The Real Reason Trump Is Running? ;-)
Trump TV: is his campaign laying the groundwork for the next media empire?After a long, hot and sorry-looking summer it may look like the game is up for Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions. But that’s only if you believe the tycoon-turned-presidential candidate is actually running to win the White House.
Trump’s poll numbers have slipped as the American election departs the local primary circus and enters the national campaign. Trump’s trademark combination of bombast and braggadocio trounced his Republican opposition, and still draws crowds at rallies, but the polls suggest Trump has alienated the wider electorate he needs to win the presidency.
And according to an increasingly popular theory in media circles, that’s exactly how he wants it. Trump, so the hypothesis goes, has given up on winning the presidential race and is now simply priming the pump for an upcoming media venture for the “alt-right” demographic, as the Trump-loving alternative to mainstream conservatism is now known. Fox News is old hat – say hello to 24/7 Trump TV.
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Ever since Trump declared he was running for president, skeptics have sensed this was all a vanity campaign aimed at building his brand. The recent reshuffle of Team Trump has only fuelled speculation: Roger Ailes, Fox News’s disgraced former chairman, is now advising Trump while he fights off accusations of serial sexual harassment (charges Ailes vehemently denies). And earlier this month, Trump appointed Steve Bannon, Goldman Sachs banker turned film-maker and former chairman of the self-identified “alt-right” Breitbart News website, as his campaign CEO alongside veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager.
The media certainly thinks it’s spotted the upcoming twist. “What if Trump and Breitbart could team up, raise some money from outside investors, and bring aboard some of the television executives who built Fox News?” asked the New Yorker last week. Vanity Fair recently reported Trump is looking to “monetize” his “audience” through a possible “mini-media” conglomerate. The New York Times reported this month that Trump and his son-in-law, New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner, have been mulling over a media holding. CNN’s chief media watcher Brian Stelter recently reported: “What he might wanna do is launch a new television channel, or launch a new giant website, a new subscription service, he might be thinking about a media enterprise.”
“I think he’s definitely working to cement his brand with an audience,” said NPR media reporter David Folkenflik.
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