to take on the Republican establishment that had betrayed them. It’s why after just seven days in the race, Trump quickly shot up to number one in the Republican primary field. According to the media, though, Trump’s upward trajectory would soon hit a ceiling.
“He has shot up like a rocket since his June announcement but likely has a low ceiling and short staying power,” wrote Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.21 The “ceiling” talk was pervasive:
“He will probably hit a natural ceiling on his support.”22
“Instant-runoff polls would highlight Trump’s very low ceiling of support.”23
“His support has a relatively low ceiling.”24
“The favorability number might actually show Trump’s ceiling.”25
The flawed “ceiling” talk could not have been more off base. Trump’s so-called ceiling rose from 10 percent in July to 20 percent in August to 30 percent in September.26 His “ceiling” continued to grow to the point where he earned 44.9 percent of Republican primary votes, amounting to some 13.3 million votes—more votes than any candidate has won in Republican primary history by a long shot.27
I remember one Florida voter asking me, “How did you predict Trump’s victory so early in the primary?” Well, the key was simple: you had to immerse yourself in the people, not the punditry. My frequent weekend trips home to Florida revealed a change-oriented electorate with severe distrust of institutions: the media, big business, and certainly the politicians.
In July of 2015, about a month after Trump declared his candidacy, CNN Tonight host Don Lemon asked for my thoughts on the Des Moines Register editorial board calling Trump a “bloviating sideshow” and “unfit to hold office” before ultimately recommending that “the best way Donald Trump can serve his country . . . [is by] terminating this ill-conceived campaign.”28
“What’s your reaction, Kayleigh?” Don asked.29
“You know what the problem is with that, Don?” I replied. “The Des Moines Register is reacting to the fact that Donald Trump is not your typical politician. And if you ask me, that is a good thing. Donald Trump is the anti-politician. He’s coming off very refreshing . . . not rehearsed. He’s not poll testing every word coming out of his mouth.”30 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it well when she told me: “He says what he thinks instead of thinking about what you want to hear.”
In addition to offering fresh, unadulterated, realspeak, Donald Trump had the added attribute of being a fighter—a necessary attribute in combating mainstream media misrepresentation. As they so often do to Republican candidates generally, the media did not just misunderstand Trump and underestimate his electoral prowess; they intentionally mischaracterized him. Anything and everything Trump did would be construed entirely negatively.
Take, for example, the June 6, 2016, call that I and a few surrogates were on with then-candidate Donald Trump. Although most candidates do not take the time to get on the phone with their surrogates, leaving the task to a low-level staffer, Trump spent almost an hour on the phone with his supporters. It was a calm and positive discussion in which Trump thanked us and did something most politicians would not do: he listened. Yes, he explained his point of view on the issues of the day, but, as I recall, Trump spent most of the hour listening to his surrogates’ input, fielding questions and comments.
Hours later, news of the so-called red-hot call broke in the news.31 The media began wall-to-wall coverage, alleging that Trump was “irritated” and had issued “orders” and “mandates” for his surrogates to say certain things. Perplexed by the off-kilter tone of the media coverage, I told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “This is an example of media selective listening. I was on the call. This was a positive phone call where he thanked supporters . . . [This is] a complete example of why the American people do not trust the media. It’s one of the least trusted institutions in this country . . . They spin things the way they want to spin them.”32 Here was the media characterizing a phone call they were never even in on.
“I wasn’t surprised by the media backlash,” Michael Glassner, former deputy campaign manager of Trump 2016 and current executive director of Trump 2020, said. “Trump was able to go outside their channels. He was a threat to their monopoly of getting a national political message out.”
Only a fighter like Donald Trump could stand up to the media mischaracterization.
From the very beginning, the media and the left maligned Trump, falsely labeling him racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and any other label they could contrive. But as the left formulated their strategy, there is one factor they failed to take into account: the intelligence of the American people. Unable to be easily manipulated, the American people recognized the Trump accusations for the baseless smears that they were. The math just didn’t add up.
Trump was called anti-Semitic even though he has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law whom he elevated to important positions in his administration. Democrats dubbed him misogynistic even though the Trump Organization executives are disproportionately female.33 Likewise, they egregiously labeled him “racist” with no facts to support this horrendous charge.
