简体中文
**Editor's note: **Tu Yun is a journalist at China Plus. The article represents the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.
The Trump administration has come up with a propaganda playbook, the "Corona Big Book," for a unified voice in shifting attention away from its disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic. The key point is to vent public anger by concentrating on attacking others.
This desperate adjustment of tactic came after Republicans' realization that the economy may not be on their side in the foreseeable future to boost President Donald Trump's re-election prospect and after the president's bluff about how "great" his response has been to the pandemic was debunked by the media.
Though the U.S. government is lousy at coordinating efforts in fighting COVID-19, it is very efficient in finding scapegoats and tuning the rhetoric for passing the buck.
In the 57-page playbook compiled by Republican debate coach Brett O'Donnell, Republican senators and Senate candidates are told not to defend Trump when asked whether the failure is the president's fault. Instead, they should pivot to "attacking China."
A screenshot of a page from the Corona Big Book.
The narratives, such as China underreported the scope of the virus and the number of deaths, have been refuted by the World Health Organization and many renowned health experts on various occasions. Republicans just wish that an illusion of truth would be created and accepted when the false accusations are repeated a thousand times in a coordinated manner.
The playbook also outlines a slew of other targets to hit – the WHO, Democrats and political correctness, such as social justice and identity politics, which it claims have made this crisis worse.
But whether this well-designed propaganda playbook can help reverse President Trump's declining approval ratings, as the Grand Old Party wishes it would, remains a question.
A recent Gallup poll has found that Trump's approval rate has dropped to 43 percent by mid-April from 49 percent in March. And his disapproval rating was up nine points at 54 percent. A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that only 23 percent of Americans say they have high levels of trust in what Trump is saying about the pandemic. Why should the public continue to count on the president and the party that he leads for another term if they cannot be trusted in solving the ongoing life-or-death problem?
(CGTN)
