Admit it: When you first heard the news, you spit your coffee all over your phone and/or questioned whether or not you’re still in the right timeline. “Wait, what? Alex Jones is going to the White House?!”
It got a ton of attention last night when it was the top-listed story on the Drudge Report. (Drudge might be a faded, past-its-prime, Bidenesque website, but it still influences mainstream traffic.) Once Drudge amplified the news, it went viral — as did the gnashing of teeth. If you listened closely (possibly with the power of Alex Jones’s tremendous array of cutting-edge, nitric-boosting health products), you could almost hear the collective gasps of the radical left: Not Alex Jones! Anything but Alex Jones!
And to be fair, they had a point. The dude’s not exactly devoid of baggage.
From the article, “Alex Jones: ‘I’ve Been Invited to the White House!’” (which was long on conjecture and short on facts):
It’s unclear who invited [Alex] Jones, whether he’s actually going, or whether he will appear at a press briefing.
Speculation the Infowars founder could soon join the Trump briefing room follows past comments from Donald Trump Jr., who once floated the notion of Jones serving a temporary stint as press secretary in his father’s potential cabinet.
“Alex Jones… Again, there’s a couple people I want to put in as press secretary for like a month, two weeks to a month. That’d be where Laura Loomer would fit in for that one. Again, Alex Jones for a month, just to put these idiots in their place,” Don Jr. said on his Triggered podcast in Dec. 2023.
But it’s all a moot point. This “story” is a nonstory because if you actually clicked the Drudge Report link, you’d notice that the outlet reporting this groundbreaking news was…
…Infowars.
It’s easy (and, frankly, rather lazy) to dismiss Alex Jones as an over-the-top caricature. Like all of us, he’s a three-dimensional human being with considerable strengths and weaknesses. And he really has broken some major stories, including being one of the first to sound the alarm on Epstein Island. But he’s also a fabulist who’s gotten lots of big stories spectacularly, grotesquely wrong.
His offer to be press secretary would’ve been interesting, though:
I formally accept the offer to serve as President Trump’s new Press secretary. pic.twitter.com/ej79xwbb9j
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 7, 2024
Still, Alex Jones serves a valuable lesson on, perhaps, the biggest PR pitfall facing the incoming Trump administration: The risk of ridiculousness.
All audiences have expectations. The American electorate is no exception. Right now, Trump is the beneficiary of more goodwill and PR latitude than he’s ever had at any point in his political career — partially because the Democrats are the “Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
For nearly a decade, Donald Trump was “literally Hitler.” He was a Nazi, a fascist, a bigot, a warmonger, a rapist, and a Russian asset. This was the story they repeated over and over and over again.
Meanwhile, the American people saw a pro-business patriot who wanted to put the country first, charmed Joe Rogan, did a funny dance, fooled around at McDonald’s, and even rode around in a garbage truck. Their conclusion: “Sure doesn’t seem like Hitler to us.”
The danger, however, is when politicians overestimate the extent of their mandate. It almost always happens, regardless of party affiliation: Overcome with hubris, the White House pushes and pushes in one direction, but eventually, the blowback is overwhelming.
“Pride goeth before the fall.”
They pushed too far in the wrong direction.
As long as Trump continues his shock-and-awe executive campaign, forming a human whirlwind of proactive action, the American people will give him all the latitude he needs to succeed. His energy and passion contrast wonderfully with the inactive corpse of Joe Biden.
Trump can outwork, outhustle, and outproduce any negativity.
But once Trump takes his foot off the gas pedal, the risk of ridiculousness returns.
Right now, the Democrats are playing the waiting game: The next election is far away; Trump is on a hot streak; they’re unsure what to do next. So, they wait. And eventually, when Trump makes a mistake, they’ll pounce.
In 2017, the Democrats came after Trump right out of the gate, swinging murderous haymakers. This time around, they’ve lost faith in their offense. All they can do is counterpunch.
But counterpunching is ineffective without an opening.
Sure, I’ll admit it: Be a funny photo-op to see Alex Jones in the White House. I get the temptation to spike the football — and make liberal heads explode. It’d be a helluva visual.
But it’s just not worth the risk.
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