--- title: Beware the Tricks and Traps of Donald Trump, News Manipulator in Chief description: On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to Access Hollywood host... canonical: https://time.com/4606103/donald-trump-news-manipulator-in-chief/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-19T11:58:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:51.206Z article:section: Politics og:title: Beware the Tricks and Traps of Donald Trump, News Manipulator in Chief og:description: On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to Access Hollywood host... og:url: https://time.com/4606103/donald-trump-news-manipulator-in-chief/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99c844c8595d10e2/6988b393fb4eac36398903e0/donald-trump-news-manipulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: President-Elect Donald Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beware the Tricks and Traps of Donald Trump, News Manipulator in Chief twitter:description: On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to Access Hollywood host... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99c844c8595d10e2/6988b393fb4eac36398903e0/donald-trump-news-manipulator.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beware the Tricks and Traps of Donald Trump, News Manipulator in Chief > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._ by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Dec 19, 2016 11:58 AM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Trump Tower on Dec. 6, 2016. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Trump Tower on Dec. 6, 2016. Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Dec 19, 2016 11:58 AM UTC On Oct. 7, at the height of the presidential campaign, a tape appeared of Donald Trump saying vile things about women to _Access Hollywood_ host Billy Bush. We, the media, went berserk. For the next two weeks, as various women came forward accusing Trump of sexual assault, the coverage was wall to wall. Hillary Clinton’s campaign snapped at the bait and made Trump’s misogyny the centerpiece of its strategy. Also on Oct. 7 came the mind-blowing news that the U.S. intelligence community, including all 17 agencies, believed the Russians were behind the hacking of internal Clinton and Democratic Party email accounts. This news was accompanied by candidate Trump’s strange affinity for Vladimir Putin. It was also accompanied by Trump’s unwillingness to release his tax returns, which made it impossible to find out whether the developer was in financial cahoots with Russian oligarchs, how much he might owe them, how much they could have invested in him. Any one of these stories would have been an outrage. Taken together, they pointed to an unthinkable conclusion that the CIA had privately reached: the Russians were trying to tilt the election to Trump. The unprecedented meddling was the most important scandal of the 2016 election, but it seemed to get lost in the Trumpian clutter. It just seemed too crazy — too Manchurian candidate, too Hollywood — to be real. It wasn’t as, well, sexy as Trump’s trash talk and groping, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone, given his crude track record. In the end, it’s possible that the _Access Hollywood_ fiasco might have even helped Trump, confirming his machismo for a certain puerile sector of the male electorate (and confirming that boys will be boys for the women who voted for him). And speaking of “locker room” talk, Trump has now gone on to pick a Cabinet that looks like the locker room at Trump National Golf Course. I am not saying the _Access Hollywood_ story wasn’t newsworthy; it surely was. Nor am I saying the Russian hacks caused Clinton to lose the election; she did that all on her own. But the Russian interference in the ceremony that stands at the center of our democracy was nothing less than a foreign act of cyberwarfare, or as former CIA executive Mike Morell put it, “the political equivalent of 9/11.” And it wasn’t treated with sufficient heft by the media, especially cable television. But now it must be. The President-elect must release his tax returns. The Russian connection must be fully explored. The relationship between Secretary of State–designate Rex Tillerson and the Russians must be vetted. The media pressure to make this happen must be focused and relentless. There is a larger lesson here for the media, going forward: there is a method to Trump’s mouthiness. He is, without question, the most expert news manipulator in American history. He can even exploit embarrassments like _Access Hollywood_. He throws chum into the water — a tweet here about election fraud, a tweet there about flag burning — and cable news goes crazy for a news cycle, which only reinforces Trump’s credibility with his constituency. In the meantime, more serious stuff is being ignored. There needs to be a very strict and sober sense of priorities, especially on the cable news channels where a horse race and showbiz usually prevail. This is a sensitive and perhaps dangerous moment for the media. Journalists will have contradictory functions: the relentless pursuit of the truth in serious matters like the Russian affair will have to be matched with an open-minded willingness to give credit where it is due. Trump hasn’t actually done anything yet, and his opponents are acting as if the sky has fallen. They are playing into his hands: if you begin with constant outrage, there’s no place to go when something truly outrageous happens. And what if this turns out to be a popular presidency? It is entirely possible that a rapprochement with the Russians, based on common commercial interests, will be good for the peace of the world. It is possible that Trump’s ideological appointees will clean out the cobwebs in departments and agencies like Health and Human Services, Labor, Education and the EPA. It is possible that Trump’s public shaming of manufacturers like Carrier will make American corporations think twice before going elsewhere. It is even possible that Trump’s massive and continuing conflicts of interest will be a good thing — the more hotels and golf courses and oil deals he and his cronies have around the world, the less likely they’ll be to blow it up. Nothing is unthinkable anymore. ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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