Trump hardly needs anyone else to serve as his mouthpiece.
The most clamorous president in modern history always gets his message out — in a daily riot of online posts, interviews and rancor with reporters.
It’s about 90% of his working day, right? And it’s his favorite part, with making life hell for other people a close second.
Trump is a master media manipulator. He’s demonized, flattered and played reporters for decades. He relished the role of 1980s New York tabloid villain as he built his brand as a real estate tycoon and celebrity. He intuits the media’s craving for constantly evolving headlines and uses it as a tool of distraction.
I wouldn’t call him a master manipulator, exactly, because I can’t believe he’s intelligent enough to do it calculatedly. It’s more that he’s a master asshole. He doesn’t so much “intuit” media whatsits as he just does what he wants to do, which is be a master asshole. The media attention is a byproduct of the master assholery.
Trump’s zeal for conflict, disdain for etiquette and willingness to say outrageous things forged alchemy when his political ascent coincided with the explosion of social media.
That’s more like it. He’s naturally a rude aggressive insulting piece of crap, and now he gets to be that on social media when he’s not too busy randomly bombing people.
[Karoline Leavitt’s] operation took over control of the pool system long administered by the independent correspondents’ association. She decided who got into presidential events and flew on Air Force One. She added streaming services, local conservative radio hosts, and podcasters and MAGA personalities to the permanent press corps.
Critics saw an attempt to introduce propagandists who’d go soft on Trump. His supporters cheered what they saw as an overdue dilution of what they regard as the liberal elite media.
Yeah let’s get rid of “elite” news media because why the hell would we need education or expertise or a functioning brain in the people who report and interpret the news?
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