His initial read of the nation’s press was simple, smart, and surgical. He knew he had to get his message out. And he also understood that would happen only if he were ultra-provocative.
So it is that Donald J. Trump embarked on a presidential campaign that would eventually stun the world. He was locked and loaded. No prisoners would be taken.
On paper, Trump’s rhetorical shock-and-awe strategy looked effective—especially because most of his competitors were cautious.
But Donald Trump did not anticipate one important thing: there are no rules for the press anymore. And in the free-fire zone that developed, Donald Trump would become a major media moving target.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NEW YORK CITY
JUNE 15, 2015
AFTERNOON
Donald Trump knows television. He watches TV news all the time and has been a genuine TV star himself. So, on the first day of his campaign for president, it is television that he seeks out.
Specifically, The O’Reilly Factor, on the Fox News Channel.
Trump is acutely aware that The Factor is the highest-rated cable news presentation in America, often reaching more than five million viewers for its two airings at 8 and 11 Eastern Time. He also believes that many Factor viewers will be receptive to his message. There is, however, one problem. The guy in the anchor chair is unpredictable. He could ask anything. He once called Congressman Barney Frank a liar on the air.
So, speaking before the taped interview begins, Trump jokingly tells Bill O’Reilly, your humble correspondent, to “take it easy on me.”
To which I reply, “Why would I do that?”
Donald Trump is fascinated by success in all fields. His friend the late George Steinbrenner was like that, too. And Trump thinks about why people succeed; he actually studies achievement in the most competitive industries.
But what Donald Trump does not know that June afternoon is that the press is drastically changing. The rise of social media is devastating the newspaper industry because readers can now access information on their smartphones. Television and radio are losing younger audiences to video games and incessant texting. Broadcast outlets are becoming desperate for people to watch them, so new strategies are being employed.
One of those strategies will bring huge success to Donald Trump.
In order to cut through all the high-tech clutter and texting distraction, TV personalities now have to take chances and say outrageous things, at least sometimes, if they want to get noticed.
If you do that, you will get attention, and for a politician, that may lead to votes. If you don’t do that, TV executives will largely ignore you because you don’t pull in viewers, which are tabulated by daily ratings called “numbers.”
Donald Trump’s unspoken media strategy in his quest for the White House is to dominate television news and avoid the print press as much as possible. He knows that most of his Republican opponents are absolutely clueless about the media and that his likely Democratic opponent, if he secures the nomination, Hillary Clinton, generally despises TV news. Secretary Clinton feels comfortable only when she’s controlling the situation and rarely does or says anything spontaneous.
Trump believes he is a commanding presence who generates good TV ratings. And he is absolutely correct about that.
But what Donald Trump does not anticipate leading up to his campaign kickoff is the intense media backlash that will soon develop. That will shock him.
However, during the first few months of the campaign, Trump will manipulate the TV news outlets in a way never before seen in America. Cable news will become one giant Donald Trump Show. And it all begins in a Trump Tower office looking out over Fifth Avenue.
* * *
FROM THE BEGINNING of his presidential quest, Donald Trump really had little to lose, and that’s one of the main reasons he won. Unlike most politicians, Trump does not play scared. He lets it fly. Not particularly interested in verbal accuracy, Trump primarily wants reactions from his audience. If people don’t accept him in the political role—hey, so what? His brand is everywhere. He can keep his day job.
As I prepared to interview candidate Trump, I did not think he had a chance to secure the Republican nomination. But I knew Donald Trump would make my daily life as a political commentator much easier, and was beyond pleased that he had given me the first interview. Trump was great copy, as they say in the newspaper world. Millions of folks would watch the interview and help my task, which was to stay atop the ratings. And there would be many more Trump stories to come.
As long as Donald Trump remained in the race, life would be good for TV news. Anything might be said, anything could happen. The one trouble spot was Trump’s ego. As an interviewer, you have to control the candidate, or he will dominate the screen, reducing you to cabbage.
My style on television is confrontational. I brook no nonsense from anyone, especially hustling politicians. So, just before Donald Trump and I sat down to tape in mid-afternoon, I had already written the introduction that I would say later that evening on the air.
We would open the show with Trump speaking to an adoring crowd in his own building: “Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States. And we are going to make America great again!”
Yay.
Then, from my anchor chair, I would deliver this: “Along with that announcement, the sixty-nine-year-old Trump released his net worth today—about nine billion dollars. He spoke for the better part of an hour, basically saying that current politicians are wimps who will never solve the intense problems America has. Trump says he can solve them…”
After that lead-in, we would begin the interview, which, again, had been taped a few hours earlier.
Speaking with powerful people on TV is like a prizefight. You have to measure your subject, jab a bit before the hard shot. I assumed Donald Trump had some rehearsed answers, but he rarely stays on script, especially if you rattle him. Other politicians—Jeb Bush is a good example—will never deviate from their preplanned words. So boring.
I began casually with Trump.
O’REILLY: How are you going to defeat ISIS?
