Dem 47
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GOP 53
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Trump Floods the Zone

During Donald Trump's first campaign, Steve Bannon said: "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh**. This is not about persuasion. This is about disorientation."

Trump has fully absorbed Bannon's message. The vast number of XOs, pardons, laws broken, and other actions—not to mention threats to Colombia, as well as talk about buying Greenland and seizing the Panama Canal—has just overwhelmed the media and the public. They don't know which outrage to address first, so it is scattershot at best, even at those publications that have not adopted "anticipatory obedience" as a protective measure. Democrats don't know where to begin. And responding to the outrage du jour means that the previous outrage is quickly off the radar.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said: "It's been an overwhelming sensory overload." Just when they were ready to go after Trump on the birthright XO, he pardons Ross Ulbricht. When they start talking about that, Trump orders another 1,500 troops to the border and tells ICE to invade churches. Before the Democrats can start talking about that, Trump gives an incoherent and threatening address to the World Economic Forum. Then he threatened a trade war with Colombia, America's closest ally in South America. Next he said Jordan should absorb all the Palestinians so Gaza can be cleaned up. And it goes on and on. Democrats (and the media) simply can't manage the flood. They don't know where to begin. The MAGA base is ecstatic.

Bannon is not in the loop right now (although he is cheering from the sidelines) so the main architect of the continuous stream of noise is Stephen Miller. He believes that Trump's enemies have a limited bandwidth for opposition and once it is filled with old stuff (from this morning), there will be no room for new stuff (from this afternoon) unless they forget all the old stuff. If opposition to something lasts only 3 hours and there is an endless stream of targets, the public just tunes it all out. That is the goal.

Democrats are hoping that Trump will eventually run out of steam, but that seems unlikely. The Project 2025 document has 900 pages of stuff he can announce to generate outrage. He doesn't actually have to do things, just announce that he is going to do them. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) said: "They're going to stumble. They're going to screw up, and we're going to pounce when they do. In their haste to remake the federal government, they're going to make big, big mistakes."

One mistake they already made (and tried to correct) is the freeze on government payments. It was rescinded yesterday. It was very unpopular and the intended recipients of the various payments noticed it quite quickly and began squealing. The damage didn't last long, so it will be forgotten by tomorrow, but tomorrow, or maybe next week, or next month, Trump could easily overreach, do something that is unpopular, and defend it for weeks to his detriment.

So, Connolly could be right. The more Trump does, the bigger the attack surface. All it takes is one serious mistake somewhere to cause a scandal big enough to get independent voters angry with Trump. Suppose, for example, in the indiscriminate raids on immigrants, ICE gets too trigger happy and shoots and kills a number of American citizens. That could allow Democrats to say to Latinos: "He wants to deport all of you, even if you are citizens, and if you object, his thugs will kill you." All it takes is one event. Look how much mileage Republicans got from the killing of Laken Riley. Suppose ICE kills a dozen American citizens in a week? Democrats have to pick their case carefully, but with so many, they might be able to find one that resonates.

Maybe polling can help pick winners. Birthright citizenship, for example, seems to be one point where the public strongly disagrees with Trump. Also, the huge flurry of activity has not helped Trump in the polls. His disapproval rating in a Jan. 20-21 poll was at 46%, up from 39%. Democrats' goal should be to get it to at least 60%. The higher it is, the fewer senators and representatives will want to be attached to him. (V)



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