CHRIS CRUCIAL: How Mr. Burns explains Donald Trump's day-one strategy 🤔

PLUS: The Oath Controversy! 🧯

This nightly newsletter is for paid subscribers only. Why subscribe? Read my mission statement! Become a paid subscriber today for just $6 a month or $60 for the year. That gives you access to not just this newsletter but ALL of my content. A subscription also comes with lots of other perks — including a 15-minute, one-on-one Zoom with me! 📞

1. Flood. The. Zone. 🌊

(Photo via Flickr)

While I was watching the Trump Show on Monday — almost 12 hours straight of it! — I kept thinking the same thing: This is JUST like when Mr. Burns goes to the doctor in “The Simpsons.”

Yes, my mind works in mysterious ways.

Let me explain for people not familiar with the show. Mr. Burns is the mean old rich guy who lives in Springfield. He is Homer’s boss. He is, to borrow a word that is very hot right now, a bit of an oligarch.

At one point, Mr. Burns decides to go to the doctor to get a physical. And here’s what happens:

The doctor tells Burns that he is “the sickest man in the United States.” And yet, he is not sick at all — due to “Three Stooges Syndrome.” As in, all of Mr. Burns’s illnesses are trying to get through the door to infect him but they are all blocking each other out. And so, he feels perfectly fine.

Donald Trump is trying, in his professed “shock and awe” efforts in his first 24 hours in office, to recreate something like “Three Stooges Syndrome.”

As in, he is putting SO many things out there — Panama Canal! Birthright citizenship! January 6 pardons! Greenland! Federal workers! External Revenue Service! Paris Climate Accords! World Health Organization! — that it’s impossible to know where to look.

The reality of the modern media — riven by cuts and, well, shrinkage — is that they are simply not able to cover all these storylines adequately. And even if they could, there’s no way the average person would pay close attention; it’s just too much all at once.

Trump and his advisers know this.

Unlike in 2017 when Trump and those around him were just trying to figure out how to get through each day in the White House, there is a plan now. And they are executing that plan.

What does that mean for you?

Well, this is going to be self-serving BUT I also think it is true: You need to find a few sources of news and analysis that you trust. People (or larger organizations) who can tell you what matters and, as importantly, what doesn’t. Who can show you where to look on a given day.

I'll give you a few of mine for free! On the White House, I follow Peter Baker’s lead. For Congress, Paul Kane. China?

Bill Bishop

.

You don’t need to use my people! Or me! But you need some people who can serve as your guides through this information overload.

Because day one of the Trump presidency isn’t the exception. It’s going to be the rule.

This is a strategy. It is purposeful. The more things Trump can do, the harder it is to pay attention to any one of them. Which means that lots of things that might be big deals wind up slipping through the cracks.

As I’ve written before, simply checking out isn’t really a responsible option or choice. But taking control of what you consume — and being purposeful about it — is the solution here. (Sidebar: I will have a longer post about media diets in the next few days.)

Donald Trump isn’t going to slow down. And you need to adjust accordingly.