President Donald Trump’s tariff turnaround rocked the global economy but it’s his “game show-like approach to ‘governance’” which could be more damaging to America than we realize, according to a column in Salon.
While the BBC called the spectacle “a high-stakes game of chicken, with the world's economy hanging in the balance,” columnist Chauncey DeVega believes there is something more subtle happening.
“Trump’s genius skill as a propagandist is amplified by social media and other forms of digital culture.” Meaning, Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ persona is exacerbated by America’s TV culture.
The columnist quoted David Altheide, who believes the pomp-and-circumstance of Trump’s press briefings are, “more akin to the established TV format of game show host. See ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”
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DeVega later opined, “Donald Trump’s manipulation(s) of power and people (and overall approach to politics and being a public figure) are guided by the logic of television and the need to create constant drama and conflict. In this story, Donald Trump is, of course, the main character who is battling against such nefarious forces as 'Sleepy Joe Biden,' 'Lying Kamala,' the evil 'Deep State,' 'Fake News,' the Democrats, the liberals, socialists, Marxists, WOKE, DEI, CRT and other monsters. In his epic, Trump is also doing battle against countries and their leaders who are taking advantage of the United States and the American people and treating them like suckers.”
Even with 40 years of reporting on Trump, DeVega believes the media, “has still not developed an effective framework or narrative for making sense of confronting Donald Trump and his norm-shattering approach to politics and ‘leadership.’”
“The Age of Trump is not a TV show. There will be no deus ex machina moment or big plot twist where the hero saves the American people. To borrow from media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman, the American people 'amused themselves to death' and put Donald Trump back in the White House. Now they are experiencing how the resulting disaster is neither funny nor entertaining.”