How Trump and Kanye Are Hacking the Media

Donald Trump and Kanye West have dominated headlines this year. Here’s how they did it (and continue to do it, every day).

Donald Trump and Kanye West have been the subject of thousands of articles and news segments in the past months. A Google News search brings up hundreds of millions of results, with time-specific news clusters in the thousands.

The amount of attention these two are getting from the press is obnoxious. Why do we hear more about Kanye West than Lil Wayne? Why do we hear more about Donald Trump than John Kasich? Trump and Kanye write their own stories, create their own press, stoke the flames on social media, reference great people, use strong, intense body language, argue with emotion, and manipulate with humor and fear. They’ve mastered media hacking, and here are their tactics.

Storytelling

News and media outlets are storytellers that tell thousands of stories to millions of people at any given time. Sometimes these stories are quick and consist of a single article by one local news station: “Garage on the north side broken into last Friday.” Some stories are much longer, involve complex characters, and are complete with rising actions, climaxes, and falling actions.

Justin Bieber was adored by the media originally. As time went on, however, the “teen idol” profile wasn’t news, and wasn’t interesting to the public anymore. Bieber was still a hot topic, though. He had a large following of ‘Beliebers’ (who were newsworthy themselves) and people wanted to hear about him. The media started to take control of his story, framing him as everything from a “cult leader” to a “teen badboy.” Initially, Bieber was in a proactive state, letting outlets distribute his story to the masses. Eventually, the media became proactive, writing stories that weren’t there, creating events that didn’t really happen.

What’s special about Trump and Kanye is that they don’t let the media write the story for them. They continuously feed the media stories for them to write about. If things start to die down for Kanye West, but people still want to hear about him, he’ll take an interview with Jimmy Fallon or call out Wiz Khalifa on Twitter. That way, the media isn’t inspired to come up with anything captivating on their own. Of course, they could try, but their efforts would come up dry because what Kanye actually did is more interesting than anything a reporter could speculate. Besides, if a few big outlets write about Trump’s antics, they all have to. Outlets can’t let other outlets beat them on ad revenue, and, therefore, can’t let them get more clicks.

Kanye and Trump are writing their own stories. What are they?

Kanye West is a genius martyr that is the best artist of this era. He is Warhol, Da Vinci, Picasso, Escobar, and Jesus.

Donald Trump is a wealthy businessman winner that wants to be President to fix America’s loser economy and end the war on terrorism.

Creating Press

Both Kanye and Trump are famous for their extremely quotable, click-bait-y one-liners. Chances are, you’re probably more familiar with their one-liners than their lives and work.

“Listen to the kids, bro!” “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” “I will die for the art; and the art ain’t always going to be polite.” “I have decided, in 2020, to run for president.” “I am a god.” “I am a robot. You cannot offend a robot.” “Do I look like a motherfucking comedian? Don’t fucking heckle me. I am Kanye motherfucking West.” “I am Shakespeare in the flesh.” “You ain’t got the answers, Sway!” “I’m really happy for you and I’m going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” “Respect the artistry.” “I have the right to talk in the third person.” “We made a million a minute.” “Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman.”

“I don’t have a racist bone in my body.” “[Mexico] is laughing at us, at our stupidity. Now they’re beating us economically. They are not our friend.” “They are bringing drugs. They are bringing crime. They’re rapists.” “I will build a better wall, and Mexico will pay [for it].” “I love the Mexican people.” “Donald Trump has always been very, very successful.” “I am going to make America great again.” “Mexico’s the new China.” “We don’t have our best and our brightest negotiating for us. We have a bunch of losers…. We use people that are soft and weak and frankly stupid and incompetent.” “Our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid.” “Donald Trump is a very nice person.”

They’re writing their own headlines when they say these things. There’s no reason for the media to come in and create their own story. Kanye and Trump keep the media reacting to them, not the other way around. They’re serving stories to reporters on a silver platter. Trump and Kanye make it easy to write about Trump and Kanye.

In the 1987 book, ‘Trump: The Art of the Deal,’ Trump writes, “Controversy, in short, sells.”

Social Media

They use social media as a way to quickly stoke the flames, much like what we did with Rumblr. If things get quiet, they can quickly go on Twitter and start writing their story again.

Both Trump and Kanye control their Twitter accounts, and they’re not afraid to spend hours voicing their opinions on just about everything. That’s where they go when they need attention, they’ve turned Twitter into their own headline machine. To stoke the flames, most of the positive tweets about Trump get retweeted, liked, or responded to.

Referencing the Greats

They both name-drop as much as they possibly can. Kanye says things like “I am Warhol,” or “I am Shakespeare in the flesh.” Trump takes a different approach, often using great or notable people as a means of social proof. When asked, “Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?” Trump replies, “Larry Kudlow, who I have a lot of respect for, loves my tax plan.”

Kanye name-dropping

This tactic is obviously arrogant, and the media loves to talk about it. Often, Trump and Kanye use great people as a way to weasel out of an argument. “Well, Da Vinci was this way,” and “Warhol did this.” They’re not arguing logically, they’re using characters with widely known personalities and characteristics to help people understand their own character. It’s the equivalent of ‘Uber for x,’ or “I’m like Benjamin Franklin, but for dance.” Beyond storytelling, it’s a deflection tool. It’s an easy way for them to turn negativity into positivity.

