The Don Draper Maxim

And a note of gratitude

Thank You.

Today, I want to begin by expressing immense gratitude. Substack just informed me that I am now a “bestseller,” with hundreds of paid subscribers who have made this journey possible. When I started this newsletter just a few weeks before the election, I could not have imagined that it would take off the way it has. That is entirely thanks to you. Thank you for being a part of this community, for your feedback and for your support. As I have said repeatedly, we can’t rely on anyone to save us. It’s up to us to get our country back on track and, together, we are going to do it.

The Don Draper Maxim

(Courtesy: AMC)

One of the biggest advantages to flooding the zone with bullshit is that even large media companies can’t sift through it all. When a tsunami is coming at you, you don’t have time to parse every individual wave. You just keep running so you don’t get swamped.

On Tuesday, I went on MSNBC to discuss Trump’s plans to control Greenland and the Panama Canal. This proposition was taken seriously by the network, like it was something that merited analysis. There was talk of rare earth minerals in Greenland and the foreign fleets that transport goods bound for the American market in Panama. I was asked what Trump’s motivations were, as though we were discussing Klaus von Metternich’s motivations during the Congress of Vienna.

What are Trump’s motivations? Who cares? Greenland is not for sale. Neither is the Panama Canal. Also, Canada is not interested in becoming the 51st state, no matter how hard Trump pitches it and no matter how much he lobbies Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister, so he can eventually become the “governor” of Canada.

Who is for sale is Donald Trump, which is why he is going after the Panamanians. Several years ago, the nation’s courts ousted the Trump Organization from managing a development in the country. Two Trump companies were also accused of failing to pay Panamanian taxes on a management fee they drew from a local hotel. There it is. That’s his motivation.

Like everything else to do with Trump, it is all about grievance and revenge.

There are so many scandals that even well-staffed newsrooms can’t or won’t keep track. But the larger issue is that they keep falling for the shiny object Trump dangles to distract from what he really doesn’t want to discuss.

Time Magazine rightly called Trump’s ability to do this the “Don Draper Maxim,” named after the antihero of Mad Men, who told a client of his advertising firm, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”