Former President Donald Trump, 76, knew how to get press attention back in 2016 when he ran for president and for his four years in office. Today, the press has little interest in covering events at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach estate. Trump asked recently for a contingent of press to cover a New Year’s Eve publicity stunt only to find out that no one responded to his request. Once a media impresario, Trump’s attention is consumed by negative publicity involving such things as his pre-Thanksgiving dinner with 45-year-old rapper Kanye West and 28-year-old Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. Those kinds of events command high levels of media attention not to Trump’s liking but because the media likes to slap Trump down at every opportunity. Not one cable or broadcast network decided to send anyone to Mara-a-Lago to cover anything, a bad sign for Trump 2024 campaign.
Democrats for the last seven years have been fixated on destroying Trump’s political career, over fabricating news based on rumor-and-innuendo about Trump’s alleged ties with the Russian Federation. Asked by Trump to cover his New Year’s Eve celebration, even Fox News or Newsmax, two conservative media outlets, refused to cover Trump’s publicity stunt. Trump hinted that if the GOP wouldn’t nominate him 2024, Trump would be inclined to run as an independent or third party. Trump knows that independents and third-party candidate aren’t taken seriously, making you wonder if he’d really waste what’s left of his real estate fortune on running for president. Journalists no longer trust that anything sponsored by Trump would be legitimate, leaving the press avoiding anything related to former president. MSNBC’s Alex Witt would host a surprise New Year’s event.
Trump left himself has left himself a media pariah largely because of his antics related to the 2020 election. His messages on Truth Social don’t help matters with continuing to raise the voter fraud in the 2020 election, something the public has grown exhausted. When he called the press to announce the release of non-fungible tokens [NFT] or trading cards Dec. 15, Trump-coins for sale on the open market, the public groaned, asking what’s next publicity stunt. Trump wants more press coverage considering himself a legitimate 2024 president candidate. But with the 2024 election at least six months away, the public is jaded about politics, more consumed with the holidays than about Trumps next PR stunt. Trump and former First Lady Melania appeared Dec. 31, 2022 at Mar-a-Lago mumbling something before barely audible microphones.
Right Side Broadcasting [RSBN] covered the event, listening to Trump rant about the FBI, his 2024 presidential campaign and Russia’s war in Ukraine. All major broadcast and print outlets ignored the event, attesting to Trump’s continued trouble with the mainstream media. No president in modern history has had worse relations with the press than Trump, often making the media the news item, calling them the “fake news.” Trump was a novelty back in 2016, an eccentric billionaire real estate tycoon who worked on his brand for years, including his years on NBC “Apprentice.” So when he ran for president, he drew attention from disgruntled voters, tired of former President Barack Obama “woke” presidency, promoting his version of today’s civil rights, blaming white society for America’s contemporary ills. Trump appealed to disenfranchised white voters looking for something different.
Trump would have had a smother presidency had he not been hounded by the press for a variety of fabricated scandals. Trump wants to talk about the FBI now, after he was harassed for years with fake charges of Russian collusion. With the New York Times and Washington Post writing endless stories about his ties to Russia, it hounded him from conducting U.S. foreign policy. All broadcast and print outlets unfairly charged Tromp with making secret deals with dictators, especially Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. When you look back on Trump foreign policy, he certainly had better relations than Biden, who, in less than two years in office, has wrecked decades of pragmatic, cooperative relations with U.S. adversaries. Biden has the U.S. in a proxy war with the Russian Federation.
When it came to the economy, Trump had the economy humming along with low inflation and steady growth, with Wall Street in a protracted bull market. Then, out of blue, the Covid-19 global pandemic blindsided Trump’s administration, usurping all the headlines, with hospitals filling up and American citizens dropping like flies. All through the 2020 Election Year Trump was plagued by Covid-19, with Democrats exploiting the crisis to make him look incompetent. Trump’s own chief of his Covid-19 task force Dr. Anthony Fauci spent much of 2020 ripping Trump in endless TV and radio interviews. Then, May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, sparking race riots around the country. Democrats and the press all blamed Trump for being a racist and white supremacist. So when it came to Trump’s presidency he really didn’t have a chance winning a second term.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
