The Double Bind of Trump’s Outrageous Statements

One of the open secrets of Donald Trump’s success in the 2016 presidential campaign was his ability to grab attention—and, accordingly, deflect it from his adversaries—by making outrageous comments. Sure, there would sometimes be backlash to things he said, but he could always deflect that with another comment. Whether this reflected a planned strategy or an intuitive feel for controlling the media remains debated, but his success was inarguable.

This pattern continued into the early days of Trump’s presidency. He would say something outrageous or surprising, markets would react with sudden swings, and the press would scramble to explain and contextualize the latest violation of longstanding norms. In February 2018, when Trump that House Democrats had