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January 26, 2017 at 09:40 AM
Retired ABC news reporter Ann Compton says “big” is under threat with Donald Trump in the White House.
“Everything from big media … to big political dynasties — they are all under siege and being ended by Trump, such as the Clintons and the Bushes,” she said to a crowd of about 700 independent broker-dealer executives and advisors at FSI OneVoice 2017 in San Francisco on Tuesday.
When it comes to Trump’s improvisational style, “What you saw in the campaign equals what you see with him as president,” said Compton, adding that his Secret Service name is “Mogul.”
Today’s power centers, she explains, “are the Oval Office and his Twitter feed!”
In the Oval Office, the first move he made was to work on repealing the Affordable Care Act. “There’s strong symbolism here,” said Compton. For those for you for whom regulation is an important issue, you have a friend in the Oval Office.”
While Trump seems to be moving to implement his agenda at a rapid pace, the winds of change shift consistently in Washington, says the speaker, who covered seven U.S. presidents before retiring after 41 years.
“Some had a … majority in Congress of the same party, and all left office with the opposing party” in Congress, Compton said.
The veteran journalist said that Trump’s election reminds her of Ronald Reagan’s, since he was an outsider. She also emphasized that with the birth of CNN in 1980, the emergence of other networks about 16 years later and the rise of talk radio, the media landscape “has shattered the political cohesion in Washington, D.C.”
In 2000, with George W. Bush going against Al Gore, “We had one of most divided elections… we were a nation so divided,” Compton said.
She sees the rapidly changing media landscape giving people new places “to find a political comfort zone online,” and that contributes to the divisiveness.
Cabinet, Crisis
“It is looking like all Trump’s choices are going through,” said Compton. “Seven have no government-service experience, and there are no big names.”
