{"id":2578550,"date":"2026-03-11T10:10:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-is-betting-on-himself-and-his-cellphone-to-control-narrative\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:15:32","slug":"trump-is-betting-on-himself-and-his-cellphone-to-control-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-is-betting-on-himself-and-his-cellphone-to-control-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump is betting on himself, and his cellphone, to control narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-is-betting-on-himself-and-his-cellphone-to-control-narrative%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2578550&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>President Donald Trump has adopted a rapid, phone-based interview strategy to shape coverage of the Iran war, conducting dozens of brief 5-10 minute conversations with reporters across the media landscape to steer the narrative while <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >limiting real-time pushback<\/a>, as part of Operation Epic Fury.This approach marks a shift from marathon public events to these rapid calls, giving him a direct line to audiences who may not follow White House briefings or friendlier outlets and prompting some insiders to call it a \u201cstroke of genius.\u201d While praised by supporters for making his messaging relatable, several observers warn it could have diminishing returns and that war coverage remains driven by broader reporting and events. The tactic has been linked to market movements, with oil prices volatile and U.S. stocks reacting to his comments, including a CBS interview in wich he said the war could end \u201cvery soon,\u201d though White House officials maintain that policy announcements will come directly from the president.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Trump is betting on himself, and his cellphone, to control the Epic Fury narrative<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2528714\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donal-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"11621\">Donald Trump<\/a> has adopted a new strategy for shaping coverage of the war in Iran &mdash; a rapid-fire blitz of short phone interviews with reporters that allows him to drive the narrative while limiting real-time pushback<\/p>\n<p>Across his first term and the first quarter of his second, Trump has solidified himself as one of &mdash; if not the absolute &mdash; most media-friendly presidents in history. Trump routinely holds marathon press conferences at the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4487005\/trump-could-end-iran-war-without-unconditional-surrender\/\">White House<\/a> and on the road, both in stand-alone formats or pegged onto the back-end of other public appearances.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4487399\/house-trump-administration-tariff-mexican-beer\/\">House lawmakers to Trump: Don&#8217;t tariff Mexican beer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4483744\/low-support-iran-war-challenge-trump\/\">Low polling support for Iran war poses challenge for Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4487005\/trump-could-end-iran-war-without-unconditional-surrender\/\">White House says Trump could end Iran war without Tehran&#8217;s &#8216;unconditional surrender&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>But over the past several weeks, even before he gave the go-ahead for military operations in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4485890\/trump-says-iran-conflict-short-term-excursion\/\">Iran<\/a>, Trump had scaled back these events, and in the 12 days since the first bombs fell on Tehran, he&rsquo;s moved onto a new <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4480144\/flooding-zone-hurting-trump-iran-message\/\">strategy<\/a> for controlling the narrative: Conducting dozens of interviews by phone with reporters across the media landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the calls are brief, lasting between 5-10 minutes, but <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Trum<\/span>pworld insiders tell the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that these quick conversations are giving Trump another lever to pull when it comes to filtering news about the war, not to mention public perceptions and sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>One longtime, out-of-government adviser to the president called Trump&rsquo;s phone strategy a &ldquo;stroke of genius.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What you&rsquo;re seeing now is President Trump understanding the media even more than the reporters themselves do,&rdquo; that person assessed. &ldquo;These interviews aren&rsquo;t in an extended setting, so there isn&rsquo;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-staff-told-us-he-misspoke-joe-biden-confuses-his-agenda-in-60-minutes-interview-so-his-staff-steps-in-to-correct-the-record-video\/\" title=\"&quot;Biden&#039;s Staff Told Us He Misspoke&quot; - Joe Biden Confuses His Agenda in 60 Minutes ... so His Staff Steps in to Correct the Record (VIDEO)\">real time<\/a> to push back on the president&rsquo;s claims. Reporters [and] outlets will publish his words because who wouldn&rsquo;t publish an interview with the president? And it&rsquo;s giving the president a direct line to message around the war to audiences who might not be tuning into every single White House event, or audiences who don&rsquo;t consume so-called friendly media.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4480144\/flooding-zone-hurting-trump-iran-message\/\"><strong>&lsquo;TOO MANY COOKS&rsquo;: IS FLOODING THE ZONE HURTING TRUMP&rsquo;S IRAN MESSAGE?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">A former Trump White House official told the&nbsp;<em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&nbsp;that Trump&rsquo;s spe<\/span>cific choice of words is particularly effective in discussing the strategy and fallout from the war.