Donald Trump entered the Oval Office for his second term armed with a pen and a plan — to inundate the public with information and distractions and weaponize their delivery.
Trump signed 37 executive orders in his first week, compared to just four during the first week of his first term. Trump is intentionally flooding the public with information in an attempt to play with our attention and sow confusion. The administration is pumping out as much as possible as fast as possible so we don’t have the time or energy to focus on any one thing.
Trump signed orders to abolish DEI in the federal government, begin deportations, remove the U.S. from the World Health Organization and begin accelerating production of fossil fuels. While most of these orders have received some public attention, that attention was fleeting – forcibly so as there were a dozen new executive orders following close behind.
The rapid cycle of new information is worsened by the way we are consuming it — in endless, misinformed short bursts, leaving no room for real understanding. Amid the avalanche of executive action, the speed of content creation forces many people to rely on social media as a news source, a strategic piece of Trump’s plan. However, social media is an information mirage, posing as a reliable source of news while driving users further from the truth.
At a recent press conference, the Trump administration announced it would open seats in the briefing room to podcasters, influencers and content creators, moving away from only speaking with legacy media outlets. This step suggests that Trump wants more news delivered via popular social media platforms like X, TikTok and Instagram.
Not only is news found on social media sites inherently untrustworthy due to lack of fact-checking and new government links to these sites, it often lacks context since it is stuffed into a time or character limit and caters to a short attention span, an aspect Trump uses to keep the public misinformed and distracted.
Additionally, it places focus on dramatic actions that can be made into jokes, such as Trump’s desire to purchase Greenland. This is an attribute the administration exploits to keep us busy lamenting over intentionally placed red herrings, while he signs a dozen more harmful executive orders.
Trump leans into and profits off of the easily distractible nature of social media users. After attending Jimmy Carter’s funeral, Trump posted a "bad lip reading" video of himself and Barack Obama talking in a friendly manner, painting himself as funny and amiable, as well as featuring Obama's praise. A sound of Melania and Barron Trump talking about his suitcase as a kid went viral on TikTok, giving viewers an endearing perception of the family immediately following Trump's presidential win. Both of these instances benefited Trump’s image and distracted viewers from larger issues at hand.
The short-form structure of social media also allows creators to more easily keep up with the influx of government action. While traditional media outlets may struggle to publish informative and thorough articles on 26 executive orders in one day, a TikTok influencer can easily create 26 videos, spouting their out-of-context opinions — although, users will probably only see videos on the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico anyway.
