Trump's 7 Magic Tricks: On Full Display at the NABJ 2024 Annual Meeting
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
"A vote for ABBH --- Any Body But Harris --- is a vote for Trump"
I must admit that even as a frequent writer on racism in the U.S. and its historical consequences, I was not previously familiar with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). (I must assume that many other U.S. who regularly follow politics [as well as many who do not] are now, like me, very much aware of the NABJ.) For of course the convicted felon Donald Trump (also, as is well known, former President and present candidate for that office) made a, shall we say, remarkable appearance at their 2024 Annual Meeting. The invitation to attend was highly controversial, especially in light of the fact that the other major party candidate for the Presidency, Vice-President Kamala Harris, was not invited. (See end-note on this one, below.)
Here are three examples of reactions from Black journalists opposed to the invitation (for the first two, see the NYT reference above):
" 'The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,' April Ryan, the White House correspondent for The Grio, [noted on] X. She said the session was 'a slap in the face' to Black female journalists 'who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025.' "
"Jemele Hill, who hosts a podcast and is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, said that while she did not have a problem with Mr. Trump's appearance 'under the right circumstances because he's a presidential candidate,' she questioned the wisdom of the event. 'A sham of an interview will destroy the organization's credibility,' she wrote on X. 'If the majority of NABJ's membership is against Trump being there, the organization should listen.' "
Then, my good friend, who just happens to be a Black journalist, Gary Glennell Toms, of "From The Gman" (https://fromthegman.net/about/), sent me this this comment. Indeed, Gary, the creator, owner, and editor-in-chief of From The G-Man, made some excellent points regarding the situation. They enabled me to have a far better understanding of why many from the Black community, including members of the NABJ, were outraged over the former president's appearance, i.e.:
"1. The man has repeatedly said 'the press is the enemy of the people,' so he didn't deserve to be showcased through a renowned and respected platform like the National Association of Black Journalists. Not holding him accountable for what he said makes him believe he can do and say whatever he wants with no consequences. The only way it will stop is if people draw the line and say enough is enough, especially in journalism.
"2. Given the extremely disrespectful and nasty things he said to April Ryan and CNN's Abby Phillips during White House press conferences, amongst a sea of white reporters, the Q&A was a very bad move by the NABJ. What '45' did to those acclaimed Black journalists was the equivalent of 'Massa' talking down to or reprimanding his 'n-word wenches.' Respectfully [here, Gary is addressing me, S.J.], I didn't expect you to consider this because you aren't Black. Many of us in the Black community know exactly what that clown did that day and why he did it.
"3. The first two explanations are more than enough, from a journalistic and Black perspective, to support my argument. However, here's one more for good measure. If the goal of the NABJ was to have 'that man' discuss economics, foreign policy, and what he planned to do for Black America if elected president, it didn't come close to accomplishing the objective. How does that help Black and Brown voters? Answer: It doesn't! Black America didn't see anything different from what they've seen in the past or have become accustomed to seeing with this clown. Therefore, I consider the Q&A an exercise in futility because Black people/voters gained nothing of importance in the end."
Well, the leadership didn't listen and Trump was there. (It should be noted that the NABJ leadership was not united on the invitation. One of the Co-Chairs, Karen Attiah, stepped down the day before the meeting.)
In part, my thought about the invitation was that the NABJ leadership should have given more thought to what they were doing, especially because they did not invite V-P Harris. But I also thought that whether they were doing it consciously or not, the invitation to Trump set a trap for him which, if he were not careful, would grab him by the ankle (or whichever other body part one might have in mind).
Given what happened --- Trump being as outrageously racist and confrontational as he could possibly be --- Trump either: fell into the trap, OR, listen carefully here, had the whole thing planned out. That is, he might well have hoped that his appearance would go exactly the way it went, so that he could lay out, on full display, his racist credentials, for anyone who might think that he might stow them away, or at least tone them done given the ethnicity of his opponent in the election. And yes, while Trump is not the brightest of bulbs, he certainly has some evil geniuses on his team, who could plot that out.
And with Trump, the man for whom RACE is the Trump Card, they would not have to give him a script. They would simply have to say "Sir," (and you know how Trump, because he is personally so insecure, always characterizes the greeting of anyone with whom he has had a conversation, whether they addressed him that way or not), "go get 'em" (or words to that effect). And so, several of the elements of what I refer to as "Trump's Seven Magic Tricks" were on full display.
In the past on a number of occasions I have written on what I have termed "Trump's Six [then seven] Magic Tricks." It is a list of the thought-patterns, strategies, and tactics that brought him from being the not-terribly-high-achieving-on-his-own son of a successful New York City real estate developer to the Presidency. Their use, at multiple points along his life-pathway, is what has also brought him to, as both an Ex-President, and presumptive-nominee of his party, the point of possible return to that office. Getting in the way of that return are three factors. One is of course the vote to be held on next November 5. Another is how the real results of that vote are going to be handled, should they on paper at least go against him. Third is what he and his troops (real and figurative) would do in the latter case.
Obviously, the paragraph above contains material for several future columns. For this one we shall stick to the "Seven Magic Tricks" themselves, with observation/analysis of how Trump is using them, and how well, or not, they still work for him.
To review, here are Trump's (original) Six Magic Tricks
1. He has always had one or more protectors and enablers, either personal, or financial or both.
2. For decades he has had a standard operating procedure when he faces an adversary of any kind. He learned it from Roy Cohn (who learned it from Joe McCarthy): "Always attack; Never defend." A more recent variant is: "Look. Over there."
