Thursday, August 18, 2016

Is Trump's Naming of a Campaign "CEO" a Signal of a Pivot Toward Planning of a Post Election Television Network?

By Robert Wenzel

Has Donald Trump given up on a November 8 general election victory?

Probably not entirely, but his naming of Steve Bannon as campaign "CEO"  may be a signal that Trump is thinking beyond the election toward a possible "Trump Television Network."

Ben Shapiro, who used to work at Breitbart, and split over the news organizations pro-Trump coverage, absolutely hates Bannon and  wrote in a piece for Daily Wire:
 Trump’s Campaign Strategy Could Be The Launch Of A New Media Outlet. Because Bannon’s ambitions extend to Steve Bannon, he’ll tell Trump he’s doing a fantastic job even if he isn’t. That’s how Bannon Svengalis political figures and investors – by investing them in his personal genius, then hollowing them out from the inside. There’s a reason Sarah Palin went from legitimate political figure to parody artist to Trump endorser, with Steve Bannon standing alongside her every step of the way. There’s a reason Breitbart News went from hard-charging news outlet to drooling Trump mouthpiece. Bannon emerges from all of this unscathed. So what’s next on his agenda? If Trump wins, he’s in a position of high power; if Trump loses, Bannon could head up a new media empire with Trump’s support and the involvement of new Trump supporter and ousted former Fox News head Roger Ailes. Look for Sean Hannity to be a part of any such endeavor....
 Many former employees of Breitbart News are afraid of Steve Bannon. He is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies. Bannon is a smarter version of Trump: he’s an aggressive self-promoter who name-drops to heighten his profile and woo bigger names, and then uses those bigger names as stepping stools to his next destination. Trump may be his final destination. Or it may not. He will attempt to ruin anyone who impedes his unending ambition, and he will use anyone bigger than he is – for example, Donald Trump – to get where he wants to go. Bannon knows that in the game of thrones, you win or die. And he certainly doesn’t intend to die. He’ll kill everyone else before he goes.
Bannon’s ascension is the predictable consummation of a romance he ardently pursued. I joked with friends months ago that by the end of the campaign, Steve Bannon would be running Trump’s campaign from a bunker. That’s now reality.
It is important to point out that NYT has reported:
Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman ousted last month over charges of sexual harassment, is advising Donald J. Trump in preparation for the all-important presidential debates this fall.
Thus, the BIG question: Is Trump about to turn the remainder of his presidential campaign into a teaser for his television network?

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of  EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn.

2 comments:

  1. another 'conservative' echo chamber? isn't fox news enough?

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  2. Ben Shapiro claimed to have left Breitbart out of protest over the fake Michelle Fields incident, but he really left because he's a neocon who considers the site to be taking an isolationist stance. He wrote a piece in National Review afterwards claiming anti-war conservatives on the right who follow Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul are anti-Semites. The other source who's gone against Bannon is Dana Loesch, who tried to sue Andrew Breitbart's widow and now works for scumbag Glenn Beck. I don't agree with everything the Breitbart site says, especially on Muslims, but I trust guys like Lee Stranahan way more than Shapiro or Loesch.

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