The New Trump Show: 'I've Gotten to Like This Room'

[babylonsister]

The New Trump Show: ‘I’ve Gotten to Like This Room’
The president has turned the abandoned briefing room into a new stage and he’s making it must-see TV.
By MICHAEL KRUSE
03/25/2020 04:30 AM EDT


To anybody suddenly tuning into the president’s press conference this Monday evening, it might have seemed like the leader of the free world was channeling an off-hours televangelist, taking advantage of a pandemic to offer a hazy tale of a miraculous cure.

“… a gentleman,” Donald Trump intoned from inside the White House, invoking an antimalarial remedy called hydroxychloroquine, “they thought he was not going to make it. He said goodbye to his family. They had given him the drug just a little while before, but he thought it was over. His family thought he was going to die. And a number of hours later, he woke up, felt good. Then he woke up again, and he felt really good. And he’s in good shape. And he’s very happy …” The drug, if it works on Covid-19, would be, he said, “a gift from God.”

This brief, almost mystical tale came in the eight-minute mark of the first hour of another installment of what has become a new American serial drama.

Over the last two weeks, Trump has embarked on a striking chapter of his optics-obsessed presidency, turning the all-but-abandoned briefing room into the set of a largely unscripted television series that has gripped, worried and (depending on one’s political affiliation) infuriated viewers.

Stripped of the weapon of his rallies, of “chopper talk,” of the sorts of set pieces to which the populace had grown accustomed over the three-plus years he’s been commander-in-chief, Trump as a president in crisis has engineered something different. While governors from New York to California have staged almost daily briefings, offering a traditional mixture of stern warnings and words of comfort, Trump has created something more like a show built on narrative surprises and populated with familiar characters—the good doctors, the bad reporters, the loyal lieutenants. And in the middle of it all, playing the role of the ringmaster, the marketer and the brander and the professed expert, is Trump.

more...

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-white-house-briefing-room-press-conference-147571

[Kittycow]

1. Here we go again with hours and hours of free self-promotion.

[WePurrsevere]

2. I'm hoping for a major nationwide case of 'Trump Fatigue'...

to strike this November making voters want to vote against him just to get he and his craziness off their TVs.

[TheRealistRealist]

3. CNN and MSNBC have surrendered to him n/t

[babylonsister]

6. Not really.

They are covering 'news', but using their discretion, too.

A CNN spokesperson responded to Deere’s tweet in a statement: “If the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise we will make our own editorial decisions.”

An MSNBC network spokesperson said the network aired the briefing for more than an hour before cutting away "because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health."

Several people have criticized the administration’s daily coronavirus briefings for allegedly spreading misinformation and urged news networks not to show them live.

more...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/489150-white-house-hits-cnn-msnbc-for-cutting-away-from-coronavirus-briefing

[sinkingfeeling]

4. I want it canceled.

[GoCubsGo]

5. I'd like to know if anyone is actually watching these things.

I don't think most of the networks are even carrying them anymore. People are already bored with this crap, and I can't imagine he even has much of an audience.

[Jim__]

7. must-see TV?

Whenever I see that jackass on TV, I shut it off.

[lark]

8. I quit watching when it devolved into a complete lying shitshow.

He will never tell the truth, he will not do what's needed, he'll let people from NY, CA, MI & IL perish so he can keep the red states, that don't need them, fully supplied. Of course, he's ok with them getting sick, so won't do anything to help prevent the virus, but I bet, for as long as possible - they will have the PPE etc. they need until everything crashes.