Talk big, move on
There’s a method in Trump’s mad headline-making
In 25 days, Trump has made America great again. Gone are illegal immigrants, handcuffed and deported on military planes. High tariff walls guard US interests – China, Canada, Mexico won’t dare dump a shirt button now. The fentanyl tap has been turned off, climate change cancelled, Gaza solved, and peace in Ukraine is a finger snap away. Iran and N Korea will fall in line. Everything’s fixed. Except, none of this has happened – The Economist just reported that Elon Musk’s relentless federal govt pruning has “scarcely made a dent in spending”. Trump has spoken unexpected, outrageous things, compulsively made headlines with his fiats, and created a perception. But headline management is not governance. For proof, read India’s old five-year plans, or look at all the foundation plaques littering the country. A highway here, a township there, the promise of a power plant – they never got past the headline stage.
Headlines don’t make a nation great, but they magnify the individual, the ruler, and even ideas. Brexit was not a great idea, but headlines made it the answer to UK’s problems. Almost nine years after the fateful referendum, it’s clear that UK’s trade in goods has suffered. Travelling has become cumbersome.
Headlines perk up business too. AI is the latest craze, everything from ACs to water purifiers and cars must have it. What happened to IoT, the internet of things? But that was a headline peg 7-8 years ago. Five years ago we were all going to live and shop in the metaverse – a term coined in 1992 but made popular by headlines after 2017. Firms sprang up to sell designer stuff for our online avatars. We were also – according to headlines – going to buy a lot of non-fungible tokens or NFTs. And the office was dead, headlines said. But actually, WeWork collapsed. In Orwell’s 1984, when the weekly chocolate ration is reduced to 20g, there are demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising it. That’s the power of headlines. Trump knows it.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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