Trump’s Crisis Playbook Shows Why Blame Shifting Always Fails
What you will learn from this article:
Why shifting blame during a PR crisis consistently increases negative media coverage
How historic corporate failures show the real consequences of panic-driven crisis responses
What communicators should advise clients to do when facing investigations or high-stakes public scrutiny
Arguably the worst thing a person can do during a PR crisis is what President Trump did on Friday, Nov. 14: panicking.
He did so in what I consider the worst possible way, by ordering the Justice Department to investigate Democrats’ relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, hoping that any damaging disclosures about Democrats would wipe away damaging disclosures about him.
Doing so signals that the president is seriously worried about what the Epstein files will reveal regarding his involvement. A person who has done nothing wrong, as Trump has insisted repeatedly to the point he may believe it, would not be concerned about what those files will show when they are released.
What Trump’s action shows, in addition to his fear about what the record may reveal, is that he would fail a course in PR 101.
I can write that with confidence for a simple reason: Whenever individuals attempt to shift blame during a PR crisis, it backfires. The result is always more, rather than less, negative coverage.
Two famous examples illustrate the point.
During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP leaders led by CEO Tony Hayward tried to blame other companies and even workers. BP tried to fault the sunken Transocean rig and Halliburton, which was responsible for cementing the well. According to press reports, BP argued, “This was not our accident … This was not our drilling rig ... This was Transocean’s rig. Their systems. Their people. Their equipment.” The approach positioned BP as dishonest instead of a company that experienced an accident, and it triggered more unsympathetic coverage.
The same pattern emerged after two Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 on Oct. 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg attempted to shift blame to multiple factors and said the pilots did not “completely” follow procedures. That strategy only intensified negative media attention, which continues today.
Trump’s request that the Justice Department investigate Epstein ties among Democrats “came two days after a congressional committee released thousands of documents that raised new questions about the president’s relationship with the late financier, and marks the latest in a series of demands by Trump for federal law enforcement to pursue his perceived political enemies,” Reuters reported.
Some people over the years have said Trump is a PR genius. I am not one of them, because I have never seen him do anything that justifies that label.
During his 2016 run, much was made of his calling into TV shows live on air. It was unique only because he did something serious political figures would not do. Creative in a limited sense, yes, although it depended entirely on TV producers eager for ratings. They would have done the same for any politician. If anyone deserves credit, it is the producers.
His MAGA campaign was an outgrowth of the Tea Party movement. He did not invent the Tea Party. And his outreach to white supremacists, fascists and bigots of all kinds is nothing new. American history is full of fascistic demagogues, from Sen. Joe McCarthy’s “everyone is a communist except me” rhetoric to groups like the Proud Boys, the National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Freedom Network, the American Nazi Party, the National Alliance, the German American Bund and the Ku Klux Klan. There is nothing original or creative about Trump appealing to bigots. Many of the tactics he uses echo fascist and neo-fascist playbooks that long predate him.
All of those groups, and many others that stain American history, had one thing in common: a demagogic leader who gained influence by pitting people against one another, as Trump does. The copycat is hardly the first person to do so.
Internet reports based on a 1990 Vanity Fair article say Trump’s late first wife, Ivana Trump, told her lawyer that Trump kept a book of Adolf Hitler’s collected speeches, “My New Order,” in a cabinet by his bed and would read it periodically. The book reportedly was a gift from Marty Davis, who confirmed giving Trump a book of Hitler’s speeches but not “Mein Kampf.” In addition, John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, has publicly stated that Trump praised Hitler multiple times while in office, saying Hitler “did a lot of good things.” Kelly said Trump admired the loyalty of Nazi officers and wished for similar loyalty from his own generals, at one point asking, “Why can’t you be like the German generals” of the Third Reich.
Not even Trump’s demagogic or fascist tendencies are original.
There are three important lessons for PR people handling a client facing a crisis.
As I have advised clients many times, attempts to shift blame to another person or entity are a PR 101 mistake because they only lead to more coverage of the problem. Trump should have stuck to his original statement that he knows nothing about the Epstein files and has done nothing wrong, then allowed his attorneys to handle the matter. His constant denials produced more negative attention. Ordering an investigation of Democrats does nothing to address the current situation. They are not in office, and none of those who might be investigated will ever become president. What it does is position Trump as someone desperately attempting to shift the story, a tactic that never succeeds. Do not do it.
A panicking client will always make a situation worse.
And when the media is fully engaged, even the best PR minds cannot stop negative coverage.
