Shrinking CPAC wants what Trump wants
Donald Trump’s fading star has not kept media outlets from covering him the way he wants to be covered. Almost any attention is good attention. The “deeply wounded narcissist” has a bottomless need for it. Almost as much as his followers’ need for retribution against the citified and nonwhite unworthies slowly eating into their political and cultural supremacy.
“I believe former President Trump to be a deeply wounded narcissist, and he is often incapable of acting other than in his perceived self-interest or for revenge,” said Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer during Trump’s administration. “I think those are the two compelling instincts that guide his actions.”
Trump said it himself at CPAC:
“In 2016, I declared: I am your voice,” he said, speaking for just over 100 minutes from a bright blue and red stage in a cavernous ballroom at the closing speech of the CPAC event in Maryland. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution,” he said.
And you are just fawning tools, Trump did not say. Fewer are lining up, but the press still covers him/them.
Marcy Wheeler offers a brief thread on where Trump press coverage goes wrong:
The way to cover Trump’s CPAC speech is NOT to cover his promise to stay in the race if he’s indicted, it’s to point out how similar THIS SPEECH is for things he may be indicted for.
Emphasizing its inflammatory nature makes you part of the coup attempt.
Trump’s play is not about the next election, per se. Reporting it as such is malpractice.
Trump’s play is to make prosecuting him an existential challenge for democracy, where his partisans will take out law enforcement to undermine the case.
Trump’s play is to ALWAYS reinforce division in society, to ratchet it up, so that his supporters will continue to piss away their lives by attacking democracy to save him.
His play is to keep his supporters distracted from the enormous fraud he commits against them.
Want to report on Trump’s outrageousness?
Report on how his people are paying FBI Agents to spy on the investigation into him and his followers.
Blasting CPAC to audiences who would otherwise have ignored it just distracts from all that.
And I agree that @svdate‘s coverage of the speech–including its emphasis on how poorly attended it is–is far better than most.
Trump Brings His Usual Grievances Back To A Diminished CPACThe coup-attempting former president brought his usual grievances back to a diminished CPAChttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-cpac-return_n_640262fce4b0e45e2f8e7346
You can tell two stories:
Trump went to a failing conference and ratcheted up a partly empty room with the same incitement.
OR
WOW, Trump is so powerful even a “witchhunt” indictment can’t stop him from being President.
Odds are that whatever sells more papers will drive coverage. It’s the capitalism, stupid. I don’t see how that changes.
(h/t Laffy)