PRredictions, PRojections, PRaise, and PRedators: Your Week in Political PR for June 14

The past seven days were rife with political intrigue. It began with the continued fallout from the Musk-Trump meltdown, segued into a discussion about ICE round-ups — which led to the latest LA riots — and finished with a hot war between Iran and Israel, along with the dueling media narratives between the Army’s 250th birthday parade versus “Trump’s birthday parade” (and all that “No Kings” nonsense).

Poor Greta Thunberg and Sen. Alex Padilla: Bad timing for their media stunts! All that posturing for naught. (Maybe Greta can reroute her trip to drop off supplies to Tehran?)

Of all the storylines that gave MAGA headaches, the early-in-the-week frontrunner for the biggest migraine — Elon Musk’s ongoing beef with Donald Trump — was tied with a bow and put to bed. Kudos to both men’s camps for getting these headstrong billionaires to lower the temperature for the good of the nation — and for the good of themselves. 

If Musk followed through with his X threat to launch a third party, target GOP congressmen, and push for presidential impeachment, at best it would’ve been a tremendous distraction; at worst, it would’ve divided the Republican base and ensured a Big Blue sweep in the midterms.

PRediction: Musk will continue to support MAGA policies on X. His criticisms of President Trump will be (mostly) muted. And although he’ll donate to many Republican candidates during the midterms, he’ll be less active on the campaign trail.

One day, Trump will welcome him back to the White House. But it won’t be with arms wide open; Musk’s room in the Lincoln Bedroom has been permanently closed (and if the ketamine rumors are true, the sheets burned). Instead, the two will help each other from an arm’s distance — which, candidly, is probably in the political and financial interests of both men.

Either way, resolving this conflict was a huge win for Team MAGA. But more than that, it also weakened the Democratic Party’s only viable talking point: It’s tough to run on a “No Kings” and/or “Stop Oligarchy” platform when President Trump just took the world’s richest man to the wood chipper! After all, the one big takeaway that the Donkeys had learned was that it’s a helluva lot easier to run against Elon Musk than Donald Trump:

Musk’s approval ratings consistently lag behind Trump’s, and the president has repeatedly had to defend his senior adviser as Democratic messaging has coalesced around criticism of Musk as an unelected “oligarch.”

“He’s becoming electoral poison,” said Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic pollster. “The Democratic Party is going to make Elon a central issue in its messaging, as it should, and Democrats are getting better at focusing on what matters to voters, which is the threat he poses to entitlements.” [emphasis added]

Throughout the campaign, Democrats strategically positioned Musk as the primary antagonist, framing his substantial financial contributions as an attempt to “buy” the election. [emphasis added]

Turns out, Trump fights against the oligarchs even better than they do! (Oops.) So if the GOP can reap the benefits of Musk’s money and support without his political baggage, it would be the best of both worlds.

And this leads us to today’s national protests.

PRojection: In politics, the past is prologue. Musk’s work at DOGE played a large role in shaping the Dems' “No Kings” anti-oligarch positioning, but its coalescing with the anti-ICE protests in California is what gave it legs. The Democrats want to perpetuate a storyline about Trump being an abusive, arrogant tyrant, so countering his “birthday parade” with the righteous indignation of millions of everyday Americans is their idea of a PR homerun. That’s the contrast they’re hoping to convey.

And they’ve had lots of help. As we noted earlier in the week, the mainstream media had shamelessly framed the Army’s parade as an ego-trip for the president:

A quick Google Search of news articles over the past week for “Army’s birthday parade” has about 1,000 hits. If we limit the Google Search to just the official name of the event, the “250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army Grand Military Parade,” we only get about 320 news hits.

But if you search “Trump’s birthday parade,” you get about 10,000 news hits.

(Note: Because of Google’s algorithm, the numbers tend to fluctuate every time you search. But feel free to check on your own.)

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the PR battle over the dueling parade narratives — i.e. Trump’s birthday parade versus the Army’s 250th anniversary — won’t begin in earnest ‘til after the parade ends. Most people assume the PR war was beforehand, and once the event happens, people will make up their minds on their own. 

But that’s not true.

The post-event PR campaign is actually the most important part, because it contextualizes what just happened. Even when people see something with their own eyes, they still need someone to (metaphorically) hold them by the hand and (re)explain it in ways that make sense. Call it “spin” or whatever you want, but it’s critical component of political PR.

It’s why opinions change over time. 

PRaise: Kudos to the men and women of MAGA for putting “America First” with, quite possibly, the three most meaningful national security achievements since the collapse of the Soviet Union. (No hyperbole.) By leveraging American soft power, diplomacy, and political pressure, over just the last six months: 

• Europe and NATO are finally increasing their military budgets to offset Russian aggression;
• Ukraine just wiped out a large percentage of Russia’s long-range bombers (including those that could reach the U.S.);
• Israel is dismantling the Iranian nuclear program once and for all.

The American homeland is safer now than it’s been in a VERY long time, and not a single U.S. soldier had to die. #Winning. 

“America First” isn’t just a name; it’s also a destination. That’s why the ultimate litmus test of “America First” policies are “America First” outcomes. 

And by that metric, President Trump has delivered in spades.

Of course, there are still critics of the president, including a few prominent voices of the conservative side. Which brings us to…

PRedators: Tucker Carlson is accusing pro-Israel conservatives of being “warmongers” and (gasp!) “neocons”:

Whatever you think of tariffs, it’s clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran. We can’t afford it. Thousands of Americans would die. We’d lose the war that follows. Nothing would be more destructive to our country.…

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 7, 2025

The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would…

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 13, 2025

Y’know, for all his insinuations about “certain conservatives” (he listed five names; three were Jewish) of being unduly beholden to Israel, it’s probably worth noting that Tucker Carlson’s political opinions — and Russian foreign policy — are increasingly indistinguishable. No daylight whatsoever.

Kinda odd for an “America First” conservative, eh?

And his Russian shilling isn’t even subtle. Who could forget how he marveled over Russian bread like he was in the presence of Baby Jesus (1:30 mark):

Anyhoo, Russia is VERY MUCH against Israel’s attack on Iran. The Iranians, after all, are one of Russia’s most important allies: From drones to oil to military hardware, Russia depends on Iran like never before. Iran is so vital to Russia, Putin even personally called Trump today, begging him to call off the Israelis.

And wouldn’t you know it: In another one of those wacky coincidences, Tucker Carlson and Russia are yet again in total, complete agreement! Yup, when it comes to Iran, there’s nyet daylight between the two.

Weird, huh?

Funny how it always seems to work out that way.