Devolution Power Hour Ep. 454: WHCA Fallout, ESG Dormant, Trump's Reverse Psychology

About this episode

The episode discusses the fallout from the WHCA Dinner shooting, media strategies for Ron DeSantis, and Trump's communication tactics.

Jon Herold and Chris Paul open with a week-later review of the WHCA Dinner shooting, including new video, conflicting stories between the DOJ, Secret Service, and the DC US Attorney, and a federal judge privately admonishing prosecutors for grandstanding in a session that somehow ended up on CNN anyway. From there the show covers the coordinated Ron DeSantis media rehabilitation push and what it signals about the 2028 positioning race. Then comes a sharp breakdown of the revelation that the NSA and Cyber Command's election security group has not been activated heading into the 2026 midterms, which the guys connect to Jon's Devolution Part 9 research and the broader question of whether the midterms are even going to happen. Trump's True Social posts on the filibuster, cognitive exams and "three terms," and the UNO wildcards card get analyzed as potential DevoComms. The show closes on a substantive conversation about Tucker Carlson's antichrist comments, Trump's weaponized reverse psychology communication strategy, and the dead Internet theory and how manufactured online engagement shapes reality.

People in this episode

Hosts: Jon Herold, Chris Paul

Topics covered

• WHCA Dinner shooting
• media rehabilitation
• election security
• Trump's communication strategy
• Tucker Carlson comments
• Devolution research

Keywords

• WHCA Dinner
• Ron DeSantis
• Trump
• Tucker Carlson
• election security
• Devolution
• media strategy
• reverse psychology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DOJ, Secret Service, DC US Attorney, CNN, NSA, Cyber Command

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