The RealityTVPresident, a master media manipulator, suckered the commercial media into promoting his Orlando campaign rally. About 500 people from domestic and international media crowded into the 20,000 seat arena. 45 said it was a reelection campaign launch although Trump 2020 has been running since January 1, 2017. This is the 60th Trump rally since he became president two and a half years ago! But the CelebrityPresident blew his pied pipe and the press, swaying in rhythm, fell in line.

Sadly, this twirling around the Trump axis is the current state of much of commercial media coverage today.

The “campaign launch” approach allowed the media to generate anticipatory stories: will he roll out new campaign themes? Will the crowd come out? Will supporters be the same and respond the same? It hyped the coverage to allow for pre- and post- rally supporter interviews. The pundits weighed in on the content, the Trump demeanor, etc. Sadly, this twirling around the Trump axis is the current state of much of commercial media coverage today. They’re retweeting Agent Orange across print and screens, far more effectively than Sara Hucka could do in a press briefing. That’s why she doesn’t need the briefings; the press carries her message without her having to creatively stonewall their irritating questions.

I love my late night comics, so I’ll give them a pass based on their sarcastic rebuffs to 45’s crap, but they’re doing the same thing. I don’t follow Agent Orange, but I get the tweets and the Trump/FoxTV commentary on late night where I can at least laugh about it.

At the rally, Trump served up a rehash of a rehash; demagogues tend to have a limited thematic repertoire recanted in characteristic phraseology. Punchy phrases chant well. When crowd attention flagged, 45 returned to tried and true favorites, seemingly unaware that Hillary Clinton is a private citizen campaigning for no office. The crowd, shrink-wrapped in the endless Trump/FoxTV recycling of Clinton centric plots, sprang to life with “Lock her up!” They love reliving the old favorites like Rolling Stones fans love singing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

With surgical precision, Agent Orange probed the crowd, testing enthusiasm dips. He preaches using call and response. He explores phrases until he hits one that reignites the flame. He doubles and triples down, bringing the crowd to a thundering pitch. The phenomenon is not unlike Hitler’s rallies, if one doesn’t react to the name as an epithet for  “most despicable human being”. Hitler was a master manipulator and propagandist, much like the RealityTVPresident who’s borrowed some of the same oratory and propaganda tricks. (This not cheap hyperbole; it is documentable observation.) If nothing else, he’s got to be credited with the power to mesmerize, to tie minds in neat nonsensical bows. Post- rally interviews confirm that supporters know he lies, sense that things aren’t getting better for them, but like that he makes them believe they are. They fantasize that the only obstacle to 45’s triumphs are weak Democrats, the demonic deep state and the intelligence community. They still believe that his victories are on their behalf. These ideas reverberate through the constant Trump/FoxTV bombardment 24 hours, 7 days a week.

In between, he’s developing scenarios for faux conflicts from which he can emerge victorious.

Having dispensed with the pretext of governing, 45 has divided his time between parading his presidential chops with foreign dignitaries, both abroad and at home, playing golf, throwing rallies, playing golf, calling into Trump/FoxTV and mega-tweeting. In between, he’s developing scenarios for faux conflicts from which he can emerge victorious. He used poetic license to reframe timelines of agreements that were concluded months ago to advance the narrative that Mexico caved to his immigration demands.  He allowed John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to create an Iran conflict, pushing the leadership to respond by downing an unmanned US drone. And voila, he’s magnanimous in calling it off at the last minute to spare Iranian lives. Only Trumpophants would believe he cared about a few brown people; that’s a first. Why not just stop Bolton and Pompeo, the traditional approach of a Commander-in-Chief, by telling them to shut up. He announced ICE raids on “millions” (did he mean thousands?) of illegal immigrants and voila, he called them off because of a plea from Nancy Pelosi. How many more save the day scenarios will expose this bankrupt ploy? For the faithful, it’s infinite. For November voters, with notoriously short memories? That’s the $64,000 question. Will the jig be up?

No script would be complete without the faked audience count. The campaign mounted an all-day festival in the arena parking lot, complete with tail-gating, music, merch, voter registration and the all important personal data collection for future targeted political propaganda. The campaign repeatedly contended that the rally was sold out, yet Steven Colbert’s team bought tickets online after their press credentials were denied, just before the event started. Their footage inside the arena showed rows of empty seats in the upper deck and outside, the parking lot for the “overflow crowd” was filled with trash, empty portable chairs and not a single person.

Trumpophants swallowed the production whole, as they do. For them, his voice is orgasmic. His words leave space for moving forward to the way it was, in anticipation that Sir Donald will vanquish the forces of progress and slay the three dragons of Democrats/progressives (socialists), the intelligence community and the Deep State. In an interview from a few months ago, one Trumpophant declared that “if we have to have a dictator in this country, I want it to be him!” Trump/FoxTV propaganda has exceeded expectations if there are normal gray-haired baby boomers who matter of factly accept that this country needs a dictator. Have they forgotten their father’s WWII service? Maybe TheRealityTVPresident’s practice of hugging a dictator a month is more effective than anyone could have imagined.

Donald J Trump is a mesmerizing demagogue campaigning to retain power despite ongoing damage to federal agencies, institutional norms, the institutions on which the republic is based and a fragile domestic harmony battered by government assaults on Latinx immigrants, Muslims and other immigrants of color and GOP state officials playing endless hanky-panky at the polls

Donald J Trump is a mesmerizing demagogue campaigning to retain power despite ongoing damage to federal agencies, institutional norms, federal courts, the separation of powers, the institutions on which the republic is based and lastly, a fragile domestic harmony  now battered by government assaults on Latinx immigrants, Muslims and other immigrants of color, by GOP state officials playing endless hanky-panky at the polls, by right wing terrorists, lone wolf mass shooters and police assaults on people of color. Openly declaring himself above the law, he’s made an almost daily practice of ignoring existing law. He’s ushering his lawlessness out the White House door into the countryside. The CelebrityTVPresident believes he can flip his 40% support in the polls, maintained throughout his presidency, into another electoral college victory with the help of Trump/FoxTV, GOP electoral manipulation, conservative and campaign social media machinations blended with his international supporters, be they Russian or others. He’s already put the word out that he’s open to any offers.

Apparently the mainstream media hasn’t yet conceded their nefarious role in the 2016 election outcome. They continue to act as if tweet chasing is informative news, badly missing the mark between salacious content that sells advertising and reporting of what happens outside of Trump’s sphere. Occasionally an outrageous issue like state abortion bans leaks through, but Trump understands how to interrupt the news cycle when it doesn’t revolve around him.  If the media does a story about adult Trump children vacationing through the English Royal visit, it should come with facts on the costs to taxpayers, the various political and business contacts they made, etc, not just beauty shots of their fashion.

The commercial press has not provided enough bandwidth for Democratic candidates. They may think their coverage will evolve as the field gets winnowed down, but how are primary voters to decide when the withering of local news sources precludes in depth coverage? The burden falls on the national media. The Founding Fathers understood that the republic would perish without an informed electorate. The 2016 campaign stands as a monument to that idea. The US is on an uncertain journey to Hell.