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Donald Trump is stuck in a reality TV loop
Donald Trump is stuck in a reality TV loopThe former president's only plan for the debate is to recreate high-stakes drama like on "The Apprentice"
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED JUNE 26, 2024 9:49AM (EDT)
(Salon) One of the more unusual side stories in this presidential campaign cycle is a renewed look at Donald Trump's pre-presidential years as a Reality TV star. It offers some new insights into how he has transformed our politics into a spectacle we couldn't have imagined just a decade ago. The publication of the new book “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass” by co-editor-in-chief of the Hollywood Reporter, Ramin Setoodeh, offers a unique perspective on Trump's post-White House years. Additionally, a recent article in Slate by a former "Apprentice" producer named Bill Pruitt gives an inside look at the phoniness of reality television and how it perfectly fit Trump's already well-developed phony persona.
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Trump has always been a braggart and a BS artist. You can watch videos from decades ago and he's boasting and exaggerating about his wealth and success as always. He had books ghostwritten for him extolling his business acumen and he encouraged the tabloids to portray him as a wealthy playboy, the image he cultivated for decades despite being married for most of his adult life. He was a self-promoter desperate to be a celebrity.
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Sehtoodah's book begins after Trump has left the White House and is reminiscing about his glory days as a TV star. He was down in the dumps and it seemed to perk him up to talk about his knowledge of how show business really works. Trump told him, “It’s all about one thing: ratings. If you have ratings, you can be the meanest, most horrible human being in the world.” (It reminded me of an anecdote from Dr. Anthony Fauci in his book “On Call,” when during the COVID pandemic Trump called Fauci into the Oval Office to brag about the ratings his crazy press conferences were getting.) That's what it's all about —- ratings, poll numbers, Truth Social followers. It's all a measure of his fame and celebrity power.
....(snip)....
This week we are all on tenterhooks waiting for the presidential debate on Thursday and Trump is doing his usual promotional teases to get those all-important ratings up. He's quite talented at that. Recall that in 2016, he staged a press conference and planted women that Bill Clinton had allegedly had affairs with in the front row of the presidential debate as a stunt to rattle Clinton and get the press buzzing. This year he's demanding President Biden take a drug test to prove he isn't going to be "jacked up" on something. Some of that's just trying to psych out the opponent and playing the expectations game. But really, he's just setting up a scenario for the press and his fan base: Could Joe Biden really be on drugs? Is he senile or is he "jacked up"? Will Trump be "tough and nasty" or will he be calm and disciplined? Stay tuned. ..............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2024/06/26/donald-is-stuck-in-a-reality-tv-loop/
2 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Chump seems to think that he had something to do with it, but he didn't do shit. He couldn't even say his lines correctly. He couldn't follow a script, so Burnett had to edit thousands of hours of video tape to make a "show" out of a huge clusterf*ck. And he did it week after week, month after month, year after year.
Chump is still giving himself credit for all of Burnett's work.
