Daniel Béland
August 3, 2025
Given the four-year preview of his first time period, it ought to come as no shock that even in the midst of summer time, we are able to’t escape Donald Trump.
By way of ongoing government orders, public bulletins, press conferences, social media posts and shifting deadlines of tariffs, we’re bombarded hourly by the previous reality-show host’s presidential stylings. The distinction on this time period appears to be that Trump is devoting as a lot performative vitality to frightening assaults as to attacking. As John R. MacArthur of Harper’s places it, “He delights in being attacked because it keeps him at center stage.”
Trump’s use of the world’s most dependable coverage-magnet bully pulpit as a propaganda software shouldn’t be merely the product of character. In truth, what media scholar Nolan Higdon calls the “spectacle presidency” is basically about controlling the political agenda to emphasise sure points and obscure others, when diversion is politically expedient.
For example, as the talk over the doable launch of the Jeffrey Epstein information continues, the president seeks to shift media and public consideration elsewhere, from ever-changing tariff deadlines to grossly false accusations about folks his base likes to hate such as Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama.
However the stakes of this spectacle are a lot greater than private rating settling, reflecting the deepening disaster of US democracy and the rise of American authoritarian tendencies rationalized by Trump. This explains why it’s particularly arduous to disconnect from politics this summer time, because the shadow of Trump looms giant, in the USA, in Canada and within the different international locations he targets frequently.
In his second time period, Trump’s tactical use of the presidency’s protection imperatives has been compounded by the chaos of ever-moving deadlines — notably on tariffs and peace negotiations.
As a result of Trump’s deadlines have now been established as topic to vary, events — together with Canada — on the receiving finish of his threats or sitting on the negotiation desk together with his administration always fear about any new presidential assertion featured in a speech, an impromptu press convention, or a social media publish despatched at anytime of the day or evening. In different phrases, his unpredictability and volatility drive folks to concentrate. You’ll be able to’t have a spectacle with out an viewers. Threatening people, including members of Congress from his own party, makes him more powerful politically by sowing concern that anybody might be subsequent.
That is additionally not less than partly why, frequently, President Trump “likes to make examples of nations, killing chickens to scare the monkeys, because the Chinese language prefer to say,” per Overseas Coverage in Focus Director John Feffer. For instance, in late January “he brought out the big guns to threaten Colombia if it didn’t accept returned deportees,” writes Feffer. “There was no formal diplomatic process. The entire episode was conducted on social media, Trump’s preferred mode of discourse.”
That is additionally why Trump recurrently trolls Canada within the context of ongoing commerce negotiations, because it permits him to attract consideration to his arbitrary energy whereas fuelling uncertainty about outcomes: it’s an abuse of asymmetrical energy, whilst opponents have jokingly depicted his tendency to discard beforehand uttered threats as a proof that Trump At all times Chickens Out (TACO).
In his second time period, Trump’s tactical use of the presidency’s protection imperatives has been compounded by the chaos of ever-moving deadlines — notably on tariffs and peace negotiations.
What is definite is that President Trump has turn into a grasp of what U.S. agenda-setting setting students Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner name The Politics of Attention. Based on Jones and Baumgartner, policymakers are bombarded with info and the processes by which they will curate their priories is deeply political in nature whereas involving many actors and establishments, together with the mass media.
In a content material sphere overcrowded with info and a fancy polyphony of media and social media voices, the president’s technique appears to be to overwhelm his home opponents and world leaders with a firehose of in-your-face threats and statements that enables him to drive as many individuals as doable to observe his spectacle presidency.
On this job, he’s assisted by high-profile members of his administration akin to Vice President J.D. Vance but in addition by journalists and social media commentators, each supporters and opponents of the White Home, who can’t cease reporting and commenting on this perpetual onslaught of blunt and provocative discourse.
Though these tendencies had been incipient in the course of the first Trump presidency, the start of his second (non-consecutive) time period contains a president much more risky and relentless than earlier than, which was apparent from the outset of Trump 2.0, together with through his tariff threats in opposition to Canada earlier than November 2024 was out.
Whereas it’s tempting to solely attribute this example to Trump’s character, broader components associated to a altering historic and institutional context, together with and particularly the habits of different political actors, have enabled this example. In different phrases, what we’re seeing now could be largely the product of collective forces which have empowered President Trump much more than throughout his first time period.
These components embody the present disaster of the Democratic Get together which, in response to The Wall Street Journal, is unfavorably seen by 63% of US voters, its lowest rating since 1990. Clearly, Democrats have been struggling because the surprising defeat of Kamala Harris in 2024, and are trying to find a brand new voice and technique with which to successfully oppose Trump.
On the identical time, most Republicans in Congress appear cowed by the president, who doesn’t hesitate to assault folks from his personal celebration who dare problem him or vote in opposition to his legislative agenda, something we saw recently during the debate over the enactment of the Big Beautiful Bill Act. Trump’s GOP bullying is enabled by the perpetual risk to moderates of being “primaried” out of their elections by the activist MAGA base, a political cudgel that inhibits dissent and makes all of the braver those that do problem him.
Lastly, in sharp distinction to what we noticed throughout his first time period, President Trump is surrounded by unqualified government appointees who had been nominated by him due to their private loyalty and never for his or her experience and capability to offer recommendation he won’t like. In truth, as author and former Democratic advisor Sidney Blumenthal identified, earlier than day one, he “decided to empower some of the most fringe characters floating around his Maga movement. The outrageousness of his nominees is meant above all to drive the subjugation of these remaining Republicans who insist on their independence.” Barely eight months later, it’s clear that Blumenthal was proper and that his supporting solid has solely enhanced Trump’s capability to form the politics of consideration throughout his second time period.
For the numerous people who find themselves angered and alarmed by the president’s insurance policies and rhetoric, his domination of the general public stage is a supply of psychological stress. “Trump anxiety” is actual, say the specialists, and it’s partly the supposed product of a spectacle presidency whose underlying institutional failures could also be arduous to reverse.
Daniel Béland is professor of political science and director (on go away) of the McGill Institute for the Examine of Canada at McGill College. He has printed a number of books about U.S politics and public coverage, together with Obamacare Wars (with Philip Rocco and Alex Waddan).
