Exclusive: Is Donald Trumps Endgame the Launch of Trump News?

[thatcher]

Great idea, Donald -- why don't you drop out now and get started on it...

FTA:  Trump has “gotten the bug,” according to this person. “So now he wants to figure out if he can monetize it.”

Exclusive: Is Donald Trumps Endgame the Launch of Trump News?

Every election cycle has its own breakout media star. In 1992, it was CNN. A few years later, it would be an e-mail blast called the Drudge Report. By 2000, the country had more or less been neatly delineated between MSNBC and Fox News households. The 2008 election introduced Politico and the Huffington Post to the adults’ table. BuzzFeed joined in 2012.

The breakout media star of 2016 is, inarguably, Donald Trump, who has masterfully—and horrifyingly—demonstrated an aptitude for manipulating the news cycle, gaining billions of dollars worth of free airtime, and dominating coverage on every screen. Now, several people around him are looking for a way to leverage his supporters into a new media platform and cable channel.

Trump is indeed considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States. According to several people briefed on the discussions, the presumptive Republican nominee is examining the opportunity presented by the “audience” currently supporting him. He has also discussed the possibility of launching a “mini-media conglomerate” outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC. He has, according to one of these people, enlisted the consultation of his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who owns the The New York Observer. Trump’s rationale, according to this person, is that, “win or lose, we are onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.” For his part, Kushner was heard at a New York dinner party saying that “the people here don’t understand what I’m seeing. You go to these arenas and people go crazy for him.” (Both Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not respond to a request for comment.)


Read more at:  http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-tv-network

[sitetest]

So, this demagogue wants more than its moment in the sun.

[thatcher]

But another person with knowledge of the situation noted that the two men had a subsequent conversation in which they broached a compromise, albeit one that seems more like a Trumpian fever dream than a network-TV reality. It outlined, presumably fantastically, that Trump should run for president; and on the off chance that he won, he would continue to star in The Apprentice from within the White House. (Burke did not respond to a request for comment. Hope Hicks did not respond to my request for comment on this particular matter and instead noted that Trump is focused on making America great again.)

[sinkspur]

I thought Duck Dynasty had the market cornered on the crowd that supports Trump. 

[thatcher]

Another one of his brilliant business plans -- get into cable when the audience is leaving and technology has made it obsolete.  But, hey, maybe it will be as successful as AlGoreTV.

[Mechanicos]

[GrouchoTex]

No doubt, and now the liberal media doesn't even try to pretend to be unbiased anymore.

[Oceander]

One does realize, doesn't one, that the New York Observer is a traditionally left of center publication, and that Kushner has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to democrats.

I wouldn't take it as a good sign if Trump thinks the NY Observer represents "good" journalism.