Ask yourself whether you heard any of the facts to the contrary. Did you hear that Jesse Jackson once praised Trump as a “friend” who “served the underserved communities”?34 Did you hear that Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, was the first club there open to African-Americans and Jews?35 Did you hear that the Anti-Defamation League praised him for shining “the light on Palm Beach. Not on the beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination”?36 Did you hear the media lavish praise upon Trump for calling for the removal of the confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol or for acknowledging the other side of the police debate in calling what happened to Sandra Bland “terrible”?37 You likely didn’t hear any of that.
Pointing to this disconnect between facts and reality, Ivanka told me, “Critics try to define my father, to label him, but the reality of what he does defies the stereotypes. People see through it.” As president, Trump honored the Jewish people, standing at the Western Wall wearing a yarmulke with his hand humbly placed in peaceful reverence. He was the first sitting president to visit the wall. Trump signaled his respect for Islam when he gathered fifty-four Muslim leaders in Riyadh, uniting them in the common goal of denouncing extremism and hate. He stood shoulder to shoulder with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. And in a final stop on his first foreign trip, he recognized his own Christian faith by visiting Pope Francis at the Vatican. Trump’s actions continue to defy the accusations of those intent on demonizing him.
The effort to define Trump negatively is not too distant from the effort to mischaracterize another American president. In September of 1980, a Democratic congressman said, “I’m going to talk about a man who has embraced a platform that . . . the Ku Klux Klan said couldn’t be better if they’d written it themselves . . . [a man] who seeks the presidency of the United States with the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan.”38 The secretary of health and human services said this presidential candidate raised the “spectre of white sheets.”39 Another Democratic congressman said that this man was “trying to replace the Bill of Rights with fascist precepts lifted verbatim from Mein Kampf.”40 And a columnist for Esquire posited that voting for him was akin to acting like “good Germans” in “Hitler’s Germany.”41 That man who was widely decried and widely misconstrued is now widely hailed as one of our greatest presidents: Ronald Wilson Reagan.
“The American people are incredibly savvy, inquisitive, and thoughtful,” Ivanka told me. They are fully capable of thinking for themselves as they did in November of 1980 and November of 2016. In reality, Donald Trump the man is far different than Donald Trump the media creation. “I got to know him backstage,” Governor Mike Huckabee told me. “The thing that was so impressive about him was his relationship with his family . . . It’s the relationship that every father could hope to have with children . . . The Trumps backstage had the warmest, most loving and respectful kind of relationship, and those were the things that really told me, boy, the public really doesn’t know this guy.”
“I’ve seen on a personal level how he cares about people,” Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, said. “His connection with the doorman. His connection with the man who cleans the floor. He stops and talks to them and asks about their lives.” Echoing this sentiment, Governor Huckabee observed, “The loyalty of his staff and his team, people that had worked for him for twenty years and adore him, would take a bullet for him because there was a side of him that people didn’t see. The generosity. The kindness. Being willing to stand up for people who made a big mistake.” Citing an example, Huckabee noted that Trump stood with the speechwriter for Melania Trump, who echoed lines from Michelle Obama’s speech at the Republican National Convention, causing Melania to receive widespread scrutiny from the media. Even though the speechwriter had made a grave mistake, Trump picked up the phone and urged her not to worry. “She made a mistake . . . we all make mistakes,” Trump told ABC News.42 “That says a lot about his character,” Governor Huckabee said. “So when people say he doesn’t have any, I’m thinking, ‘Well, from what I saw, he has a whole lot more than the politicians I’ve dealt with.’ ”
“He’s a person who cares particularly about people who he thinks are being taken advantage of,” Secretary Ben Carson told me. “He doesn’t necessarily demonstrate the soft part because you need to be sort of a tough guy to get through all of this morass in the swamp, but he actually is a very kindhearted person.” As Ivanka noted in her Republican National Convention speech, her father is the man who would “tear stories out of newspapers about people whom he had never met, who were facing some injustice or hardship.”43 Upon hearing their stories, he would pick up his “signature black felt tip pen” and invite them to Trump Tower, where he would “draw upon his extensive network to find them a job or get them a break.”
This is the Donald Trump you may not know. The man who offered Darnell Barton, a city bus driver, $10,000 when he heard that Darnell had pulled his bus over and persuaded a woman not to jump off an overpass.44 And the man who stepped up and bought jerseys for a Harlem basketball team when he heard that their benefactor had died. That is the Donald Trump some are lucky enough to meet but few will ever hear about. Nevertheless, it’s the Donald Trump whom the American people recognized and elevated to the highest office in the land.