• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 22, 2025

Watching the return of Donald Trump as president on TV has a marketing feel of throwing hay bales out of a fast-moving truck with pursuers gaining.

A massive number of “executive orders” -- around a hundred -- were signed on Trump’s first day of his second Presidential term. Not all of them were signed on TV.

Now what remains is what sticks -- and what doesn’t.

Legal challenges will start up, en masse.

Good news: This version of the Trump Administration has already stirred higher employment and business -- for lawyers.

The marketing of a president doing so much on day one already comes as a result of Presidential campaign promises. Executive orders are a great TV marketing tool. Increasingly incoming Presidents are using this to command the share of political voice.

You may ask why. The answer is in an increasingly siloed/partisan politics world -- evidence of a razor-thin control by Trump’s GOP efforts over the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives -- means a lot of things won't be done initially, and perhaps for the long term and mid term.

The metaphor of hay thrown from a truck can obfuscate what is really needed, necessary and possible.

Creating an air of a lot going on gives voters the sense that something is being done -- possibly for their benefit.

But is this the most productive and least wasteful way for operations in the new Trump Administration?

It may not make that much sense with that new Federal government unit called DOGE -- the Department Of Government Efficiency.

Massive messaging -- especially messaging that does not adhere to facts -- can work well alongside all this.

Think about Trump's first administration and Trump’s social media messages and speeches. The Washington Post calculated that during his first four years, Trump lied or made misleading statements some 30,573 times. But many of his followers dismiss this, even putting aside his involvement on January 6, 2021.

But if you report mistruths and lies often enough....well, you get the idea.  Lots of hay bales.

For this kind of media advertising, "frequency" is king. Expect the Presidential-political-share-of-voice to grow.

One other Trump promise during the campaign -- he said he would be “a dictator on day one”. How did that go?

While you are mulling over that, think about day two, three, four -- and all the ones following.

Personally, I’m waiting to summer in Greenland without using a passport.