That is what Trump’s Twitter feed looks like whenever he Tweets. This happens from the exact same people with the exact same following. What they do is Tweet as soon as Trump posts a message (or Dan). Then they send out continuous Tweets replying to their own conversation and making sure their entire following gets as much engagement (clicks, likes, retweets, replies, etc) as possible. Whoever get’s the most, get’s filtered to the top. If you’re verified, you automatically start before the non-verified users. You see the problem here? This entire issue is massive and rightfully deserves its own investigation. Dan could shed some light on this as he is Trump’s social media guy.

Now, someone who’s done a bit of work on this is Katica. She is the one who broke the “Stonetear” story. You know, Hillary’s IT guy going to Reddit to see if he could delete a “VIP” user from an entire email database (Protip, you can’t). She’s been keeping a list and updating it of these verified users. The short version is that each Twitter handle is associated with an account number. You can paste it into an Excel spreadsheet and then import it into Twitter. To start, this is my recommendation for Dan. Contact Katica and get her list. Ban the same people who continue to troll Trump’s social media accounts.

New Style of Press Briefings And Social Media Engagement

For those of us who’ve watched every press briefing, we are about ready to pull our hair out. They are awful. It’s an echo chamber of the exact same questions being bounced off each other. Day after day, nothing new is mentioned. Of the very few people who get called on, you only have a couple of people such as John Gizzi who ever ask something different. It’s mind boggling how much of an echo chamber the entire mainstream media is. I swear, they all meet beforehand and go over their talking points in some sewer or bathroom in a bar (yes, this includes Fox News).

The bigger issue going on here is that Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders are lightweights. I don’t mean that in a derogatory term. I mean that in the sense that they tend to never push back against the media. Sarah does a much better job than Sean does, but they still call on the same small group of people and no one else. Is someone like Helen Aguirre Ferre, a Never Trump founder and the Director of Media Relations controlling who they call on? Otherwise, I have no idea why they don’t branch out.

So, how can Trump solve this? For starters, you need to get someone in there who will stand their ground and push back against the media who are used to getting their way. Nothing against Sean or Sarah, they just don’t seem like the type to do that. You limit the questions to one per person with one follow-up. No multiple point questions or five follow-ups (looking at you, April Ryan). This forces the media to figure out what they’re main talking point will be and allows you to get questions from a more diverse group of people. We hunger for more information and the only way we will get that is to break away from the same talking points.

I’m not going to go full Sean Hannity level here requesting the press submit questions in advance so the media team can prepare answers and require them to use those answers as a basis of their questions. However, I do think something needs to be changed with how the press briefings are conducted. I’m not opposed to something like getting questions in advance but we all know that isn’t how the press wants to operate. They like to play the gotcha game. They want to trip up whoever is talking. Have you noticed how they ask the same questions but word them differently? It’s absolutely a gotcha game and that makes for good ratings and clicks.

The next aspect would be to engage in weekly or monthly interviews with those on social media. Trump could blanket the airwaves by just utilizing something as simple as Periscope or YouTube and have video interviews or live briefings. While he has a weekly address that gets put out on Friday, that isn’t what I’m getting at. I’m thinking something in the 30-minute range where he does one-on-one interviews with those from social media as well as his own briefings once a week.

I’m going to use someone like Mark Dice, Paul Joseph Watson, and Philip DeFranco as an example. You could even get individuals who are smaller as well. The point would be to get more engagement from a wider range of individuals. When they do the interview, it could be live or pre-taped. I’d personally recommend it being pre-taped just in case something happens. Someone’s internet goes out, technical problems, etc. Something live could be Trump talking to his supporters on Facebook Live, Periscope, and YouTube by himself.

I would structure it just as Cernovich mentions. A simple Q & A style format. Trump could either get the questions before hand or do it live. Whatever his preference would be. I would ask interviewer to get questions from their audience and take what they feel would be the top 10 (as an example). They would obviously have to screen the questions they give you to make sure they are appropriate. Another reason why I’d want the questions beforehand. You’d make sure that person has the rights to monetize the video and it’s a win-win for Trump and the social media channel.

Where is Trump’s Media Team Pushing Content and Writing Their Own Articles?

Outside of the White House website, Trump’s media team can write several articles per day on various topics. Why do I say this? Because they have direct lines to the source and they can also be a source. This person would be getting special access in terms of communication. Some random news organization or site writes a hit piece and used a source within your administration? Write up an article and get the verification yourself. 9 times out of 10, your article will come out the winner. Something similar to how the Washington Post lied about their sources and published false information? I didn’t see much being pushed back except for the media not believing what was being said by the White House. Why would you keep that out there and not issue a statement or let someone get an exclusive article refuting that?

I know that the press have various people for each department or office. They can get statements, etc, but these individuals tend to be biased and miss half the context or purposely leave out information to further push a narrative. Your own team? They can get the entire story published to whatever outlet wants the traffic to their site. No missing info or worded in such a way to force a narrative for clicks and ad revenue. You’d only need a small team. I’d say about 1 person per area within the administration. The entire point of these positions would be make sure articles are out there of what’s going on in your administration that is not written by someone who has a bias. Even if the bias is positive. You just want the facts.

What I mention in this article may not be perfect but if you’re sick of the mainstream media with their constant lying, using made up sources, pushing a false-narrative, or just leaving out factual information, it’s time for Trump to overhaul how media works for him. Get rid of the middleman and do it yourself. If the media wants to play games, shove it back in their faces. If they want to ask the same repetitive questions over and over and just write hit piece after hit piece, don’t call on them anymore until they get the hint. The people want to know what Trump is doing for the average person and that is what we are missing. We’re sick of being stuck in the mainstream media bubble. Something has got to change.

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