Conservatives should exercise caution – in fretting about what Democrats and the media think
It’s not the place of anyone not named president elect Donald J. Trump to be telling the
incoming commander in chief what to do or how to handle his enemies’ criticism or how to deal with the non-stop attacks from certain entities in the American political system, but nevertheless, it still should be reiterated that Trump must not permit the naysayers to get to him.
What was Trump’s first thought on Election Night when it became certain he’d been (re) elected?
It probably didn’t have anything to do with worry or fear or glee from being granted the opportunity to go back to Washington to exact revenge on all of the people who so richly deserve it. Trump occupies a unique position in history. Not only will he be just the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, he’ll be the lone former White House occupant who’s been privileged to observe the intervening events between term one and term two in virtual real time. Trump has had the ability to shape events since he left office, and he’s taken advantage of the chance to do so.
Yet, for all of his attributes and abilities, Trump sometimes takes criticism too personally and seeks to respond to everything he’s accused of whether the smear-job merits a reply or not (Trump’s crowd sizes weren’t large?). And he’ll give his critics opportunity to do the pecking, too. Will his approach change in term two?
In an article titled “Trump vows to be ‘open and available’ to press” Dominick Mastrangelo reported at The Hill the other day:
“President-elect Trump is promising to make himself available to the press and keep an open mind when dealing with journalists when he takes office next year. ‘In order to Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press,’ Trump … said as part of an extensive interview given to Fox News Digital.
“Trump confirmed a Mar-a-Lago meeting he hosted late last week with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ during which the three re-opened communication ahead of his second term in the White House, saying, ‘in many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago.’
“’I expect this will take place with others in the media, even those that have been extremely hostile,’ Trump told Fox News, noting he has ‘an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press. … ‘If not treated fairly, however, that will end,’ the president-elect added. ‘The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.’”
If you didn’t know who’d uttered the quote and were simply limited to “someone in the American political system,” chances are you’d never guess Donald Trump would say such a thing. Criticism of the media is part of Trump’s overall public persona. It’s almost as though
playing off against the journos, pundits and cable TV talk show hosts is what Trump enjoys and uses to gain momentum for his arguments.
There are more than there used to be, and I wouldn’t claim there are a lot, even still, but there’s a growing contingent of Trump friendly media outlets that the president-elect employs to bolster his moves as leader of the nation. Think about it – in the infancy of his political career there weren’t many podcasters out there. Rush Limbaugh was still alive and well and most people were getting their news from so-called traditional media and cable TV, both establishment/corporate and new media.
Trump had to pay attention to these time-honored (dishonored?) sources to spread the word. It’s one of the reasons why he had so much difficulty in the first years of his presidency, because there just wasn’t the foundation in place to bypass the usual suspects in print and electronic media and maintain personal popularity.
The game is completely different now thanks in part to Elon Musk’s purchase of “X” (formerly Twitter) and the advent of podcasting, which provides the speaker access to large audiences for a much smaller investment. I don’t know his own history, but had anyone even heard of Joe Rogan in 2017? I’m guessing no. So it was up to individuals to keep griping about bias in media without doing much about it.
That was the world Trump encountered in term number one. It’s understandable, therefore, why Trump might want to make friends with “Morning Joe” and grant them another chance, having a “what can it hurt?” attitude towards hosting the “enemy” on his own terms. Trump is a very forgiving person, indeed, primarily because he appears to have the philosophy that everyone would like him if he could only deal with them one on one.
But I also think it’s pretty unlikely he’d agree to hosting the hags from “The View” anytime soon, and it’s also low probability Trump would savor sitting down with CBS’s Stephen Colbert or ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. But his willingness to go into the “Belly of the Beast” conveys a sense of optimism that draws people to him. Trump did have what I considered a pretty positive sit-down with Jimmy Fallon once upon a time, but those days are long gone.
And it was funny, too.
In addition to governing, Trump will do well to occasionally throw a bone to the establishment media networks and allow them to meet with him. But he also shouldn’t care what they think or try hard to change who he is in order to be amiable for the likes of the “Morning Joe” hosts or any of the others on MSNBC. That’s a lose-lose proposition, for sure.
Besides, Democrats have enough to concentrate on these days as they attempt to pin down what went wrong and hammer out a new way forward. Pardon the borrowing of Kamala’s campaign theme.
Democrats conducting post-election autopsy in full view
One of those establishment media personalities who will be directing more than her share of fire at Trump is Jen Psaki, former senile Joe Biden press secretary who left the White House to assume management of her own (liberal) media squawker show. Psaki recently decried the Democrats’ leadership void:
“You seize the mantle or you don’t. Are you going to be the person who decides who’s the right person to stand up against Trump? Or are you going to be the person who brings the country together? Are you going to be the person who talks about the economy and in ways that people understand? There are lots of ways to do it. I don’t know who’s going to emerge, but that’s the moment we’re in right now.”
While Trump openly talks about going to meet the establishment media on equal terms, liberals are busy pointing fingers and seemingly waiting for the time when senile Joe ‘n cackling Kamala have packed up and moved out of town, finally clearing the way for the real battle to come – Democrat on Democrat to determine who gets to speak for the poor losers as they wander the “wilderness” in search of sustenance and food and water and voters.
In the meantime, soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader “Chucky” Schumer issued a warning for Republicans last week, suggesting they not go overboard to further their agenda and completely ignore “bipartisan” input in the country’s new direction. In other words, “Chucky” admonished the new majority (in the White House and House as well) to not do what they (Democrats) did the previous years.
Well, thanks for the advice, Chucky!
As Trump will find with the media, there’s only so much cooperation (translation: none) Republicans can expect from Democrats in 2025 and beyond. The establishment talkers – and Congressional Democrats – only seek “bipartisan” togetherness on their own terms. Get ready for plenty of consternation. Only care so much about what they think.
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