I watched “The Apprentice” this weekend. My poor wife has had flu for ten days and I’ve been doing a lot of childcare, as well as running the business. On Saturday and Sunday night our four-year-old did me the enormous favor of falling asleep on time. I’ve found that if I stream the NBA on my phone while he’s lying next to me, it takes about four minutes. #TopTips
This meant I was able to do a thing called “watch a movie”, while my wife recuperated on our sofa-bed in the office. I used to “watch movies” all the time, but these days it’s a rare occurrence. 90 minutes when you don’t have to be doing something? Not lately!
“The Apprentice” is worth watching. When I first saw a clip of Donald Trump’s lawyer, Roy Cohn, played by Jeremy Strong, giving him advice? I thought it was a great premise for something. But I wasn’t sure if the tone of the film could work throughout.
I’m glad to say that the movie was better than I expected. Mr. Strong imbues Roy Cohn with a quality that evinces your sympathy. He’s a nutcase and a criminal. But he also loves Trump. The film makes a case for his helping Trump for that reason. His advice to Trump:
1. Attack, attack, attack.
2. Admit nothing, deny everything.
3. Always claim victory, never admit defeat.
Donald Trump’s own review of the film is as follows:
“A cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out to try and hurt the greatest political movement in the history of our country.” “The writer of this pile of garbage [is] a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited… HUMAN SCUM.”
Which sorta sounds like something you would expect him to say, based on his comms training!
Even as Cohn loses power — he’s both gay and deeply homophobic, and succumbs to AIDS — Trump refuses to take his calls. Then Trump hosts a dinner for Cohn at Mar-A-Lago, trying to salvage some sense of friendship from a relationship which precludes authentic human feeling. You can see both men struggling with themselves. Trump orders his staff to fumigate the dining room afterwards.
The movie treats Trump, too, with empathy, showing the suicide of his alcoholic older brother, and imagining how it may have twisted him. Not to mention his fascist dad. By the end of the film, Trump is obsessed with his appearance, germophobic, isolated, and as we’re all now aware, yet to even really get started.
I’m not suggesting that those who communicate for good causes should follow Cohn’s tactics, always. But if the right is able to pursue a playbook like this to dominate the narrative, what can we learn from it? Remember:
1. Attack, attack, attack.
2. Admit nothing, deny everything.
3. Always claim victory, never admit defeat.
Let’s say, for example, you’re a major law firm about to capitulate to the administration? Or a major university? You could do worse than take a leaf from Mr. Cohn’s book. It’s only possible to do so if you’re prepared to be decisive and make big bets, of course. I’m not saying they’re the right bets, either. And in the case of the law firm and the university, it’s still unclear how those will play out.
But here’s another good example. The Ben & Jerry’s founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, have stood up for the firm’s ousted CEO, who was removed from the company by its owner, Unilever.
“Dave has been a tireless champion of this company and its progressive values,” said the founders, who are no longer members of the brand’s independent board. “We believe there’s no one better to lead Ben & Jerry’s at this moment in its history.” Ben & Jerry’s alleged that Unilever prevented the ice cream brand from issuing posts commemorating Black History Month and supporting Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, the U.S. legal permanent resident who was detained this month after helping lead pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year.
Oh, there’s that university again! It’s good to see the playbook working both ways where Columbia is concerned.
Thanks for reading, as always. Please share this email with anybody you feel might appreciate it.
Matt Davis is a strategic communications consultant in Manhattan.
