The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications

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According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term as US president – and Trump 2.0 has also shown little regard for facts or evidence. Unexpected presidential announcements are made on social media or in press conferences, and Trump’s positions can appear to change overnight. Leaders of other countries, including Keir Starmer, find their own plans and statements overshadowed or knocked off course.

Despite this chaos and confusion, Trump appears authentic and able to galvanise his base while other, more conventional, political communicators struggle to get their message across.

So is Trump rewriting the rules for government communications? Does the UK have sufficient safeguards against our political leaders adopting Trump’s attitude to facts? Does the UK have robust enough rules to ensure that government communications serve the public not partisan interest? And how is it possible to plan government communications when those plans are constantly blown away by overnight developments in the US?

To discuss these questions and more, the Institute for Government, in partnership with Vuelio, was delighted to bring together an expert panel including:

• Katy Balls, Washington Editor for The Times
• Simon Baugh, Chief Executive of Government Communications, 2021–25
• Alastair Campbell, former No.10 Chief Press Secretary (1997–2000) and No.10 Director of Communications (2000–03) and presenter of the Rest is Politics podcast.
• Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government

This webinar was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. 

We would like to thank Vuelio for kindly supporting this event.

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