"President Donald Trump says there’s a TikTok buyer that he’ll reveal in ‘about two weeks,’” read a June 29 CNN headline. The phrase “about two weeks” has become a hallmark of Trump’s communication style — an ever-moving deadline that signals action is imminent but never quite arrives.

Roughly two weeks before that TikTok claim, Trump had told reporters it would be “about two weeks” before he decided how to respond to Iran. In that case, he acted within three days. And nearly two months earlier, asked how he would respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump again answered, “I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”

As New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh noted before the U.S. bombing of Iran, Trump’s “two weeks” refrain has applied to everything from tax plans and healthcare to conspiracy theories and infrastructure. NPR noted that this is not a new strategy, as Trump often espoused on the two-week refrain in his first term.

But this isn’t just some verbal tick — it’s a calculated tactic.

Two weeks is a time frame that feels just around the corner but is distant enough to delay scrutiny. It generates anticipation, keeps the press guessing and monopolizes public attention. In essence, it’s distraction disguised as transparency.

In Trump’s second term, this politics of distraction has proved remarkably effective. Despite growing evidence of policy failures and corruption, Trump has maintained his popularity by dominating headlines and reshaping narratives faster than facts can catch up. Scholar Tim Wu has explained how capitalism has increasingly come to depend on attention, monetized through advertising, misinformation and influencer content. Attention is a commodity, and Trump has mastered how to corner the market.

As Mickey Huff and I argued in “

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