Look To The Taco: On Trump and The Effect of Social Media

Normally I don’t post about politics, but I’d like to comment on a trend I’ve seen on my newsfeed:

Step 1) Trump offends/outrages you. “How could he say BLANK.” In yesterday’s case (cinco de mayo), it was a photo of him about to eat a taco bowl in his office. The comment that I noticed got people upset was him saying “I love Hispanics”.

Step 2) You retweet/repost the photo of Trump doing this BLANK that pissed you off, or a media source of some kind commenting on the BLANK that pissed you off. Always includes the news-making BLANK Trump did.

Step 3) You wonder how gambling sites put him at 33% odds to win in November against one of the most powerful political dynasties in our country’s history (Hillary obviously at 66%.) Also, semi-related, if you want a good chuckle, visit the salt at tedcruz .com

That taco photo was retweeted 80,000 times, featured in Jimmy Fallon’s opening monologue, and generally dominated the news cycle on the only Mexican holiday (other than maybe the Day of the Dead) that is also fully celebrated in America. I’ll reiterate: the guy who has largely been identified as a nationalist populist dominated the news cycle for an international holiday because of the controversy created *right here* in the new political frontiers: Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere.

The folks who already support him got a festive photo and taco cravings. The folks who it offended stoked the echo chamber of outraged sentiment (calling him a hypocrite in myriad ways).

Only 20% of voting Americans participate or really pay attention in the primaries. In 2012, only 5–8% of the general electorate was truly “up for grabs” by either party. The rest of the campaign trail is about consolidating support and ensuring high-energy turnout in key states come November. What independents who haven’t been following the primaries saw on this holiday was a guy eating a taco bowl saying, “I love Hispanics”. When thinking back to the Cinco de Mayo issue itself, that’s what they’ll remember.

I can’t think of any other election in history where a man could eat a taco and dominate the news cycle. And I imagine that to anybody who *hasn’t* followed this process closely (ie who hasn’t contextualized and identified Trump based on previous statements he’s made and formed an opinion about him, whether positive or negative) — what they saw was A LOT of backlash against a guy for, once again, basically eating a taco. Not a political stance. Eating a taco on cinco de mayo.

So now when he goes up on stage and complains that the media treats him unfairly, opines that his supporters are critical thinkers who don’t blindly follow silencing, hate-filled leftist rhetoric, the STATEMENT HAS CREDENCE. They aren’t the ones who ridiculed a guy for eating a taco.

AND THE KICKER IS — when it ISN’T a picture of him eating a taco, when it’s his opinion on something YOU really care about or disagree with him on (deporting illegal immigrants, increased entitlement spending, replacing Obamacare, supporting Israel, American ground troops taking the fight to ISIS), you have burned your credibility with the true swing voters by crying wolf too often.

Every time something like this occurs, his 33% gets higher and her 66% gets lower. And you continue to shake your head with disbelief. “HOW IS THIS HAPPENING!?” You whisper with simmering rage at your phone screen as his poll numbers climb. And if you listen closely, you’ll hear it whisper back, “Look to the taco…”