In this solo episode of the Speak PR podcast, host Jim James draws public‑relations lessons from the way Donald Trump has shaped the reputation of the United States. He opens by noting his 25‑year PR agency experience and the recent release of Mary L. Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough. Using data from Pew Research, the OECD and other sources, James shows how Trump’s “America First” stance and personal behavior have eroded confidence in U.S. leadership, altered international stereotypes, and created a credibility gap similar to a CEO losing trust in a company. He frames the American Dream as one of the most successful historical PR campaigns, explains how cultural stereotypes (e.g., U.S. vs. Japan) influence perception, and cites John McCain’s critique of Trump’s moral character as a guide for ethical leadership. James then translates these national‑level insights to corporate practice, arguing that companies must manage their own stereotypes, demonstrate care for stakeholders, and align with long‑term macro trends (e.g., Asia’s rise). He illustrates this with his own firm, EastWest PR, which leverages cross‑cultural positioning to help clients expand overseas. The episode concludes with a hopeful note that America can regain its reputation and that listeners can apply the discussed principles to improve their own business reputations.
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Hello, my name is Jim James and I'm your host on this Speak PR podcast. Now, on this show, I like to try and help all those business owners out there who have got value to unlock in their own businesses if they could just get fully noticed. Now, I do this by sharing my own experience as an entrepreneur, but also as a PR agency owner for over 25 years, serving over 500 clients large and small. And today I'm going to talk about America and how one man can change the reputation of a country and of a company. Now, for those of you that haven't seen the news, Mary L. Trump, the niece of President Trump, has just published a new book, and it's called Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. Apparently it's all already sold out on Amazon and it hasn't been printed yet and will be delivered in 4 weeks' time. So how did we get to a stage where one man is dominating the headlines about a whole country when during the 4th of July this should be a time of celebration? Now I'm talking about this today because obviously it's the 4th of July and having lived in America myself on 3 occasions, I have a lot of good friends that I love and respect in America, so I'm sending them obviously a shout out, but also because from a public relations point of view, the world of Donald Trump and his impact on America and the reputation of America can teach us a lot of lessons about how we can manage our own PR for our own company, or if there are any world leaders out there, for your own country. So a recent survey in 2018 by the Pew Group out of Washington, D.C., found that 70% of respondents had no confidence in the Trump leadership. Now, even though America's image has declined since Trump's election, through surveying some 25 nations, they found that the U.S. still receives positive remarks. And, and I would argue this is because of the good work done over the last 200-plus years by American people and American companies and some presidents to build the reputation of America as being the land of the free and of the brave. Now, many people in America, of course, believe in this American dream. Now, the American dream, if you like, could be considered one of the greatest public relations exercises of all times. It was actually started in the 1600s, and it was used by those in Europe, predominantly landowners and the wealthy classes, attempting to get immigrants to leave Europe to settle in what was at the time an unknown land probably of savagery and probably certain death for a large number of people. The idea that one could escape even indentured servitude, for example, in Europe and get a free pass, even some free land for those that went to Virginia, for example, under the King Charles Grant, or with companies that were sponsoring them to go, or in the case of obviously the Pilgrims to the northeast, the idea of political freedom. Personally, I studied American studies and have a degree in that subject, so I personally have had a long and loving relationship with the country and the philosophy. But what's going wrong now, of course, is that the, the outside world is finding that foreign policy over the last decade and a half hasn't really been considering world affairs, but more its own affairs. And obviously this started with, with the Bushes and the whole adventures in the Middle East. Maybe came— well, it did come back according to the Pew Research during Obama, but under Trump and his America First policy, the American country has been seen to be walking away from many of its old traditional allies, but also from some of the global commitments that it made, for example, on climate change. Now, this is something that, as you know, American watchers— and we're all influenced by America as the world's largest economy— it's almost like having a parent, like seeing the father start to hit the booze and womanize and to not come home on time. It's kind of the equivalent of losing trust in the leadership of an organization or a company because one individual that has represented the whole country of America has started to behave in a way that suggests that they don't care about anybody else. Now, the sanity check is that there are a number of people inside America who do still care about that, and as what we're seeing in the international media is some of these people having a voice. But because the American presidency is all-powerful and holds, for example, the press briefings, although under Trump less and less frequently, The president really has the ear of the world, or now with social media, the eye of the world. So the role of, if you like, the CEO of a country, much like the CEO of a company, is really all-encompassing. Now, the upside for those of us that believe that America will regain its place as a leader in many topics, for example, on human rights and commerce and free speech, is that there are people like Vice President or former Vice President Joe Biden who had been talking to the Republican Senator John McCain, and they had said— in fact, McCain had said that they felt that Trump was damaging the international reputation of America. And in his book that he co-wrote entitled The Restless Wave, McCain says that Trump, and I quote, seems