The state of California deserves a special mention, as the Republicans made a very strong investment in advertising, apparently to try to get their fifty-five electoral votes, but the reality turned out to be different. Clinton made the mistake of spending time, campaign team personnel, and economic and advertising resources in a state that heavily favored the Democratic Party.
In this way, Trump could turn to the states located on the East Coast and the Great Lakes region5, with the intention of pointing out the deepening economic issues, which very high percentages of the population had been experiencing.
“[…] Trump keeps saying he´s going to spend $ 100 million on his cam- paign […]” (The Washington Post)
3. Symbiosis of the new and the old: communication, publicity, message
“How Trump won by spending half as much money as Clinton […] ‘We had enough money and the right candidate. It´s as simple as that’, said Lewis Eisenberg, the Republican National Committee´s finance chair- man. […]” (USAToday)
Trump announced his intention to appear in the Republican primaries with very clear ideas and predesigned messages. As already mentioned in the first section, his experience in the sales and advertising sector guaranteed him a good understanding and ability to work with the specialists of his political team. The speech for his first appearance in New York, on June 16, 2015, was not only a declaration of intentions, but a kind of extract of slogans, promises and affirmations, which would be very present through- out the electoral campaign (2016 ) and in his speech of his inauguration as president (2017). The poster with the motto “Make America Great Again”
was present on candidate Trump´s stage, flanking the lectern and eight American flags, and with the song “Rocking in the Free World” (Neil Young) at full volume.
The dichotomy between the new and the old reflects the immense effort made by the team of candidate Trump in his attempt to fight for the young- est electorate. It was intended to convey the message that in a large country all citizens had a place, regardless of their age or situation. Campaign ad- vertising and the dissemination of information and political messages were a mixture of detailed programming and improvisation of the candidate at specific moments (Corder, 2016, pp. 13-20, Hendricks and Schill, 2017, pp. 121-130). This conjunction of factors could be compiled in the following classification:
1. The implementation of advertising objectives is established on a previous segmentation and a selection process based on the chances of success.
The objectives close to the Republican Party are propped up, the objec- tives close to the Democratic Party are ignored and the possibility of approaching the peripheral elements of all the political options is worked in depth.
2. The construction of the concepts of empty meaning, flexible meaning and the open meaning. Simple and assimilable slogans are proclaimed, which the electors interpret and decode according to their ideological predilections and personal beliefs. In this sense, the phrases “Make America Great Again” and “America First” have multiple meanings and multiple interpretations. Trump supporters consider that making a big country again could mean: good jobs, high salaries, open factories, va- cations as in previous decades, a country without immigration, fully English-speaking, the ability to go out to dinner on weekends, medical insurance in the company, the possibility of changing cars, owning a house, having solvency in a rural area, safe streets, being able to fly home for family celebrations, having access to higher education, etc.
3. The use of fear, despair and distrust, through vagueness, exaggerations, inaccuracies, popular myths, urban legends and false news, incorporat- ed into the official campaign, in the front line of the political debate. The purpose of this use of ineffable and irrational elements is related to the gradual elimination of the theoretical and deontological components of the political debate and the media. This strategy was proposed for both mobilization and demobilization.
4. The thematic assault of the media and the news coverage of journalism professionals. When the journalistic approach is not appropriate for the interests of projection of favorable messages, candidate Trump al- ways redirected the debates, the press conferences, the interviews and the interpellations by means of exaggerations, outbursts, controversial statements, falsehoods, victimizations, organizational resources, etc. It is what has been known journalistically as “taking the initiative in the debate,” at the price of skipping all tactical agreements and cordiality frames for public debate between Republicans and Democrats.
5. The permanent contact with the people throughout the Republican pri- maries and the whole presidential campaign was an element of enormous impact among the public opinion. This process of approaching people
was carried out through causal encounters in the street, in political party events, in sudden visits to work places, in photographic meetings (selfies) with thousands of people, with the incorporation of the public in political scenarios and with the call of the campaign volunteers to take the initi- ative. In this sense, candidate Trump presumed to be an ordinary man, a politician who listens to people and who knows the social reality. He boasted about having the most loyal followers and the most transversal and patriotic electorate.
6. The permanent evocation of the greatness of the United States, adapt- ing messages and historical icons of the American culture to the point of mythologizing the socio-economic past. Under this premise, Trump did not miss the opportunity to be photographed under an old advertising poster, to be wrapped in retro stylistic elements, to have meetings with veterans, to participate in outdated cultural activities, to quote letters and dialogues of great musical and cinematographic successes, synthesize the great political issues of Republican rhetoric, etc. The denunciation of the negative drift of the country, also deserves a mention, as in the placement of posters and campaign stickers in closed factories, in evict- ed buildings, activist seats, deteriorated infrastructures, entrances to ghettos, depopulated areas, etc. The projected image of the second half of the 20th century is an authentic historical distortion, but with a great sentimental component. The messages and products linked to the idea that any past time was better are very captivating for a large part of the population.
7. The creation of a common working framework between analogue com- munication media and digital communication platforms. The foundation of media for the campaign (a paradigmatic example would be Breitbart) and the use of social networks (the most symbolic case would be Twitter) of all kinds to generate debates among citizens, was another step in the peculiar battle of Trump with the established journalistic channels. The need to disseminate marathon days of political activity, in three, four and five states or cities a day, was very well covered. In the same way, this
action reinforced candidate Trump´s attempt to convey an image of being an unconventional politician and victim of the intransigent liberal press.
8. The permanent affirmation that the excess of ideological planning had placed the economy and political institutions in a catastrophic situation throughout the country. Of course, in all this rhetorical dramatization, the Democratic Party, and its progressive approaches and the influence of its peripheral sectors had placed the country in this critical situation.
In the crucial moment of 2016, candidate Trump came forward to solve all these problems, falsely arguing that he had no ideology, simply assert- ed that he was gifted with talent for the economy and concerned about the suffering of the American citizenry.