Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: 9 days before Trump's 2017 inauguration, veteran Democratic strategist Ron Klain penned an op-ed praising the president-elect's crisis management playbook & pointed to a "new political reality" for DC. by @ngaudiano & @rbravender ($) @thisisinsider businessinsider.com/ron-klain-trum…

It would be "foolish to ignore how often his tactics were effective," Klain wrote, adding: "The game has changed, & future political players of all stripes—and even corporate message makers, too—will surely want to take at least some tactical pages from the new Trump Playbook."

Here's a link to that Klain op-ed from @POLITICOMag published January 11, 2017: politico.com/magazine/story…

Now, six weeks into his tenure as White House chief of staff in the Biden administration, Klain doesn't appear to be following Trump's playbook at all — at least on the crises the White House has confronted publicly.

Like it or not, the tactics that helped Trump shrug off crisis after crisis don't work for Democrats, veteran party strategists and political communicators from across the ideological spectrum told Insider.

"Trump was a political unicorn," former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in an interview this week. "He did stuff and said stuff that nobody else … can get away with."

So it's not surprising that President Joe Biden — who campaigned on being the anti-Trump — and his top staffers aren't openly embracing Trumpian tactics, years after Klain mused about their effectiveness.

There is "some use in the aggressive posture" Klain laid out in the op-ed, "but as a practical matter I don't see many folks in the White House adopting it in their day-to-day tactics," said Jim Manley, a longtime Democratic Senate aide whose bosses worked closely w/ Biden.

"Democrats still believe in good government and freedom of the press and … at least many aren't in the habit of denigrating reporters for sport like the previous administration was," Manley added.

In January 2017, Trump was considered a "successful, norm-busting politician" and it was "fair enough" for Klain to examine lessons from the previous presidential campaign, said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the Third Way think tank.

"After four catastrophic years, culminating in just the disaster of January 6, I don't think anyone in politics should take any lessons on communication from Trump, and I'm certain that Ron agrees," added Bennett, who worked with @WHCOS in President Bill Clinton's White House.

Subscribe to @thisisinsider for the full report on how Klain lauded the Trump playbook and now how it's a very different tune so far inside this Democratic White House. Here's how to sign up: businessinsider.com/subscription