Bad Communication Skills

Originally posted on July 24, 2017, on "The Leftovers" at WordPress.com

Edited on 04-16-2018: Grammatically, Readability, and Visually

*Additions made on 04-16-2018

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You can call it irony, you can believe the planets aligned at the right moment, you might even say it is destiny but, it wasn't intentionally planned.

As I was looking at my newly revamped writing schedule, the topic I wanted to focus on for, Part Two of, "An Open Letter to The Right", is communications.

Today also happens to be the day America's favorite White House Press Secretary to make fun of, Sean "Spicey" Spicer, has resigned.


I could write an entire post about Mr. Sean Spicer, but I won't. However, it is of importance this news stays at the front of your mind while reading.

It is also important I mention I'm only talking about the Presidents in office during my adult livelihood, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

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President Trump and his administration have a problem with communications. They are obviously ill-equipped to deal with internal leaks from staffers, they put the ghost of George Orwell on notice with Kellyanne Conway's, infamous "Alternative Facts" interview on, "Meet the Press", and let's face it, President Trump is not a great public speaker.

It has gotten to the point where whenever I hear any recording of him speaking at a public event, I have to fast forward past him talking.

President Bush had the, "Fool me once..." gaffe but, his administration didn't follow in trade.

George W. Bush had one of the more professional White House Press Secretaries in, Ari Fleischer.


I don't remember hearing about leaks, online or otherwise during Mr. Fleischer's time as The White House Press Secretary.

President Bush, as much as I didn't enjoy his presidency, never made me want to look past his speeches or other public appearances.

President Obama is easily the best public speaker out of the three.

Articulate, concise, and inspiring. His speeches brought an air of dignity to his Presidency. He angered Conservatives and, "The Right", because of the way he and his administration took to social media.


President Trump does have a very tough act to follow, but he isn't doing himself any favors. He doesn't talk to people, he yells at them, he uses a now underwhelming and predictable vocabulary to the state of boredom, and quite frankly, he sounds far too angry for a man who can seemingly only tout his own accomplishments, of which, I'm at a loss for remembering what they are at this point.

It is safe to say he isn't a "social media rock star". For those who are not aware of a certain subreddit, feel free to take a look at this.

The point is, I feel like when I look at past Presidents, I don't remember an entire administration falling into a largely categorical failure when it comes to communications. The Trump Administration is definitely a first, for me.

This isn't what people had in mind when talking about Trump being a Washington D.C. outsider either.

This is a man who had high television ratings. He didn't speak in this manner during, "The Apprentice". It makes me wonder if this is all a character change for him, which, makes me question his legitimacy as a human being, let alone President of the United States of America.


I didn't vote for Trump, but after coming to terms with him winning the Presidency, I really wanted the best for his Presidency and more specifically, America.

Everything I had hoped for going into this year made me believe there was room for growth, Trump was, in fact, capable of changing, he really does want to be the President of The United States of America, and all of this has since been proven false by President Trump himself.

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*This post was apparently more of a description of things to come without even knowing.

Since originally publishing, the list of Trump Administration resignations and firings has grown substantially.

- White House Speechwriter: David Sorenson.

- Assistant Press Secretary: Michael Short.

- Director of Communications for The White House Office of Public Liasion (2): George Sifakis and Omarosa Manigault-Newman.

- Deputy Communications Director: Josh Raffel.

- Communications Director (2): Anthony Scaramucci and Hope Hicks.

- Deputy White House Chief of Staff: Rick Dearborn.

- White House Chief of Staff: Reince Priebus.

- Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor: Steve Bannon.

A total of ten integral parts of the overall communication systems of The White House.

For some perspective, Barack Obama had a total of five Communications Directors over his two 4-year Presidential terms. President Donald Trump has had four Directors of Communications since his inauguration.

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