Kanye’s fake Rolling Stone cover

Emotion Over Logic

They use their ‘great people social proof’ deflection tool frequently, but sometimes they just ignore the question entirely. They go on irrelevant tangents that convey a specific emotion, and never directly answer the question. Their tangents are usually drawn out long enough that people forget what was asked, and just focus on what they’re currently saying. These tangents are a way to communicate emotionally with the viewers, who aren’t really consuming the content analytically.

When asked about his exaggeration habits Trump says,

“I don’t think I exaggerate anymore than anyone else. I think that I have a great grasp of numbers. I have a great grasp of values. I’m worth many, many billions of dollars.”

Having billions of dollars has nothing to do with Trump’s exaggeration habits.

When brought up with the fact that many people believe Kanye to be a megalomaniac and self-oriented he says,

“To the contrary, completely. I just want to help. From day one, I just wanted to help. My father was a Black Panther. My father was a photo-journalist, [one of the] paparazzi. Seven years ago he lived in a homeless shelter. He was homeless because he wanted to help the ex drug addicts, he wanted to get that close. He started a foundation called Good Water and moved to the Dominican Republic.”

The fact that Kanye’s father chose to be homeless does not make Kanye not a megalomaniac.

After hearing these interviews, although illogical and tangential, they sit well with our subconscious. The conscious mind thinks with a voice, with language and words. The subconscious mind thinks with images and feelings. Kanye and Trump are communicating directly to the subconscious mind, which is an extremely powerful persuasion technique.

Body Language

They both use very strong and intense body language. Often, they aggressively gesture with their hands towards the interviewer or the camera. When caught in an argument or a debate, they take the stronger side, the alpha role.

When Trump gets into a head-to-head argument he raises his voice, makes powerful hand gestures, and refuses to look at the opponent. He looks forward and keeps his body facing the camera, while his opponent rotates to look at him, suggesting that he’s the stronger contender. Kanye uses a similar technique.

They come off strong, intense, and passionate.

The body language Kanye uses to argue is completely opposite of what he uses to perform. When he’s onstage he’s very calm and respectful, treating the music like a masterpiece. He’s usually not spastic. Trump’s generally the same way when he’s not in a one-on-one with another candidate. They’re very relaxed and confident until they’ve been challenged.

Humor and Fear

Both Kanye and Trump have strong senses of humor, and it gets them into a lot of trouble. They use dry humor (usually in a clever way), and it’s almost always contextual. That means, when taken out of context, their jokes come off extremely appalling, shocking, and offensive.

Further, they use humor as another deflection technique. When Megyn Kelly brought up some of Trump’s objectively horrible remarks on women, he deflected it by making fun of Rosie O’Donnell. After making the entire crowd laugh (even if the crowd was laughing at him), he took away the seriousness of Kelly’s question. He positioned himself in a way that let him avoid the question entirely. He transitioned his response quickly from “I’m not a politician so I don’t have to be politically correct,” to “We lose to China, we lose to Mexico,” to “We need strength in this country to win.”

When they want to make important points, they use fear to get people’s attention. Without Kanye, art and culture would die. Without Trump, America will lose, and Mexico and China will win.

“I’m concerned about everything. I’m concerned about the country. Our country’s going to hell.”

Conclusion

What media outlets say about Trump and Kanye does not dictate how the public perceives them. The more people that talk about them, the larger their audience. The larger their audience, the larger their influence. That’s what they’re creating, and that’s all they really care about. There’s no such thing as bad press.

All of these tactics are just part of a high-level marketing strategy. While Trump’s competitors spend tens of millions of dollars on television ads, he’s spent nothing. Who’s been talked about more this election? Kasich or Trump?

Trump’s the blue, Kasich’s the red.

Consistency

Whatever they do, they don’t backtrack or stumble. If they blatantly contradict themselves, they don’t apologize or recognize it, they simply move on as if there wasn’t evidence. They never lower their heads to the media or take a step back. All of these tactics take lots of time, energy, and discipline. If Kanye forgets to compare himself to Maya Angelou in an interview, chances are the media will make up a story about him attacking the paparazzi again. Forgetting to write your own story (as long as people are actively interested in hearing your story) inspires others to write it for you. Never back down, keep stoking the flames.

Contrast

Whatever they say, they say it in the strongest way possible. Their characters contrast heavily with their competition. It’s hard to find a more extreme dichotomy than that of Jeb Bush and Donald Trump. Trump has turned himself into the strong high-energy alpha, and Jeb as the weak, low-energy loser. Trump and Kanye have turned themselves into caricatures for attention and influence. Whatever story you’re trying to tell, using contrast is an easy way to get noticed. The fact that Rumblr contrasted heavily with both Tinder and Grindr piqued the public’s attention.

Shock & Controversy

These two are always shocking and controversial, never boring. Unpredictability captures our attention. Watching a GOP debate feels more like comedy than politics. They keep us at the edge of our seats waiting to hear what they say and be the first ones to tweet about their ludicrous positions. Both Kanye and Trump are extremely opinionated, and often take radical stances on controversial topics. They say controversial things that reference current trends, and they take advantage of anything that’s possibly relevant to them.

Vans recently took advantage of someone else’s virality by giving the guys behind “Damn, Daniel” a lifetime supply of shoes. They instantly became a highlight of the “Damn, Daniel” story, and now they’ve been written about in nearly every article about “Damn, Daniel.”

In one of Kanye’s more recent songs Facts he was able to fit multiple relevant stories into his lyrics. “Does anyone feel bad for Bill Cosby? Did he forget the names just like Steve Harvey?”

Attention like this is invaluable, and it’s no coincidence that two of the biggest media characters of the year follow the same strategy. If you want to “hack the media,” this case study’s the framework.