Liberals hypocritically complain that Trump is branding issues.

President Trump's 'Spy' and the Dark Art of Branding

President Trump has many limitations, to put it mildly, but he is brilliant at the dark art of branding. Those seeking to hold him accountable had better study his technique — and learn to fight fire with fire.

Witness how Trump is trying to use the word “spy” as a weapon against the FBI, the Justice Department and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the election. The president’s performance this week has been totally dishonest — and, let’s be honest, quite effective.

Well it's been effective for a simple reason. It's an easily understandable description of the story that has been surfacing over the past week or so. The other descriptions (offered by the left) are much more convoluted, semantically challenged, and quite obviously defensive.

Let's start with the textbook definition of a spy:

a person who secretly collects and reports information on the activities, movements, and plans of an enemy or competitor.

Sure sounds like that fits the description of the FBI secretly sending someone to make contact with Trump associates, gather information on possible activities, and then report those activities back to them. Doesn't it?

But that doesn't stop the left from attacking the term:

• You have James Comey stating that Stefan A. Halper wasn't a "spy" but a "confidential human source". 
• You have James Clapper stating that Halper wasn't spying, but rather was gathering information to protect the Trump campaign. 
• You have numerous people on the left purposely confusing the term "mole" with the term "spy" insisting that Halper wasn't a spy because he was not embedded in the campaign. 

But at the end of the day, you are still left with the reality that the FBI sent a person to effectively gather information about the Trump campaign, and report it back to the FBI, all without disclosing to anyone that they were doing it. By definition, folks... that's spying. 

So the reason that Donald Trump is winning this little war of the wording is because Trump is correct, by both definition and conventional wisdom, about what a spy actually is and what a spy actually does. The reason that the left is losing this little war of the wording is because they are attempting to redefine people's understanding of the term in a manner that is inconsistent, confusing, and (contrary to the opinion of Eugene Robinson) less than honest.