{"id":1787866,"date":"2019-10-03T09:35:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T13:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1787866"},"modified":"2019-10-03T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T14:00:18","slug":"trump-maps-and-manipulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/trump-maps-and-manipulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Maps and Manipulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDonald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, has become a master of the use of the map to assert his agenda.\u201d From election maps to hurricane forecasts<\/a>,\u00a0Kenneth Field looks at the ways that Donald Trump uses maps<\/a> to assert power, dominate the narrative and, well, lie.<\/p>\n

So Trump is a serial map-abuser. These three examples clearly show how he uses the map for dominance and to assert his apparent power and possession. This is Trump\u2019s America. He\u2019s simply the latest in a very long line of leaders, politicians, dictators and many others to use maps to try and illustrate a version of the truth that has been cartographically mediated to suit a partisan purpose. Like I said, it\u2019s not wrong to use maps to tell a certain story (apart from when the facts are clearly manipulated which is stretching truth to the realms of plain lies) but it is a case of \u201creader, beware.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Previously: \u2018A Defilement of a Sacred Trust\u2019<\/a>; How to Lie with Maps, Third Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDonald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, has become a master of the use of the map to assert his agenda.\u201d From election maps to hurricane forecasts,\u00a0Kenneth Field looks at the ways that… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[237,448],"class_list":["post-1787866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-politics","tag-map-literacy","tag-trump","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1787744,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/09\/a-defilement-of-a-sacred-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":0},"title":"‘A Defilement of a Sacred Trust’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 September 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"I hadn\u2019t planned on posting anything about Trump\u2019s Sharpie-adjusted hurricane forecast map: there was nothing useful for me to add to the discussion, and presumably you\u2019d all heard about it already and didn\u2019t need me to tell you. But it turns out something map-related can, and has, been said about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1837737,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/fema-risk-maps-purged\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":1},"title":"FEMA Risk Maps Purged","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 March 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"The current U.S. administration\u2019s map vandalism isn\u2019t limited to a certain international body of water. Maps Mania reports that FEMA\u2019s online flood and risk maps have gone offline as part of the ongoing purge of everything related to climate change. One map, the Future Risk Index, has been salvaged by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/censorship\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789262,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/09\/dan-bell-the-ordnance-survey-and-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":2},"title":"Dan Bell, the Ordnance Survey, and Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 September 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Dan Bell, whose \u201cTolkien-inspired\u201d maps of real-world places have been a thing for a while now, makes an appearance on the Ordnance Survey\u2019s blog to demonstrate\u00a0how he uses OS maps in his creative process. Previously: Dan Bell\u2019s \u2018Tolkien-Style\u2019 Maps of the Lake District; Maps Middle-earth Style: By Hand and by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1785055,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/02\/dot-density-maps-of-belgium\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":3},"title":"Dot Density Maps of Belgium","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"23 February 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Maarten Lambrechts discusses how to make a dot density population map, in technical detail. He uses QGIS to process data for his home country of Belgium. The map above is one result (he also zoomed in on Brussels).","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/lambrechts-belgium-1024x724.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/lambrechts-belgium-1024x724.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/lambrechts-belgium-1024x724.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/lambrechts-belgium-1024x724.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1840524,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/trumps-cartographic-compulsion\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":4},"title":"Trump’s ‘Cartographic Compulsion’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Politico looks at what they call Donald Trump\u2019s \u201ccartographic compulsion\u201d\u2014the ways that maps have turned up in his political career over and over, from his use of election maps to Sharpie-gate in his first term, to his musings on Canada, Greenland and Gaza, plus his propensity to rename things, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787093,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/02\/ikea-map-poster-omits-new-zealand\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787866,"position":5},"title":"IKEA Map Poster Omits New Zealand","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 February 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"IKEA is apologizing after it was discovered that one of its BJ\u00d6RKSTA world map posters left off New Zealand. (Yes, that again.) IKEA says the product will be phased out; it's still available in my country, for the moment. Note that there are three other world maps in the BJ\u00d6RKSTA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bjorksta-ohne-nz-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bjorksta-ohne-nz-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bjorksta-ohne-nz-1024x683.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/bjorksta-ohne-nz-1024x683.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787872,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787866\/revisions\/1787872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}