3 PR Lessons from Trump’s 2016 Convention Response

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it would be hard to deny that the 2016 GOP convention was a public relations nightmare.

Convention Calamity

While there was a succession of embarrassments from internal revolt to badly translated  campaign signs, there was one calamity that upstaged the rest—accusations that Donald Trump’s wife Melania had plagiarized parts of her convention speech from none other than Michelle Obama, lifting nearly identical passages from the first lady’s 2008 Democratic National Convention delivery.

It wasn’t simply the striking similarities between the two speeches, however, that garnered attention. Trump’s top aide kept the story alive when he denounced the accusations as “absurd” and “crazy” in what could be called a classic case of the “PR Overkill.”

Team Trump Does Damage Control

“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech,” Paul Manafort said the day after the speech on CNN. “These are common words and values — that she cares about her family, things like that. She was speaking in front of 35 million people last night; she knew that. To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”

Manafort blamed Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, whose camp was mum on the topic for much of the day. “This is once again an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, how [Clinton] seeks to demean her and take her down,” he said on the show. “It’s not going to work.”

3 PR Lessons from the Convention

1. Own the Facts

It’s a familiar political tactic, confronting a damaging claim with an unequivocal denial, laced with implications that the accuser is simply ludicrous for even suggesting it could be true. That is, if you don’t like the question, attack the questioner.

Except, in this case, irrefutable facts painted a much different picture, one most reasonable people would likely see as classic plagiarism. Withholding an explanation only heightened the drama as the story continued into the next news cycle.

2. Don’t Lose Control of the Narrative

Furthermore, when someone ultimately steps forward to confirm the allegation and take the blame, as Melania’s speechwriter did, the defender also looks deceptive and incompetent. So instead of putting out the fire, Manafort fanned the flames, and in the process, damaged his credibility and that of the campaign.

Instead of owning what may have been an inadvertent error and moving on, we were left with the image of a grandstanding campaign manager who either didn’t know what his staff was doing, did know and chose to cover it up, or simply didn’t know what plagiarism was. That’s in addition to appearing sexist for his alternate explanation that Clinton is at fault because she feels threatened by other women.

3. Honesty is the Best Policy

If you’re not prepared to acknowledge fault when confronted, it’s better to at least acknowledge the reality that everyone else sees. Overcompensating, especially with repeated denials as in Manafort’s case, inevitably breeds suspicion and prolongs the distraction from your intended focus. As a general rule, when the reality is too real to ignore, don’t attempt to conceal it and create your own.