The Trump Presidency is Now Complete as a Fox News Channel

The Trump Presidency is Now Complete as a Fox News Channel

The appointment of Bill Shine of Fox News as White House Communications Director completes the reconstruction of the White House as a Fox News Channel. This starts at the top with Fox News owner Rupert (why run the news when you can run the country) Murdoch, who talks to Trump daily. Bill Shine resigned from Fox in 2017 over his disregard for sexual scandals involving the late CEO Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.

Even after Roger Ailes’ dismissal, and Fox paying out $90 million in sex scandal claims, Roger used to help Trump guide his campaign.

We are all aware that Trump gets his fake news from watching Fox News, especially Hannity. He also gets directions on how to run his presidency, and he follows these. So much for needing secure channels of communication. So Fox News is Trump’s script writers and policy makers.

Then we have Fox News commentators John Bolton running Foreign policy, and Fox News businessman Larry Kudlow running the Council of Economic Advisors.

Trump himself is running a half dozen shows on his Fox Presidential Channel. All announcements are carefully staged events, of which Trump is always the only actor, or hero. Trump is indeed, in his words, “the only one who matters.”

The most popular of Trump’ shows are his campaign rallies, where he has free reign to say anything, even banned words. The rallies are Fact Free Zones. He also has the Trump Chorus, which knows all the important ancient chants like “Build The Wall”, and “Lock Her Up”, which is totally irrelevant now.  Then there is the segment “Let Me Act Presidential”, where he wimps out his voice or speaks in a low tone.  Being Presidential comes from the Mind and the Heart, Donald, not from the throat.

The Fox News nurturing and input still allow Trump to denigrate all opposition women politicians with name calling for Hillary Clinton, California’s Senator Diane Feinstein and Representative Nancy Pelosi, and for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and now insults about their lack of intelligence, as for Maxine Waters, Congresswoman of California’s 43rd District.

Another of Trump’s shows are his presentation of foreign Presidents. They struggle to get in a few words, usually about how important they are to America. Trump never remembers any of their names, and embarrasses us all by just calling them all The President. The show is just Trump Self Praise, and how amazing he is.

Then there is the rare Cabinet Meeting show.  This is meant to show Trump as the main commander of the Executive Branch.  No input from the Cabinet is ever shown.  The main segment of this show is the Fealty or Obsequiousness Round, where each Cabinet Member thanks The Great Trump for being our leader, and praises his magnificence.  Right out of Dictatorship 101.

Similarly, another Trump show calls meetings of fellow billionaires for their inputs.  They also are not allowed to speak, and people say that Trump leaves these after 15 minutes, leaving Ivanka or Jared to pick up all the good advice.

All of these photo shoots are ended by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders shrill calling for the press to leave the room as if they were children.  Trump never really holds any of his own press conferences any more.

I well remember the Reagan Presidency (1981-89), after Reagan was a B-Movie star. Pundits used to watch Reagan’s TV performances and wonder if he still thought that he was playing a movie role, and not really President. I leave it to the viewers of the Trump Presidency to decide if Trump is just starring in more reality shows like “The Apprentice”, or a real President. For me, he is just reading a script of policies that was written 70 years ago for “Make America Great Again”. These include racism, blocking refugees before, during, and after the Second World War, isolationism, his renewed debate whether to support Europe, now through NATO, tariffs, fighting labor, restricting voting, etc. These are essentially the policies of his parents and German grandparents.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in 2018 Midterm Election, Donald Trump, Fox News, Immigration Ban, Movie Analogies, Politics, Trump Administration, Voting Rights. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply