https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion-features/will-media-ever-quit-trump
Will the media ever quit Trump
By Leon Hadar
IT HAS become a cliche to say that “it has become a cliche to say that”
just when you thought that it has become safe to spend a day without
seeing, hearing or thinking about America’s 45th president, something
happens and the real estate tycoon and former reality television star is
back!
Very much like at the end of a horror film when you believe that the
good guys have finally destroyed the villain who seemed to have drowned
or disappeared into thin air, the monster shows up roaring with that
smirk on his face, ready to take another shot at Superman and destroy
humanity.
The world is in disarray, as a bloody war continues to rage in Ukraine
and Russia threatened to deploy nuclear weapons; a continuing
trade-technological battle between Beijing and Washington risks
deteriorating into a full-blown war over Taiwan; Saudi Arabia cuts its
oil production and Iran may go nuclear; and everyone is talking about
ChatGPT and the challenge that artificial intelligence is posing to our
way of life.
But then for 24 hours, the American and international media was
following every move of a resident of Florida – the images of Donald
Trump and his motorcade, leaving his home at Mar-a-Lago to jet to New
York City to spend a night at Trump Towers, before making an
extraordinary appearance at the Criminal Courts Building in Lower
Manhattan, where he was indicted on 34 felony counts, standing accused
of covering up a sex scandal involving a porn star. And then there was
the media spectacle of Trump’s trip back home to Florida.
It’s true that it was the first criminal prosecution of a former US
president in history, which justifies the wide media coverage, with the
spotlight on the ex-president, and thousands of journalists and
protesters congregating near 100 Centre Street, where the arraignment
was taking place at the courthouse.
At times, it seemed as though it was Trump who’s still occupying the
White House, while Joe Biden is relegated to a supporting role in the
evolving political drama.
In fact, the charges Trump faced on Tuesday (Apr 4) are less significant
compared to those that a prosecutor in Georgia is planning against the
former president (that he tried to interfere in the 2020 election), or
the indictments tied to the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
All of which guarantees a continuing media and public fixation with
Trump, the kind of 24/7 coverage that he craves, providing him with the
oxygen that not only keeps him politically alive and rallies members of
his political base as he prepares to run for the Republican presidential
nomination, while diverting attention from his rivals – including
President Biden, whom he may face in the 2024 general election.
There are those who insist, like they did in the past, that at some
point the Trump mania would end. Indeed, even his supporters may be
exhausted after years of never-ending chaos, political scandals and
public rallies, where the former president launches into his long
stream-of-consciousness bombast.
After all, moviegoers and TV audiences tend at some point to get bored
after watching a fourth sequel of a film, or a sixth season of a popular
television show. And the media and Hollywood then have no choice but to
get new scripts and sexier stars.
But there are no signs that that is now happening in the case of the
Trump media show. He remains the most popular Republican politician and
frontrunner in his party’s presidential nomination race, with his
rivals, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, dividing the ranks of
any potential anti-Trump campaign.
Nor is the ageing and unpopular President Biden in shape to star in the
media contest; he remains a political asset only for one reason: He
isn’t Trump.
Indeed, Biden’s supporters believe that the continuing media obsession
with Trump could help Biden in the general election, with a majority of
voters preferring to spend four more years with the dull media
production in the form of the Biden presidency than suffer a return to
the spectacle of political mayhem of Trump’s term in office. Sometimes,
being unsexy has its benefits.