TRUMP: I would hit them so hard. I would find a general. I would find the Patton or the MacArthur. I would hit them so hard your head would spin.
O’REILLY: Are you telling me that you’re going to send American ground troops into Syria [where ISIS was basing]?
TRUMP: I’m not telling you anything. And the reason I’m not … is because I don’t want them to know the game plan.
Clever answer to a provocative question—another ground war in the Middle East would rattle many Americans. Donald Trump parried the query well and never deviated from his answer—I’m not “tipping off the enemy.”
But he was not tipping off the voters, either.
Then I turned to the Russian leader Putin, a source of angst for President Obama.
O’REILLY: What do you do to Putin?
TRUMP: Putin has no respect for our president whatsoever. He’s got a tremendous popularity in Russia. They love what he’s doing, they love what he represents. So, we have a president who is absolutely—you look at them; the chemistry is so bad between those two people. I was over in Moscow two years ago, and I will tell you we can get along with those people and get along with them well. You can make deals with those people. Obama can’t.
O’REILLY: So, you can make a deal with Putin to stop his expansionism?
TRUMP: I would be willing to bet I would have a great relationship with Putin. It’s about leadership.
O’REILLY: Based on what?
TRUMP: Based on a feel, okay? You know, deals are people.
O’REILLY: You sound like George W. Bush. He looked into Putin’s soul and said he was a good guy. Come on.
TRUMP: Bush didn’t have the IQ.
Again, Trump simply says he’s going to make a deal with Putin. Period. End of discussion. He’ll do it. That effectively kills follow-up questions, unles
s you want to ride a rhetorical merry-go-round.
Pretty brilliant when you think about it. No details on ISIS; he’ll just get them. No specifics on Putin; he’ll secure deals.
Let’s go home.
But not yet. Sensing that he was getting overconfident, I pounced on Trump’s promise that he would build a wall on the southern border and that Mexico would pay for it.
O’REILLY: I actually laughed when you said you’re going to build this giant wall from San Diego to Brownsville and the Mexicans are going to pay for it. The Mexicans are not going to pay for the wall.
TRUMP: Let me tell you, the Mexicans are the new China. What they are doing to this country …
O’REILLY: [interrupting] They’re not going to pay for the wall.
TRUMP: You have to let me handle that, okay?
O’REILLY: Well, how are you going to make them pay?
TRUMP: Because they are ripping us off so badly. Okay, I’ll tell you.
O’REILLY: Tell me.
TRUMP: I’ll start charging them for their products coming into this country. Mexico is living off the United States.
O’REILLY: So, you try to strangle them economically unless they pay for the wall.
TRUMP: They will pay, the wall will go up, and Mexico will start behaving.
The interview was classic Trump: confident, dismissive of skepticism, combative all the time.
As president, Mr. Trump did handle ISIS well, but he has been haunted by Putin and Russia. Also, the wall remains elusive.
Wrapping up Donald Trump’s first campaign interview, I asked about his political opponents.
O’REILLY: Final question, your Republican rivals. They’re going to come after you.
TRUMP: It’s okay.
O’REILLY: You don’t really take criticism all that well. You lash back.
TRUMP: Yeah, I lash back. Why wouldn’t I lash back?
O’REILLY: The president is supposed to have some kind of elevation, where you overlook some things. You’re not real good at that.
TRUMP: I get things done better than anybody.
O’REILLY: Are you going to slash and burn through the Republican field?
TRUMP: Well, I don’t have a lot of respect for many of them … Honestly, Bill, I won’t be the nicest. I’m not going to slash them. I’m going to be honest. They don’t have it.
O’REILLY: Are you going to look Jeb Bush in the eye and say, “You’re this, you’re that”?
TRUMP: Sure, I’m not a big fan of Jeb Bush. The last thing we need is another Bush, believe me.
O’REILLY: So, you’re going to slash and burn.
TRUMP: This country—if we have another politician including Hillary, this country is going down.
* * *
THE RATINGS FOR that interview were enormous. Every network now wanted Trump as much as possible because he was taking viewers away from their electronic devices and bringing them back to the tube.
Trump understood that. He also knew it was all about him, just as he likes it, and just as he planned. In fact, the Trump mania became so pronounced that the very liberal CNN and MSNBC networks even started broadcasting his rallies.
No other Republican candidate got that kind of exposure, not even close.
As Trump brought in high ratings, which translated directly into advertising dollars, the other sixteen Republican hopefuls became media afterthoughts.
My program actually tried to get Jeb Bush on to reply to Donald Trump. But he was too busy the next day, and the day after that and the day after that …
It was incredible—the neophyte Trump was climbing in the polls, and some of his rivals were turning down national interviews. Meanwhile, Trump was making TV news great again as viewers poured in to watch him verbally annihilate someone or something.
The Donald was everywhere. It was like a nonstop Jerry Lewis telethon. Every day, Donald J. Trump was in your living room having his way with the national television media. He was ready to rumble and good to go.
