Being the Story

Ezra Klein, no fan of President Trump, writes at the Vox site. Today he observes that Trump is “winning,” and goes on to explain what he means. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link. I believe Klein has stumbled across some truth, see what you think.

The secret to Trump’s success, the insight that has separated him from his competitors, is that he has cared less about the nature of the coverage he received than that he received coverage at all.

This is the law by which Trump lives his life. Attention creates value, at least for him. Before Trump, every politician hewed to the same basic rule: You want as much positive coverage, and as little negative coverage, as possible. Trump upended that.

His rule, his realization, is that you want as much coverage as possible, full stop. If it’s positive coverage, great. If it’s negative coverage, so be it. The point is that it’s coverage — that you’re the story, that you’re squeezing out your competitors, that you’re on people’s minds.

Klein concludes that being the lead in every news story, however critical, is “winning.” All other politicians are boring, not so Trump. No recent president has dominated the news to nearly the same extent.

Every story, even those seemingly about entertainment or sports, end up having a Trump “hook” somewhere. As another pundit observed, Trump lives rent-free in the heads of his enemies as well as his supporters. Fascinating stuff ....