The Magician’s Secret I Learned at Sixteen

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LUCA WOLFE MURRAY writes: The trick is not about deception but distraction. Trump seems to get this. You’d better get it too.

When I was 16, I would do magic tricks on the streets of the British town of Bath for charity. The most important thing I learned in magic might be termed the “art of distraction” – making the audience look in the wrong direction. The reason is simple: Truly deceiving someone is much harder than just distracting them. Even if your sleight-of-hand is poor, as long as the spectators are looking at the wrong hand — you’ve tricked them.

I’m in my early 20s today – being mentored in journalism by Dan Perry, the publisher of Ask Questions Later – so I might not seem so credible as a political analyst. But my magician’s avocation gives me this insight: Trump is using a simple magician’s trick to bamboozle. I’ll explain.

Everyone’s looking at what Trump is doing: The economies he’s threatening, the territories he wants to seize and those he wants Ukraine to cede, the entire whirlwind of chaos he’s orchestrating. Oh, and the executive orders he’s signing. But I haven’t seen people talk so much about what he’s un-doing. Which includes the executive orders he’s annulling.

In other words, what he’s doing with his other hand.

While the headlines were busy with other things, 77 executive orders quietly vanished — revoked in one fell swoop under the banner of “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” on January 20, 2025. Buried in that list were policies that enforced government transparency, climate leadership, drug pricing reforms, and labor protections. Gone.

NOTE TO READERS: For those who don’t know what an executive order is, it’s a decision that gives the executive branch (the presidency, in the United States) short-term power over U.S. institutions. Congress is then obliged to confirm or reject each executive order, eventually – but that can take years.

I want to share four examples of the executive orders that Biden signed four years ago and Trump has revoked. The mainstream media has mainly ignored this development, as it has been masterfully distracted by the magician.

  • Lobbying is welcomed! Executive Order 13989. The order was meant to stop Executive Branch officials from accepting bribes, working with former employers, handing out jobs to unqualified pals, or sharing insider info. This order directly applied to over 4,000 top government employees and was having a huge impact. President Biden used it to cut the amount of lobbyists in government positions in half. Trump repealed it. Trump himself had said, on Theo Von’s podcast, that if “you ever worked in government — you can never be a lobbyist.” If this isn’t hypocrisy I don’t know what is.
  • Fighting climate change is for losers! Executive Order 14008. The name of the order says it all: “Putting the climate crisis at the center of United States foreign policy and national security.” This order pushed banks and corporations to stop funding fossil fuel projects, and instead invest in sustainable energy. It also required companies that work with the government to publicly disclose their carbon footprint. Trump repealed it. He also pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate, pushed oil and gas as the new north star, and appointed a bunch of oil lobbyists to key federal positions.
  • Make Big Pharma more profitable still! Executive Order 14087. This order gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, forcing price transparency, and cracking down on Big Pharma’s worst exploitative tricks. It targeted the 10-15 most expensive and widely used drugs (insulin, arthritis meds, blood thinners and so on). Trump repealed it. The estimated savings for the federal government – and so, the American people – was estimated to be over $100 billion over the next decade. Public opinion polls showed over 80% of Americans supported allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Pharmaceutical companies started facing serious public pressure to justify their high prices. Some Americans now have to choose between insulin or rent. How do you even spin this? No need, as the media barely reported it.
  • Attack federal workers! Executive order 14026. This order raised the minimum wage for federal contract workers by a measly $1.70 (from $13.30 to $15) an hour. It didn’t just help federal employees—it set the tone for the entire country. Nearly 400,000 people benefited from this tiny pay-rise. Trump repealed it. Who does this help? Is $1.30 an hour worth fighting for? Some people working full-time for the federal government earn less than the average waiter.
  • What does a magician see?A magician sees the con, not the illusion — and that’s what Trump does, perhaps instinctively. He understands, as I did by 16, that misdirection is everything.In today’s media environment we’re baited into fixating on grand spectacles —trade wars, tariffs, GDP forecasts — while cable news and social media dazzle us with noise. This doesn’t mean that what the media is reporting on is not important. The trade wars and absurd geopolitics are indeed important.But in many ways the real story unfolds offstage, where ordinary people are losing. My generation is being stripped of careers, pensions, and affordable homes as wages rot in real time. Dignity evaporates in the circus. A lifetime of work now promises little more than survival. The hope for a better world is quietly erased — by useful executive orders repealed, by worker protections gutted, by a corruption disguised as policy. By increments that are not always visible.

    These repeals weren’t about little savings or pushing energy independence. They’re about consolidation of power and wealth. Federal workers who once challenged corporations are neutered; families scrambling to pay rent can’t spare time for politics; sick Americans auction their homes to afford medical care. All while Trump tries to blame whatever goes wrong on foreigners, liberals and immigrants.

  • The media, lumbering and outdated (and, let’s face it, largely ignored by my generation), can’t keep up with the administration’s whirlwind of sabotage.The trick works because we’re trained to watch the spectacle. Meanwhile, in the shadows, the foundations of a decent society dissolve. The magician’s final smile is for the moment we realize the deception — too late. By the time we look, the rabbit is gone.And one day, if we’re not careful, we are the rabbit.Luca Wolfe Murray is a 22-year-old traveler and aspiring entrepreneur. He spent the last two years traveling around Asia and Europe, including volunteer stints in Bangladesh and frontline Ukraine, and is working towards becoming a content creator who might positively impact the world.

 

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