Part Two – Precedent
“Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that’s more productive.”
– Donald Trump
Fuckin politicians man…
It would not be unprecedented for Donald Trump to start his own media company if he were to lose the election. While politicians generally don’t start their own media company after a loss… media is part of their job isn’t it…
What politician doesn’t love inserting themselves into any and every conversation? When’s the last time a politician didn’t pop their smarmy faces up for a news slot? When’s the last time a politician kept their mouth shut instead of blurting nonsense out anytime anything happens? It’s free advertising for them and is a great little ego boost to boot (e.g. Newt Gingrich / Mike Huckabee).
Now Donald Trump may present himself as an outsider but despite that assertion it is quite clear he holds the same love for media that seemingly all ‘establishment’ politicians do. Trump did spend years and years being a TV star after all… it’s not a very big leap to go from ‘sensationalist media man‘ to ‘owner of sensationalist media company‘.
And like I said… for politicians all the media is free advertising. I highly doubt the Donald will give up on his political desires just because he loses the election. A media company would allow him to maintain a public presence and give him extra advertising for when he inevitably runs for governor of some random state or perhaps even against Hillary again four years from now.
“… the media is more biased this year than ever before. Ever.”
– Donald Trump
Rigged!!!
What’s more Donald Trump has frequently derided the media for being corrupt, for being Hillary Clinton’s stooges and lap-dogs, and for simultaneously not being critical enough of Hillary while being overly critical of himself.
That kind of narrative really spreads the seed for a Trump Media among the alt-righters and Trumpkins of the world. It allows Trump Media to portray itself as some kind of selfless entity, fighting the good fight, taking on the corrupt media.
“The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect Hillary Clinton president,”
– Donald Trump
Furthering that general narrative… if you remember, Donald Trump even questioned why the moderators weren’t stopping Hillary from going over her time limit while they were interrupting him during a presidential debate… Presumably this little outburst was because of his ‘the media is corrupt mindset‘. It really does seem that Donald Trump believes his own anti-media conspiracy theories / rhetoric.
You can see how that kind of mindset is beneficial for a Trump Media can’t you?
Compulsive Need for Attention
As an aside! We all know politicians love attention… But can you imagine anybody who loves attention more than Donald Trump? He’s almost compulsive in his need for attention isn’t he? Have you seen his Twitter???
And can you imagine any better way for Trump to continue to get the attention he compulsively needs as a loser in the presidential election than to start his own media company?
Media companies are public facing after all and have a very high interaction level with the general public. What better way to take on Hillary and her stooges than by starting his own, presumably non corrupt, media company!
It’s a win – win – win.
Trump gets more attention, Trump gets more money, Trump gets to insult the people he doesn’t like (President Hillary).
Okay sorry… Now back to that free advertising I mentioned…
Further underpinning Donald Trump’s ability to start a media company is the absolutely amazing amount of free advertising the current popular media (think New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, all those people) have given him.
Supposedly, it comes out to about $1.8 billion in free advertising for Trump.
In comparison PepsiCo, the entire company, spent $2.3 billion on advertising in 2014. Donald Trump’s amount of free advertising is coming close to the entire ad spend of company that made over $66 billion in revenue in 2014. That’s pretty shocking.
To put it another way, if Donald Trump had the same ratio of revenue to spending on advertising as Pepsi does… he’d be a company with about $50 billion in revenue. Of course he does not make anything near that, but the point is to show you how valuable the free advertising he’s been getting actually is.
What’s more… Donald Trump may have gotten even more free advertising than the $1.8 billion amount reported by the New York Times.
Donald Trump has gotten the equivalent of nearly $3 billion in free advertising since last May, according to the latest statistics from the firm mediaQuant, blowing away rivals in both parties.
Trump, who became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee when last rivals Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich exited the race, has received the equivalent of more than $2.8 billion in free ads through April. That’s based on media coverage and the equivalent advertising rates.
Source: Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch.com, May 6, 2016, URL: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-has-gotten-nearly-3-billion-in-free-advertising-2016-05-06
That is an absolutely insane amount of free media coverage… Billions... wowza.
Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton
Source: Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish, New York Times, March 15 2016, URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html
So we don’t know how much Trump has gotten exactly… but we know it’s in the billions…
Regardless of the true number, it’s a lot and it’s quite valuable.
“People love me. And you know what, I have been very successful. Everybody loves me.”
– Donald Trump
Business smahts…
“The way I run my business seems to be easier than the way I run my life.”
– Donald Trump
Donald Trump is also, supposedly, wicked smart. So monopolizing on his hardcore supporters (the Trumpkins, the alt-right, the pussy grabbers) is a wonderful way to line his pockets after losing the election.
A Trump Media company would get a huge amount of web traffic just by launching from an incredulous population. People would visit just to visit. You and me both would be lining Trump’s pockets with Google Adsense revenue just out of our sheer confusion and rage at the inherently shit articles that will appear there.
So… not only does he get his supporters to engage with his Trump Media company… he also captures his detractors. Sounds like something a super-duper smart business person would do huh???
When you think about it… a Trump Media company is a pretty straightforward thing for a rude, self-centered, politician to start.
It gives the attention, the money, and the power that Trump so obviously wants.
There’s your precedent… or should I say… possible future President…
The Trump Media Inc. Ink (report) has been broken up into the following parts: Part One - Prelude Part Two - Precedent Part Three - Trump Media's Setup Part Four - Business and more Business Part Five - Key People Part Six - Trump Media Content Part Seven - Reaction Part Eight - A Summary Part Nine - Afterword Not all parts of this Ink will be released simultaneously. Each new part will be linked to above as they become available.