President-elect uses YouTube to outline priorities, woo sceptics
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump released a two-and-a-half-minute video early yesterday, turning to social media to deliver a direct-to-camera message in which he vowed to create jobs, renegotiate trade agreements, end restrictions on energy production and impose bans on lobbying.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump released a two-and-a-half-minute video early yesterday, turning to social media to deliver a direct-to-camera message in which he vowed to create jobs, renegotiate trade agreements, end restrictions on energy production and impose bans on lobbying.
Mr Trump offered what he called an update on his transition, which he said was going “very smoothly, efficiently and effectively”. Reading from a script and looking into the camera, Mr Trump steered clear of his most inflammatory campaign promises to deport immigrants, track Muslims and repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Whether it’s producing steel, building cars or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America — creating wealth and jobs for American workers,” he said in the video.
The brief YouTube video offered one of the few opportunities for the public to hear from Mr Trump directly since he was elected two weeks ago. The President-elect has declined to hold a news conference since his victory, and instead has used morning Twitter bursts to communicate.
He delivered a brief middle-of-the-night speech after Mrs Hillary Clinton called him on Nov 9 to concede defeat. And he sat for an interview with The Wall Street Journal and a gauzy appearance on CBS News’ 60 Minutes last week. Since then, he has mostly been hunkered down behind closed doors as he assembles his Cabinet and White House team.
In the video, Mr Trump described his plans to “make America great again” on day one, but his message seemed aimed less at the supporters who chanted that slogan at rallies and more at the Americans who remain sceptical about it. He appeared to appeal to those voters at the end of the video, and promised to provide more updates as he worked together with everyone to reach his goals. “And I mean everyone,” he emphasised. The video underscored the extent to which Mr Trump intends to try and navigate the traditional media as he seeks to communicate his message to the public.
Mr Trump yesterday backed out of a meeting he had called with The New York Times and said on Twitter the “terms and conditions” were changed, which The Times denied. But a Trump spokesperson later confirmed that the meeting would be “taking place as planned”.
A day before, he met executives and anchors from the nation’s biggest television networks for an “off the record” meeting, and sources told CNN that he complained about the media coverage and was highly critical of CNN and other news organisations.
In releasing it, Mr Ari Fleischer, who served as White House Press Secretary under Mr George W Bush, said Mr Trump was using technology to quickly and effectively communicate with the public in a format that Mr Bush’s staff would never have dreamed of doing 15 years ago, because the news media would have dismissed it as propaganda. President Barack Obama has become adept at doing the same thing in recent years, through videos posted on Facebook and other media. Mr Fleischer said: “He’s just doing more of what President Obama successfully did, and what I’m fascinated about is, what does this mean for the future?”
Mr Trump also spent Monday at his office in Trump Tower, interviewing a stream of potential Cabinet candidates. They included Mr Rick Perry, a former governor of Texas; former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts; and Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a Democrat.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Mr Trump’s video was what he did not say. On immigration, he avoided any mention of his plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico or his desire to deport immigrants living in the US illegally, whether or not they have a criminal record. He made no mention of ending Mr Obama’s programme that grants work permits to immigrants who were taken illegally to the US as children.
Instead, Mr Trump simply promised to direct the Labour Department to investigate visa abuses.
The tough-talking President-elect, who has often railed against Mr Obama and “the generals” for what he often called their “stupid” conduct of foreign policy, said nothing in the video about fighting terrorism, confronting Russian aggression, or pressuring North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies to pay more for their common defence.
Instead, he said he would ask his top military officials for a comprehensive plan to guard America’s vital infrastructure from “cyber attacks, and all other form of attacks”.
Mr Trump’s other promises in the video recapped points that he made repeatedly during the campaign, offering a series of executive actions that he says he will order on his first full day in the Oval Office.
Some, like his pledge to “issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership” trade deal, will be well within his power as President to accomplish. But his additional promise to “negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores” may not produce the results he expects.
Others appear to be political hyperbole, like his promise in the video to “cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy including shale energy and clean coal — creating many millions of high-paying jobs”. THE NEW YORK TIMES