When Presidential Silence Speaks Louder than Words
What We Can Learn From JFK’s Decision to Abandon a Speech on the Nuclear Crisis
President Trump’s speech before the Republican National Convention (RNC) will provide an interesting coda to a year marred by White House communication blunders. In March, as COVID-19 took over newsfeeds and threatened hospitals and households, an average of 8.5 million people seeking guidance—“roughly the viewership of the season finale of The Bachelor, according to the New York Times—tuned in to President Trump’s then-daily coronavirus television briefings. But by June, the president had threatened military action against protesters and had posed in front of St. John’s Episcopal church clutching a bible …