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kamala-harriss-rushed-campaign-plays-in-her-favor-democratic-strategists-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Kamala Harris\u2019s rushed campaign plays in her favor: Democratic strategists - ...\">people aren&#038;rsquo<\/a>;t experts on military policy or foreign relations, or anything remotely political, really. Critics will say that President Trump speaks critically, or even un-presidentially, but I would say he speaks in a relatable way that all Americans can easily understand,&rdquo; the former official claimed. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s especially important while discussing events thousands of miles away, in a country most people have never and will never visit, with a lengthy cast of characters. [Trump] is able to easily explain to people why we&rsquo;re fighting in Iran, and roughly how long we&rsquo;ll stay there.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But it&rsquo;s not just voters who are influenced by Trump&rsquo;s choice of words. Wall Street also listens, as evidenced by huge swings in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/oil\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"292\">oil prices <\/a>and the domestic markets over the past 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/stock-market\/\">U.S. stocks<\/a> have gradually slipped since Trump first launched strikes last Saturday, and over the weekend, crude futures skyrocketed to more than $120 per barrel, a nearly 50% jump since the Iran war began, before settling back around $100 per barrel Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>However, Trump conducted a phone interview with CBS on Monday afternoon, where he announced that the war would end &ldquo;very soon.&rdquo; The statement that appeared to clash with War Secretary Pete Hegseth&rsquo;s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/4484885\/hegseth-signals-more-casualties-us-israel-operation-iran\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"4484885\">claim to <em>60 Minutes<\/em><\/a>  that America would soon ramp up operations in Iran. Still, Trump&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-is-betting-on-himself-and-his-cell-phone-to-control-narrative\/\" title=\"Trump is betting on himself, and his cell ..., to control ...\">words drove oil prices back<\/a> down to roughly $80 per barrel and allowed American stocks to rally before the markets closed.<\/p>\n<p>White House officials declined to offer insight into Trump&rsquo;s phone interview strategy, especially as it related to Monday&rsquo;s oil price movement, and said that &ldquo;any policy announcement&rdquo; on the issue &ldquo;will come directly from the president.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The White House is in constant coordination with the relevant agencies on this important issue, as it is a top priority to the President. President Trump and his entire energy team have had a strong game plan to keep the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/european-union-agrees-on-capping-russian-oil-prices\/\" title=\"European Union Agrees on Capping Russian ...\">energy markets stable<\/a> well before Operation Epic Fury began, and they will continue to review all credible options,&rdquo; White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. &ldquo;This is a short-term change in oil prices, which will drop dramatically once the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are achieved.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Peter Loge, a professor at George Washington University&rsquo;s School of Media and Public Affairs and the director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication, suggested to the&nbsp;<em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&nbsp;that Trump&rsquo;s phone strategy may have diminishing returns.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4487005\/trump-could-end-iran-war-without-unconditional-surrender\/\"><strong>WHITE HOUSE SAYS TRUMP COULD END IRAN WAR WITHOUT TEHRAN&rsquo;S &lsquo;UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER&rsquo;<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;President Trump built a career as a salesman and hustler. He talked people into buying his deals. Sometimes those deals worked well, sometimes they failed spectacularly,&rdquo; he claimed. &ldquo;When a deal fails, some people lose money, sometimes go bankrupt, and everyone moves on to the next deal. The challenge is that you can&rsquo;t walk away from a war the way you can from a failed casino.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Loge said that Trump&rsquo;s comments in recent days &ldquo;sound like someone trying to hold a high-stakes deal together,&rdquo; and &ldquo;he could be engaged in three-dimensional chess, or he could just be trying to keep all the pieces on the board however he can.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump nudges Iran-war narrative via quick phone chats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2645,"featured_media":2578551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25275667021877_2a90fb.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[13227,4188,4166,5894,3634],"class_list":["post-2578550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-cellphone","tag-media","tag-narrative","tag-politics","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25275667021877_2a90fb.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2578550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578559,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578550\/revisions\/2578559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2578551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2578550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2578550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2578550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}