I originally wrote most of this without realizing that other great minds were also writing about Trump’s post-election plans for starting his own TV network. When I saw that Daily Kos had a well researched main story about it , “Is the Trump campaign just a pilot episode of Trump TV?” I just put it on as a comment. But then I figured, what the hell, I can flesh out my thoughts, add some hopefully creative perspectives, and add my voice to the madding crowd of Kos diarists.
What knows what is in the mind of Trump? I think he started out as a lark, a way to satisfy his ego, but never thought it would go this far. Somewhere along the way he realized he could actually win the nomination. I doubt he ever though he could win the general. Still, he was having too much fun playing Trump and shaking up the Republican establishment, which I doubt he ever cared about. I doubt he gave a hoot about the whether Hillary won, or even believed she would be the ruination of the country. Besides, he doesn’t care about anybody but himself. I mean literally, he doesn’t care about his wife or his daughters or his cold-blooded endangered animal shooting sons.
So for Trump going on into the future to be really happy he needs to loose the election, and while he’d like it to be a squeaker, he’ll settle for going out in a blaze of glory because he has no choice.
The time has passed for him to tether himself to a teleprompter and begin to take medications to appear presidential (and securely hinged).
Trump wants to be the most famous person in the world for the rest of his life. Presidents come and go, they are famous for awhile when they leave office, like Bill Clinton. But then their fame wears off and they are replaced by the next president. The same with sports figures like Muhammad Ali. Trump want to be Hugh Hefner on steroids (sorry for that image). He wants to develop a brand out of himself and indulge in hedonistic pleasures — how long before he gets tired of of Melania — until he croaks.
He may do this by developing a cable network or two, like the modest (in comparison) and much better looking Ted Turner did. In addition to on Daily Kos,
There’s an article in Vanity Fair about this, and also on alternet
www.alternet.org/…
Developing a cable network seems to be the best, perhaps the only, way to stay in the public eye, since just having one dumbass show wouldn’t satisfy his ego anymore. He’s not about to become a Jerry Seinfeld.
Despite the ratings success of “The Apprentice” he must know he can’t develop a network built just around his cult of personality.
The Trump version of “The Truman Show” will wear thin pretty quickly. Furthermore, Trump’s day to day life isn’t as interesting or charmingly weird as Ozzie Osborne’s, though it might be as grotesque as Honey BooBoo’s. The Don Rickles show only lasted one season for 17 episodes in 1968, and his comeback attempt with his own show bombed after 13 episodes in 1972. Unlike Trump, "The Merchant of Venom" and "Mr. Warmth,” actually was a talented comedian.
Trump might just be able to pull this off. He could pick and choose the shows he wanted to star in and be his own boss. He could put together his network by poaching a few successful shows from other networks, for example Duck Dynasty. All the conspiracy and ghost hunting shows could be recreated cheaply. He could give Alex Jones and David Duke their own shows. Hunting and fishing shows are popular and not expensive to produce.
He could get the conservative talk show stars still supporting him to leave radio to be on his network. He could put the most reprehensible together for their own show. Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Bachmann, and Sarah Palin could have their own show, kind of a nausea inducing version of “The View.”
The real coup would be to cut profit sharing deals with the already rich Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern to come on board.
Most disturbing, he could give his bloodthirsty big game trophy hunting sons their own show.
If this all comes to pass, remember, you heard it here first.
Comments are closed on this story.