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| Liz Truss |
Embattled UK prime minister Liz Truss entered 10 Downing Street backed by a communications team that was highly touted by the Financial Times, Guardian and other members of the British press.
The PR squad was said to be second to none.
Here’s the lineup of heavy-hitters.
Ruth Porter, deputy chief of staff, was a managing director at FGS Global and head of international affairs, government relations and regulatory strategy at the London Stock Exchange.
Adam Jones, political director for communications, was a speechwriter for the CEO of HSBC and a veteran of Omnicom’s Portland shop. He worked with Truss when she was foreign secretary and minister for women and equalities.
Sarah Ludlow, special advisor to the prime minister, did a nearly seven-year stint at Portland. She also worked with Truss in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Jason Stein, another special advisor to Truss, ran her “Liz for Leader” campaign as a managing director at FGS, responsible for its government affairs team.
With such a stellar PR group, what could go wrong? Everything.
They failed to counter the sheer hubris of Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who introduced an off-the-wall package of $48B in unfunded tax cuts, which included scrapping the top bracket covering the wealthy.
Introducing such a plan during a period of high global inflation, jittery financial markets, an impending European energy crunch and war in Ukraine was nuts.
It also may be the cause of the undoing of both Liz and Kwasi.
The dynamic duo also snubbed the UK's financial watchdog by failing to submit the plan to the independent Office of Budget Responsibility.
The Economist called that fiscally reckless.
The magazine noted that Truss’ government in its first weeks in office shredded its own reputation, unleashed higher inflation, forced energy action from the central bank and made growth harder.
“Just imagine what it can do in a month or two,” said the Economist.
We may not find that out.
Truss’ government and the Conservative Party are in a state of chaos.
Grant Shapps, a former party chair, said on Oct. 4 that Truss has 10 days to get her act together.
Had only Truss’ crackerjack PR team pushed back on her economic plan.
They put loyalty to Liz ahead of common sense.
She had it right… During her campaign for the PM job, Truss thanked her supporters after she eliminated a top rival, Penny Mordaunt, from the contest to succeed Boris Johnson.
Truss tweeted: “Thank you for putting your trust in me. I’m ready to hit the ground from day one.”
Yikes.
That tweet drew widespread ridicule on social media, as people recommended that Truss wear a helmet if she planned to fall flat on her face.
What size do you need, Liz?
A press release from Truss' campaign team noted that she would "hit the ground running from day one."
Is Joe Biden so out of touch that he forgot to bring rolls of paper towels to Puerto Rico to throw at people.
Donald Trump flung rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans in a suburb of San Juan in 2017 after the island was walloped by Hurricane Maria.
The storm killed thousands of people.
Trump’s towel toss was a condescending gesture and one of the many embarrassing moments of his wretched four years in office.
The ex-president also got into a verbal fight with Puerto Rican officials, accusing them of shaking down the US government.
A report released in 2021 by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development found that the petulant Trump administration delayed more than $20B in hurricane relief to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
The delay was due to the creation of “bureaucratic obstacles” that Team Trump put into place to slow the flow of money that was specifically allocated to Puerto Rico.
Biden said he went to Puerto Rico because “it’s been trying like hell to catch up from the last hurricane.”
And we know who is to blame for that.
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