My Take | Trump’s CIA disinformation op against China was small beer
- Ex-president’s clandestine influence operation revealed by Reuters was just a small cog in a gigantic and pervasive US propaganda machine
Last week, Reuters dropped what it must have thought was a bombshell exclusive. While in office, former US president Donald Trump ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to launch a clandestine disinformation campaign on Chinese social media to turn public opinion against Beijing.
The response? Most people just yawned. What did Trump think his own government had been doing all those times?
For all his cynicism, he could be quite naive about the nefarious capabilities of his own government. The fact that he started off as an outsider to the political establishment might have something to do with it.
Speaking at a university event in 2019, Trump’s own secretary of state once boasted: “When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
In America’s classic political playbook, those whom it aims to destroy or undermine it first must dehumanise and demonise through pervasive and relentless propaganda. This is so whether it is individuals, groups, governments or races, from native Americans to Palestinians today.