3. Also learned from Roy Cohn is the mantra: "when you run into a problem, just sue." You may not win, and it may cost you some money. But a) you might win, and b) with the endlessness with which civil litigation can be drawn out in the U.S. legal system, the other side may just get worn out (or run out of money for lawyers' fees [which Trump, for one reason or another, never seemed to do]).
4. In the whole of his business life, Trump has never been responsible to anyone else, either above him (except for Dad, of course) or even alongside. In the end, he has still been able to escape from one legal (and other) scrape after another, if he has had a protector/enabler (see 1., above), also known as the "fixer," on his own.
5. Trump has lived his life surrounded by enemies, whether in business, in his personal life, in his banking and financial life (except for a select few, like Deutsche Bank), certainly in politics, and not just at this time. He has thrived on that state-of-being. In dealing with his enemies/adversaries, as he told us in the "Art of the Deal," the key to winning for him has never been actual deal-making, but rather attempted opponent-crushing. Real negotiation is just not his thing.
6. Trump is history's greatest con man (a subject to which I have devoted a previous column).
To which I more recently added a Seventh: "Oh woe is me; everyone's against me, and it's so unfair[!]"
Whether Trump was prepared for the confrontation at NABJ in detail, or, because he is always so confrontational with any audience who/which might be the least bit antagonistic to him, he just waded right into it.
Trick One: Always have a protector (both generally and literally at any given time). In this instance he had no protectors anywhere in the house and he knew it (at the level Trump can "know" anything, and not respond based on his emotions, which is the usual case for him). So, he was confrontational and antagonistic right from the git-go. The purpose of the appearance, as it had been established by the NABJ leadership, was to get Trump to answer specific questions. He made sure that he did not do that. But, by so [not] doing, he surely answered a whole bunch of questions about whether he might be changing his basic racist tune this time around. The answer was clearly "NO."
Trick Two: "Always attack; Never defend." This one was on full display at the confrontation. And no, it was not an interview; it was a confrontation. The only question that arises (again) is whether the Trump forces planned it out this way or they just let it happen, knowing that, particularly when he is in the company of Blacks (unless they are among the few boot-licking Blacks that he has attracted to his side), the racist-lifer-Trump will come out very quickly. So yes, he was on the attack from the git-go and did never let up.
Trick Three, "When in doubt, sue," was not of course in play in this situation, but if Trump-and-his-team could have figured out a way to do that, they would have.
Trick Four (responsibility), Trump is not responsible to anyone (or least he does not think he is, except possibly his father). This one was on full display. Trump never holds back. He never considers to whom he just might be responsible. That just has not been in his calculus for his whole life. He did not consider any of the members of the audience (a few of whom might have been Trump-acolytes). He was selling a message of "no-respect-for-you-know-who" racism, which he did both openly (as in the questioning of Vice-President Harris' ethnicity), and in how he addressed, verbally and physically, his primary questioner ABC News' [Ms.] Harris Faulkner --- even reaching over to attempt to tighten the cap of her water bottle.
Trick Five, being comfortable being surrounded by enemies. As his whole racist life has attested, Trump has regarded Black people as enemies. (Of course, politics does make strange bedfellows, but we will not go to the "Tim Scott" case here.) By accepting the invitation, he knew what he was going to be getting into. He knows how he dealt with Black journalists when he was President, and the few times he has had to deal with them since. They are enemies, and he was bathing in the glow. And of course, the Vice-President is now clearly his most important political enemy. And what better a way to go after her, not on the issues (except on the false one of immigration-and-how-she-handled-it, while ignoring the outrageous scuttling job he did on the very tough agreement President Biden had come to with the Congressional Republicans), but on her ethnicity. A variation of Trick Two, "Always Attack, Never Defend," is "Look, look over there." You see the Republicans using this variation with increasing frequency in the campaign: "Harris isn't Black, she's Indian." Distract, distract, distract.
Trick Six, "History's Greatest Con Man." Well, when you are in a room where virtually no one is buying the Con, it is tough.
Trick Seven, "Oh woe is me." That one was on full display throughout the appearance (I will not dignify by calling it an "interview). "You are all against me. How can I get a fair shake from any of you? Why should I make a political case for any of my policies (except of course, I will lie, lie, lie about 'immigration')?"
To repeat. Trump has his Seven Magic Tricks, which propelled the least qualified person ever to hold the Presidency all the way to the Oval Office, and toward that office a political party now totally wed to a modern version of fascism (see Project 2025) is attempting to propel him once again.
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Two Questions:
1. Did the NABJ purposefully set this up, knowing full well that Trump would make a total fool of himself, not only to the Black journalists in the hall, but to the general news audience all across the country?
2. Did the Trump-team prime him in advance to be his usual racist self, figuring that they would get a wide audience for his usual racist message, or did they just let him go out there, knowing that, without any prompting or planning, he would be his usual racist self, hoping that, even though he was speaking to a Black organization, that he could get some racist mileage out of it?
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End-note: On the non-invitation to the Vice-President, I think that this was purposeful, and the NABJ leadership probably notified her in advance of why not. And why not? Because if she were there, Trump, who as of now is trying to duck the first scheduled debate, would have spent the whole time viciously attacking her, with no rules and no moderator(s). In the meantime, the Vice-President was able to issue a very strong statement, noting that: "Trump's false claims about her Black identity show 'divisiveness,' 'disrespect.' " At the same time the campaign coined a new slogan: "We're not going back."