Trump latest 'triumph' is really just a spotlight on a major failure: analysis

A political coup for Donald Trump has come back to bite him after it highlighted just how poor the president is at clear messaging.

Though the foreign policy win will see China back away from its involvement in the Panama Canal, the action itself will do little to win the Republican Party, or the president, much in the way of political gains at home. Trump had pushed for action to be taken against China at the start of his second term. Panamanian courts have since ruled that China's claim to ports in the Panama Canal is unconstitutional.

Writing in The Hill, Keith Naughton suggested the victory would be helpful for the Trump administration, but the lack of fanfare for the decision is telling.

He wrote, "Trump first demanded Chinese interests be ejected from involvement in canal operations at the start of his presidency. After a year of obstruction and demands by the Chinese Communist Party, the Panamanian Supreme Court rebuked China worse than Judge Smails rebuked his nephew Spalding in 'Caddyshack.'

"As a result, Chinese interests, which had managed the canal and its ports since 1997, had all contract rights terminated. By any measure, this is an outstanding foreign policy coup for Trump. But it’s a triumph from which he has gained practically nothing in the polls or among the media — and that’s an inexcusable messaging failure.

"The lack of political gain for this success in Panama is part of a larger problem. Trump and his team do not seem to have any public relations plan, no strategic or long-term messaging."

Part of the problem could be in how Trump uses Truth Social to administer policy and updates on news affecting the US. Naughton accused the president of having no strategy to detail administrative successes or changes. He continued, "Trump just posts on Truth Social and the larger administration echoes.

"That plan might work if Trump could stay on topic. But either he can’t or he won’t. His 3 a.m. stream of consciousness not only sends the media, government and Wall Street in any number or directions, it also breaks up any narrative from the day before — not to mention pushing his accomplishments into the background.

"It is an unconscionable waste by the president, who has completely disintermediated the establishment media in a way that no other public figure ever has. Trump’s ability to take his case directly to the public is unparalleled.

"Blaming messaging on your political woes is for losers, but Trump doesn’t seem to have any strategy at all."