In this YouTube commentary, Molly McPherson examines what she calls the administration’s latest public‑relations maneuver. She frames the move against a backdrop of recent news cycles – the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the contentious Iran testimony, and Pete Hegseth’s hours‑long testimony. McPherson then plays a clip from a 60 Minutes interview where Norah O’Donnell confronts Trump with excerpts from a manifesto that accuses administration officials of being targets and labels a “pedophile rapist and traitor.” Trump’s response is a brief, hostile rebuke. McPherson argues that a single word in Trump’s reply serves as the key to the PR strategy, and she promises to unpack that word, citing data from Muck Rack and a word‑cloud analysis of roughly 1,800 related stories. She directs viewers to a Substack article for a deeper dive.
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Did you notice the PR move from the administration this week, starting in news stories Saturday? The attempted assassination of, uh, Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and then, uh, the Iran testimony, Pete Hegseth, his hours of testimony, and just all the sniping. But what was the PR move? I'm going to show you a clip from 60 Minutes, Norah O'Donnell interviewing President Trump. There is one word in this response that leads you straight to the move.
Watch. The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this, quote, administration officials, they are targets. And he also wrote this, I'm no longer willing to permit a pedophile rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction?
Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you're, you're, you're horrible people. Horrible people.
It was the word knew. Trump knew that Norah O'Donnell was going to ask that question. And what did he do? He deflected. It's the deflection trap. I wrote about it today, published in my Substack highlighting the traps. What they look like, 4 of them. Trump used one that we see often. It was a question reversal. O'Donnell had the question about the manifesto. Trump had his answer. He reversed it right back at her, calling her a horrible person, which in essence he's calling all journalists who ask him, ask him pressing questions. They're all horrible. He uses a number of deflections all the time. Hegseth did the same thing in his hearing. In my article, I highlight 4 deflection traps that Trump defers to a lot, and I have the evidence backed up by Muck Rack. And the numbers show that the deflection actually works. In a week where we had news coverage about an assassination attempt, the coverage predominantly was grievance over competence. More evidence in a week where we had an attempted assassination. In this word cloud from news stories this week, over 1,800 news stories, Kimmel deflection. You want to read all about the deflections and how you can spot deflections, not just in the news, not just with the administration, but in your work and in your life. You can check out the article, link in bio.
