Contrary to normal incumbency behavior, the administration downplays good news on crime and border crossings to sustain a sense of emergency. That manufactured crisis atmosphere is then used to justify extraordinary domestic deployments and hard‑power measures.
— If leaders suppress positive indicators to maintain emergency footing, it reframes how media and institutions should audit claims used to expand executive power.
B. Duncan Moench
2026.01.13
70% relevant
The essay highlights how political actors use a sustained crisis frame (and violent policing) to justify coercive measures—mirroring the idea that leaders sometimes manufacture or sustain a crisis narrative to expand state power and avoid normal accountability.
Jerusalem Demsas
2026.01.12
75% relevant
Demsas highlights how political actors invoke emergency frames (inflation threats, 'unelected elites' running things) to justify extraordinary pressure on independent institutions; that maps onto the existing idea that leaders and elites manipulate crisis narratives to sustain extraordinary measures and that media/messaging amplifies those moments (the article cites the gold spike as a market proxy for political whiplash).
Damon Linker
2026.01.12
60% relevant
He notes dread that leaders and media will exploit or manufacture emergency narratives; this fits the notion that officials or outlets sometimes sustain crisis frames even amid contradictory signals to justify extraordinary measures.
Luke Hallam
2026.01.08
45% relevant
The author criticizes a leadership tendency to inflame rather than soothe after violent episodes—resonant with the idea that political leaders sometimes manufacture or sustain emergency narratives for political ends rather than calming the public—though the present piece focuses on personal cruelty rather than the broader administrative strategy.
Mary Harrington
2025.12.02
65% relevant
The piece argues the pandemic was used to justify sweeping technocratic remakes and that the resulting policies delivered surveillance and poor basic public services, echoing the theme that crisis framings are politically instrumental and that their misuse undermines competence and legitimacy.
Matthew Yglesias
2025.12.01
90% relevant
Yglesias argues the administration is manufacturing or amplifying a crisis (military deployments off Venezuela, Treasury comments about oil) to achieve political and economic ends; this directly mirrors the existing idea that leaders sometimes sustain emergency framings to justify extraordinary measures.
Matt Goodwin
2025.12.01
70% relevant
The author accuses Reeves of fabricating or exaggerating a 'black hole' in the finances to justify policy choices—the same dynamic described in the existing idea where leaders manufacture or sustain crisis narratives to expand power or justify contested policies.
Rafael A. Mangual
2025.11.28
75% relevant
Mangual highlights how the Guard deployment is being debated as part of a larger 'crime plague' framing and how critics immediately blamed the president for the deployment decision—this mirrors the idea that leaders and commentators manipulate crisis language and that such narratives shape policy and public perceptions.
Matthew Yglesias
2025.10.09
100% relevant
The article notes falling irregular crossings and crime while the White House pushes National Guard city deployments and touts strikes on Venezuelan boats.