Donald Trump facing Covid-19: the alternative medical reality of the White House
Between conflicting statements, incomplete information and reversals, the White House's communication on the state of health of Donald Trump, who suffers from Covid-19, has raised many questions. Florian Silnicki, crisis communication specialist, deciphers for France 24 the hiccups of the strategy of the American president’s entourage.
For three days, the White House has been blowing hot and cold about the state of health of Donald Trump, who has been contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The American president's symptoms would be mild ... yet he was given a treatment reserved for patients with severe forms of Covid-19. He was reportedly hospitalized out of "extreme caution," Sean Conley, the president's doctor, first said on Saturday (October 3). A day later, he admitted having embellished his clinical picture.
The photos released by the WH tonight of the president working at Walter Reed were taken 10 minutes apart at 5:25:59 pm and 5:35:40 pm ET Saturday, according to the EXIF data embedded in both @AP wire postings that were shared by the White House this evening. pic.twitter.com/EzeqIkGdf7
— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) October 4, 2020
Embellished? Donald Trump himself took it upon himself to post videos of himself on Twitter to reassure him about his state of health. He even allowed himself to leave the hospital on Sunday for a short drive to greet his supporters ... much to the chagrin of the medical community, which found the escapade irresponsible to say the least.
The worst political scenario
Difficult for observers and American public opinion to disentangle the true from the false in this absurd political-health sequence. “Confusion”, “lies” and “contradictions” are among the terms most used by the media to qualify presidential communication. The executive gives the impression of sailing on sight, leaving various spokespersons - whether it be Sean Conley or Mark Meadow, the White House secretary - to contradict each other within hours.
However, “there is a logic, which consists in trying to reassure public opinion on the capacity of the president to do his job, while seeking to give the impression of a certain transparency”, summarizes Florian Silnicki, expert. in strategy and founder of the crisis communication agency LaFrenchCom, contacted by France 24.
For this specialist, the contamination of Donald Trump with Covid-19 constitutes the worst political scenario imaginable for the strategists of the White House. First, this case affects the health of the president "who has been debated since the start of his mandate" and about which there have always been gray areas, notes Florian Silnicki. Then, one month before the presidential election, it nullifies the efforts of the president's entourage to “ignore the issue of the coronavirus as much as possible, which remains the political ball of Donald Trump”, continues the crisis communicator French.
Taken aback by this twist of fate, the Trump administration gave in to its old demons. "The response is in line with the strategy pursued since the start of the presidency, that is to say to communicate by advice and opinions rather than based on facts", analyzes Florian Silnicki. For three days, the spokespersons and the president chained the “things are going well”, “things are going better”, but remain very discreet on the precise medical details. At the present time, it is still unclear whether Donald Trump tested positive as early as Wednesday or Thursday, when he learned he had been in contact with an infected person, or who is exactly the severity of the symptoms.
"Potemkin Village"
The White House “built a sort of village of Potemkin” (named after a fake village built in 18th century Tsarist Russia to hide poverty) around the president's medical situation, assures the co-founder of the LaFrenchCom agency . The height of this trompe-l'oeil construction: the White House store already offers, on its site, the possibility of reserving for 100 dollars a commemorative coin celebrating "Donald Trump triumphing over Covid-19" ...
But this strategy has not only been "carried out in a muddled and approximate way", it was, above all, "stillborn", judge Florian Silnicki. On the issue of the health of the president and the Covid-19, “the American population has become paranoid in a good way, that is to say that they will hunt down and condemn anything that could look like a bet on stage ”, estimates this expert.
Thus, for him, all the work of communicators seeking to give the impression of a president who continues to fully exercise his function, thanks to tweets and photos of Donald Trump signing documents has a “devastating counter-productive” effect. . It would only reinforce the impression that the White House is constructing an alternative medical reality.
Ditto for the images of the presidential trip by car. They can only be reassuring for voters who are already committed to the Trumpian cause. For the others, they give above all the impression of a staging referring to “the communication practices of the leaders of authoritarian regimes ready to endanger the health of those around them if this can allow them to heal their image”, Florian analyzes Silnicki.
This first weekend of hesitant and laborious communication will leave its mark. Donald Trump's chances of being re-elected in November could suffer because “the state of health is an essential aspect for a candidate in that it contributes to the image of leadership that he projects,” recalls Florian Silnicki. And the very selective transparency shown by the president’s entourage is not likely to reassure public opinion. But above all, half-truths and contradictory statements will "undermine the value of the word of politicians in general", fears the communications expert. And further advance the virus of Americans' mistrust of their leaders.
