Just Say "Corrupt"

Conservatives excel at framing things. Biden got (fairly or unfairly) saddled with "inflation" and "senile" early on in his administration (and earlier Republicans were saying Obama was divisive before he even got his butt in the Oval Office chair). Think of the "I did that" stickers. Think of the Tea Party early on in 2009. Think of CRT and Moms for Liberty. Clinton’s emails. Benghazi. Voter Fraud. The right wing is disciplined about saying the same thing over and over and over until it sticks.

Perceptions are cultivated, manufactured. Over and over the right wing creates this and then Democrats, the mainstream media and the left react to the words but not the framing.

We need to do the same - and I think there is an opportunity.

Use the word "corrupt" whenever you talk about Trump. If you say the word "Trump" use the word "Corrupt."

Why "Corrupt?" Corrupt is simple. People get it. It's easy. It happens to be true, which helps, but even more importantly it can stick in people's heads. It's a meme (not in the image macro sense but in the original sense of an idea fragment).

Corruption is a powerful motivating force. Reactions to corruption have brought down governments in democratic and repressive regimes. Xi Jinping is so scared of being perceived as corrupt that he regularly executes people in his own party. Putin came to power because he was perceived as being anti-corruption. Congress flipped in 2006 because of the Jack Abramoff scandal. Nicola Sturgeon is out in Scotland because of corruption.

"But we've been saying 'Trump is Bad' for so long! They don't care that he's a rapist, that he palled around with Putin, that he hid classified documents, why would they care that he's corrupt?" This is true and he is bad. But "bad" and "corrupt" hit differently. "Bad" is screwing them. "Corrupt" is screwing me.

"But he got fined half a billion dollars for corruption - it didn't move the needle." Because no one is calling him corrupt regularly. When was the last time you heard a democratic politician or a media figure call him corrupt? Elizabeth Warren called out his ethics pledge this week - she said “he broke the law,” but she didn’t call him “corrupt.” What’s the difference? Again - “He breaks the law” is abstract. “Corrupt” is screwing me.

"But Trump has dominated politics for 10 years now - this won't change anyone's view!" For better or worse - if you see the exit polling and other data - Trump is still kind of a cypher for a lot of Americans. They project a lot on him. That's why people voted for him who think he's not going to try to stop abortion or run up tariffs "really." A lot of people vote on vibes - even when those vibes frustratingly the opposite of what's happening in real life. There's no way to change the die-hards but the the low-info voters who vote on vibes can be reached with a concerted effort. Republicans do this all the time and it's effective.

"But we need to talk about his attacks on trans kids/tariffs/abortion/global warming!" STILL DO IT. "Corrupt" BOLSTERS AND COMPLIMENTS those arguments. It’s a mental hook to hang the argument on.

• "I'm not gonna let the corrupt Trump regime attack trans kids to hide how they're making money for their cronies."

• "Corrupt Trump is at it again making money for his big oil buddies and killing the national parks."

• "The corrupt Trump regime is letting people buy Truth Social stock while they kill your kid's education."

• “Trump is so focused on his corruption that he put a vaccine denier in charge of vaccines!”

"But the MSM won't say he's corrupt." Probably not at first, but we can still build the meme. Use influence channels - like writing/calling in to places, posting, calling your reps, ask in town halls what they are doing about Trump's corruption. Use the Moms for Liberty model - make the issue happen. They made a fake issue into real legislation. The MSM may or may not pick it up, but that doesn't mean we can't influence.

"Corrupt" is simple. It's easy to spread. People get it. It bolsters other issues. And it's true. If we are disciplined it can stick. It won't in and of itself undo the damage that is going to happen, but if we don't frame now we won't be able to in a year.