Convicted felon and sexual predator Donald Trump, America’s wannabe fascist dictator and former “reality show” TV host, tried and failed to control TV coverage of his demented rants, guttural anger and growing insanity this week.
His pathetic attempt to create a YouTube channel fell faster than his plummeting approval ratings.
The president of the United States, after banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last weekend, launched his own 24-7 low-grade television channel on Monday. The inelegantly named “Trump TV: The Essentials Station” (a YouTube live stream) is a flop. So much for branding.
By Wednesday, the channel had lost nearly 95 percent of its viewership. Nothing to see there, apparently. The Daily Beast reported that viewers numbered just 427 at one point.
On Thursday morning, a federal judge ordered Trump to temporarily restore White House credentials for dozens of journalists, saying the removal of their press badges was probably done without adequate due process. Even so, several reporters said they were not allowed to enter the White House grounds. Since then, they have been able to reenter.
This unnecessary blowup, some might say “distraction,” seems to be further evidence that Trump is erratic, angry and out of control. He’s like a comic book antihero seemingly defined by his hatred of the very media that made him famous. (At least the Joker smiled.) Trump still holds the country and the world hostage to his impulses and baser instincts. Has he finally gone too far with the ban and some other decisions? So it seems, as some Republican candidates are breaking with him on Iran, and fewer Americans approve of him.
In a twist of fortune, his media ban backfired. Several other outlets, including ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC, joined the banned news organizations in solidarity and suspended pooled television coverage of White House events. On Monday, some outlets and wire services, including The Post, temporarily stopped publishing new images of presidential events in a show of support.
Trump TV was just the criminal president’s latest failure. His social media platform, which he launched after estabashed platforms like Facebook and Twitter shut down his hate-spewing rhetoric and lies, has never even come close to drawing much attention and continues to lose millions of dollars. Even MAGA propaganda FoxTV has turned on him.
As Trump becomes more frustrated with his falling approval ratings and widespread ridicule, I suspect he wouldn’t mind overseeing a state-controlled media in the way Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping do. He has often expressed admiration for authoritarian leaders who maintain power in part through repression of free speech.
Trump’s future could well depend what voters do in the upcoming November mid-term elections. If polls are right, Republicans could, and should, lose control of Congress and open the door for impeachment not only of Trump, but also for criminals, alcoholics and liars he had appointed to government positions.
Voters should rise up and prove that America is still a democracy.
We can hope.