uninterested in the moral character of world leaders and their regimes. The appearance of toughness, or a reality show facsimile of toughness, seems to matter more than any of our values. Flattery secures his friendship and criticism his enmity. Now, the reason I, I share this is because individuals running companies and countries can make or break a reputation. And many countries are now starting to worry about America's role. And what's happening, of course, is that then, as we've seen just, uh, on June 22nd in Europe, The European government turning to China. Now, if we have an organization and leadership, and we are leading organizations, most of us here, then where are the clues to what we should be doing that would get people leading and following us and not turning away from us? Because in effect, what Trump is doing, for example, to the Europeans is he's. He's putting them into the camp of the Chinese. He's creating a much stronger competitor for himself and for America than there otherwise would have been. Now, interestingly enough, a Pew report earlier on in 2015 said that Americans overwhelmingly think of Japanese as hardworking, inventive, and honest, with few negative personal traits. But the Japanese view as Americans is, is the opposite. In fact, they said that only 25% of Japanese believe that the Americans are hardworking. And while 19% of Americans view Japanese as selfish, 47% of Japanese say that the Americans are selfish. Now, of course, we have 2 cultures there, the, the Asian culture of the family and society being of more importance than the individual, and the American dream, of course, all being about the pursuit of individual happiness. So these 2 societies, and all of them in between, are diametrically opposed to one another. But what it is showing is that countries and companies are living with preset biases about them, and the leadership of an organization can enhance or undermine that. Now, interestingly enough, there was some survey report from the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which said— and a little bit old, but in 2013, so about the same time as the Japanese were considering the Americans as less industrious. This research showed that the average Japanese employee worked 1,735 hours and the average American 1,788. In other words, the Americans were putting in more hours than the Japanese. The director of global economic attitudes for the Pew Research at the time, said that stereotypes such as honesty or inventiveness or aggression are emotions. They're not rational views backed by data, but these emotions do matter because such stereotypes help drive broader attitudes about policy. And I'm quoting the Pew Research partly because it's one of the great American independent think tanks, and also a good friend of mine, Daniel Morrison, is a director of communications out there, and he kindly shares these wonderful reports. So Dan, if you're listening, thank you as always for being a leading light and one of the Americans that I trust to be a bastion of good leadership and integrity. So Mr. Stokes is saying that stereotypes matter, and the reason that this is important when it comes to public relations is that People will view a country or a company from a position of stereotypes. Now, unless we have someone like Donald Trump who is going around sort of actively undermining this stereotype, the stereotype of a country or a company or an organization is quite hard-fixed and hard— quite hardwired and takes a long time to build. And also a long time to destroy. So when we are looking at our own performance and our own leadership, I wonder whether John McCain would be a man who would give us some guidance about what people are looking for. And in his evaluation of Trump, he talks about moral character, and this comes back time and time again throughout leadership. That it is the leadership that we show during good and hard times, but more importantly, that leadership is about showing care for others and that taking care of others is important. If we follow that mantra, then we look at our organization and our company as showing leadership by knowing how to create value and take care of those people be they our internal, our partners, or our external. So there's another stereotype which we have to look at, which is that of where our business sits already in the worldview of economics, for example. Now, I had a conversation today with an accountant and explained what I do, and he said, oh, that's great, because if you've got your offices in Asia, as we do as EastWest PR, you're, you're already set for a great business because, you know, 2 centuries ago belonged to the British, last century to the Americans, but the next century will belong to Asia, and probably more realistically to, to China. Now, he has then in his mind that Asia is already where the future lies and that America is not where the future lies. Now, of course, I agree, but what it does, it creates a supportive environment for a business like mine, East West Public Relations, where I'm working to help companies to go overseas through cross-cultural communications and actually getting work done in individual countries, as we've done this week for INEOS. So our companies will live with a stereotype about the kind of company that it already is. For example, if it's in coal, or if it's in automotive, or if it's in clean tech, or if it's in medical, there'll be a stereotype about that. There will be a stereotype about the kind of leader or people that we are, and that will also impact how people view our company and they want to do business with us. And there'll be the broader macro aspects of how our company is is positioned inside a growing or a maturing or even a declining economy. So Independence Day for America is different every year, of course, but as we've seen from the Pew Research, the reputation of America is not the same every Independence Day. Our reputations as business owners and the reputations of our businesses and those of our countries are made or broken by the work that we do for others more than the work we do for ourselves, which is why America First might have been a great vote winner. But as we've seen from the Pew Research, it's not been a great way to build the reputation of America as a world leader. So with that, I say, wish you all happy 4th of July. And I hope that during this conversation, you've had a few insights that you can find will add value to you and to your organization. In the meantime, I wish you the best of health and a profitable business, and that you keep on communicating. Thank you.
