This is the silly season of presidential politics, when all manner of unelectable people launch semi-campaigns (c.f., Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, etc.) and try to use wingnut media to attract the attention of the corporate media.
The latest of these self-promoters to succeed at that is Donald Trump, who probably makes more money from his TV show and renting his name than from his beleaguered casinos/real estate holdings.
On Thursday, John King had Trump on his CNN show, where the weird-haired one again said he is "seriously considering" a run because "a lot of people" are encouraging him.
King picked up the "story" from Newsmax, which got an "exclusive" interview with Trump and also features a Trump-shilling video interview with GOP dirty-trickster Roger Stone.
Details, below.
The Trump for President project, and shilling for Trump in other ways, has been good business for Stone, who also promoted a pretend independent run by Trump in 2000.
This time, anyway, Trump got his money's worth from Stone:
I think Trump is going to run. I think that he, as a patriot, as someone who is unabashedly American, is completely fed up with the way this country is being abused abroad, with our economy. As the most prominent and probably best-known businessman in the country he knows how to create jobs, he knows the business of America is business.
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In a wide-open field, Trump is a giant in a field of pygmies.
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He has, let’s face it, a John F. Kennedy-like charisma to match Barack Obama.
Trump's JFK charisma is unnoticed by those not on his payroll.
Stone seems to have rebounded from his disastrous foray into NY's governor's race, where he worked for two epic losers, Carl Paladino and a former madam running on an independent line, and got himself banned forever from Fred Dicker's influential radio show for libeling the Libertarian candidate as a sexual predator.
King presumably is not on Trump's payroll, but he does seem to give the short-fingered vulgarian (h/t Spy magazine) a lot of airtime.
Back in November, Trump told King preposterously:
I have had tremendous pressure over the years for me to run, but I've never had it like now.
In another November appearance, King hosted Trump on his review of the decade show.
The video of the clip is entitled "Trump reflects back on the decade," with a focus on the "solid, steady decline" of the United States and his solution -- a 25 percent tariff on Chinese imports.
Whatever, Trump will not run for president.
This is all about the media collaborating with dubious characters to increase the value of their celebrity (applying obviously to Gingrich, too).
Pretend-presidential campaigns by the likes of Trump and Gingrich get more free media than they deserve, and help improve the pretenders' ability to make money.
Which for Trump and Gingrich, is all that really matters.