4 major stories that went under the radar due to Trump's 'flood the zone' strategy
President Donald Trump has seemingly wedged a decade's worth of head-spinning decisions, feuds, gaffes and scandals into his first year back in the White House, and according to a year-end analysis fromThe Independent, at least four "outrageous" stories got buried in obscurity amid the onslaught of news.
As the outlet noted, Trump and the wider MAGA political movement are well-known for adhering to Steve Bannon's "flood the zone" strategy, which involves inundating the press and observers with so much newsworthy content that they cannot keep up, allowing some objectionable things to skate by unnoticed.
The first story The Independent highlighted was the "Friday-night massacre" of watchdog officials. Just five days into his second term, Trump fired "independent inspectors general who root out waste, fraud and abuse within federal agencies and departments" from nearly every cabinet-level agency, violating laws requiring him to give notice to Congress before doing so.
Trump attempted to claim that such firings were "very common" and accused the fired officials of "unfair conduct." The Independent observed that this move allowed the positions to be filled with "loyalists."
The second story highlighted was Trump's claim — less than a month into his second term — that the U.S. would take control of the Gaza region, "displacing the 2.1 million Palestinians living there while the territory is rebuilt as 'the Riviera of the Middle East.'" The claim came during a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and "sent Middle East experts’ heads spinning" while also generating accusations of ethnic cleansing.
Trump claimed that “everybody” he had told about the plan “loves the idea." It was, however, swiftly denounced by both Saudi Arabia and Hamas, with the latter calling it "ridiculous and absurd."
The third story highlighted came in April, when Trump used an executive order to target one specific individual, Miles Taylor, who had been a vocal critic of his political machinations for years. Taylor previously worked as chief of staff for John Kelly, Trump's first Homeland Security Secretary from his first term, and famously penned an anonymous New York Times op-ed critical of Trump and the people inside the administration working to "shield the government from [his] worst instincts."
The White House claimed Taylor was being stripped "of any active clearance that he has in light of his past activities involving classified information," though nothing he ever published in his criticisms of Trump was ever accused of involving classified information.
The same day, Trump issued a similar order stripping clearances from Chris Krebs and his employer, SentinelOne, of security clearances. Krebs worked as a cybersecurity official in Trump's first term and incurred the president's wrath after his 2020 election loss when he claimed that race had been the most secure one in American history, throwing cold water on Trump's fraud claims.
The final story highlighted a quote Trump shared to social media less than a month after he was sworn in, citing a Napoleon quote to claim that he was above the law.
"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law," a post to Trump's Truth Social and X accounts read.
The post came as Trump's sweeping executive orders, aiming to reshape the government in his image, and his mass layoffs of government employees were being met with stern pushback from federal judges.