That initial media blitz lasted almost eight long summer weeks, until the first Republican debate in Cleveland, Ohio.
Little did candidate Trump know what awaited him on that night, because there was no hint, and no way to prepare.
But suddenly a major campaign obstacle appeared. And her name was Megyn.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CLEVELAND, OHIO
AUGUST 6, 2015
EARLY EVENING
The ambush is set. Ten men working to gain the Republican presidential nomination stand on a stage at the Quicken Loans Arena, anticipating debate questions from three Fox News journalists. The politicians are aware that basketball superstar LeBron James usually patrols this vast building, and they can only hope to score like he does.
It will not happen.
This is the first of twelve Republican debates—and the most anticipated, because one Donald J. Trump is standing tall in front of myriad television cameras. Since June, Trump has been pounding home his message that America is in serious trouble and that it’s all because of career politicians.
Now those political people have a chance to verbally challenge Donald Trump, and twenty-four million Americans have tuned in to watch the cage match, the largest cable news audience in history.
Trump fears no one on the stage. He is certain he can out-talk all of them, and as he has stated, there is no other candidate that has impressed him.
In addition, there is a large pro-Trump crowd in the arena. He gets the loudest ovation when introduced this Thursday evening. That bolsters his confidence.
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, is considered the Republican front-runner at this point. He did well managing his state for eight years, especially reworking the public school system and keeping taxes low. But the governor has two problems as he stands next to Trump on the debate stage: first, he is dull; and second, his brother’s presidency was stigmatized by the Iraq invasion fiasco.
Donald Trump will hammer Jeb Bush on both those things.
Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul do not have national profiles, so Trump does not see them as much of a threat. Cruz is ultraconservative, Rubio more moderate, and Paul a contrarian libertarian. Of the three, only Marco Rubio of Florida has breakout potential, because of his youth and ethnicity.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie is glib and aggressive, so Donald Trump knows he has to parry him quickly if it comes to that. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is similar to Jeb Bush: not much charisma. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is smart, and so is pundit Ben Carson, but polling shows that neither of the two has a constituency, although Carson is beginning to move up.
Finally, Ohio governor John Kasich turned his state around economically and accomplished many positive things in Columbus. But he’s wonkish and earnest, a hard sell in a nation dominated by emotional thinking and short attention spans.
So, Donald Trump is feeling strong on this humid August night. Unlike most of the other candidates, he has not pored over research papers or even rehearsed. He has his debate rap down, and it goes this way:
President Obama is a disaster, a weak leader who does not stand up for America.
Hillary Clinton is no different from Obama, except she’s more corrupt.
Jeb Bush is soft on illegal immigration, which is a grave threat to the nation.
And all the others could never run a “great company” like Trump does or make great deals for Americans.
With those things ready to go, Trump is anxious to let it fly. He is a bit nervous but will not show a trace of it.
Directly facing the ten Republicans are Fox News moderators Bret Baier, Chris Wallace, and Megyn Kelly. They were chosen by their boss, Roger Ailes, for various reasons.
Baier is the face of Fox News Channel’s hard news operation, anchoring a daily one-hour program that is efficient and honest. He is also “safe.” That means he will not do or say anything that might raise some hell.
Chris Wallace,
the son of the legendary CBS newsman Mike Wallace, has the pedigree and intelligence to make the debate a smooth flow. He is a prestige person at Fox News.
The third interrogator, Megyn Kelly, is the wild card. She is by far Fox News’s most glamorous personality and an attorney to boot. She has worked her way up at Fox from Supreme Court correspondent, to morning co-anchor, to afternoon solo host, to prime-time anchor following my program at nine o’clock.
Many in the media loathe Fox News because of its conservative bias, but Megyn Kelly generally gets good press. In fact, a few years back, GQ magazine, very sympathetic to the left, would feature Kelly in a steamy pictorial—an unheard-of occurrence for a national newswoman. The incident caught Fox News brass by surprise, but nothing happened to Kelly publicly; by then, she had become a huge star.
Roger Ailes selected Megyn Kelly as one of the debate people because Fox needed a woman journalist on the panel, and he knew that Megyn had the ear of the Murdochs, who own Fox News. She was what they call in the entertainment business the “It girl.” She had access to the very top of the corporation—a rarity for an employee.
Of course, all the high-profile anchors at Fox News wanted to work the debate. In twenty years, I was never selected, but I think my pitch to Ailes was somewhat unique. It went something like this:
“So, why don’t you shock the world and let me ask the questions? Come on, you know 80 percent of what the candidates say is BS. I’ll cut that down to 10 percent by calling them on it.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’d like to host another debate sometime this century.”
Roger Ailes was implying that my questioning would discourage candidates from showing up.
Could that possibly be true?
In truth, I understood. Ailes was not a politically correct guy, but he was a businessman. FNC ownership wanted Kelly, and they got her.
Actually, the two most qualified journalists at Fox to moderate the debate were Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer. I would have turned it confrontational; they would have kept it informational.
The United States of Trump Page 11
