There is a gem of a management book, Am I Being too Subtle? by the late US property mogul Sam Zell. It’s well worth a read. So pardon me if I ask: “Am I being too cynical?”

South Africa hosted the G20 towards the end of November, while Brazil presented COP30. At that time, US President Donald Trump decided to hunker down at his pad in Mar-a-Lago. He then proceeded to give a master-class in how to take ownership and dominate the world media channels and totally drown out everything else.

Captains of industry, political parties and even countries take note: in this world, if you don’t communicate, manage and control your narrative, you are on the back foot or worse.

By now we should be getting used to the fact that Trump wants domination of the media; many channels have already been beaten into submission. It is all about him and his agendas. If you don’t give him the respect he reckons he’s due, there will be consequences – and his toolbox is immense.

Just think about the media levers at his disposal; and he has been pulling them all.

Trump in the spotlight

First, the Epstein files. How long can he drag that out? This saga is far from over and is fast becoming the longest-running show in town. A total tragedy, but with a touch of farce, and many twists and turns.

I suspect it has some way to go, perhaps never reaching a conclusion. Meanwhile, the great and the good who dealt with Epstein are nervously awaiting the outcome. Some may have been involved purely in financial matters, but just to see their name in the same sentence as Epstein will be damaging.

Second, a meeting with the “commie” mayor designate of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, better described as a democratic socialist. Apart from anything else, it ignited a huge debate about what exactly is the definition of a “commie”, a socialist , democrat and even a capitalist, and the realisation that each person’s definition may differ.

Despite the barbs thrown at each other in classical political knock-about style, Mamdani has just run a highly successful campaign, resulting in a landslide victory despite all the dire warnings of impending chaos under his mayoral term. The tightly-focused campaign, driven by the word “affordability”, clearly resonated with New Yorkers. Trump’s meeting with Mamdani was billed by some as another “Oval Office classic confrontation”. Instead, it was more like a love-in, with mutual respect.

Russia in the mix

Then there’s the spat with former praise-singer Marjorie Taylor Green – her Republican politics rooted in “Make America Great Again” – leading to her sudden resignation from Congress and some choice words in a political tit-for-tat. While taking everyone by surprise, the resignation to some signalled Trump’s grip on the Republican party is beginning to slip, as fallout from next year’s midterm elections looms. An added factor was Green’s frustration, and she was not alone, with the delaying tactics relating to the release of the Epstein files.

Trump’s row with six Democrat congressmen followed. They had made and aired a video calling on members of the US armed forces (army, air force, navy) to disobey orders they felt were questionable. Unsurprisingly, this caused an outcry, which was topped when Trump called for their execution. It rumbles on.

Finally, there’s the 28 point “draft agreement” purporting to be a peace plan for Russia/Ukraine – more like total capitulation of the latter. And having dumped it on the desk of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump gave the country eights day to agree. Rather akin to lighting a fuse on a not-so-stealthy bomb, set to explode on November 27, Thanksgiving Day. Unsurprisingly there was another extension.

Some may argue that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is playing Trump, and over the months he doesn’t appear to have changed his position in any way, sitting quietly and watching with some amusement the frenetic activity of numerous world leaders. Meanwhile tens of thousands continue to die each week. Russia now controls more than 25% of Ukraine, its civilian population is being pulverised, and despite dire warnings of Russian economic hardship, the war rumbles on. European leaders fear the deadlock could see Washington eventually walk away from peace talks and withdraw support for Kyiv.

An additional agenda?

That is quite something, and this is largely the range of topics the US and international media fixated on, to the exclusion of all else. Hardly a mention of the G20 and South Africa, though interestingly, the B20 – the business part of the conference, before the politicians took centre stage – was well attended by US representatives while keeping out of the spotlight.

But, wait, did Trump perhaps have an additional agenda? Having some time ago chosen to pick on one of the smaller boys in the playground, someone who had a reputation of sometimes rubbing people up the wrong way and appearing somewhat isolated at times, an easy target to humiliate and make an example of.

As we have seen, the US has now disinvited South Africa from next year’s G20 gathering taking place in Florida. The US has taken ownership of the official G20 website, and all forms of US government financial support has been cut off. That includes, it seems, our exclusion from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.

Nothing subtle about that.

Branding expert Jeremy Sampson wrote this piece in his personal capacity.