Last weekend, Donald Trump went dark. He wasn’t seen. He wasn’t heard. For any other president on a holiday weekend, the White House Office Press Office would declare ‘a lid’ to let the press corps no news should be expected. The world would go on as normal.
Not when Trump drops out of sight. Without an unflattering picture, or a tweeted outrage, the anti-Trump legions spun themselves into tornadoes of speculation and accusation; denting the echo chamber’s walls as they launched everything and the kitchen sink.
I don’t know what Trump was doing last weekend, nor do I particularly care. I can promise you one thing: He reveled in his opponents’ obsession with his whereabouts and health status. What too many of us on this (and other) platform don’t seem to realize is that he loves being the bullseye of hate and outrage.
The mania keeps HIM at the middle of the conversation. For better or worse (almost always worse) his greatest desire, goal, and super-power, is keeping so many of his enemies hanging on his every word and keystroke. Trump and Co. aren’t worried whether millions of Substack readers or podcast listeners are foaming at the mouth: They’re positively counting on it.
As I told David Smith of The Guardian last week:
Reed Galen, president of the Union, a pro-democracy coalition, said: “The guy is so omnipresent that when he’s gone for 36 or 48 hours he leaves such a hole in the news. For those who make a political living on bashing Donald Trump, you need the daily tweets, you need the daily outrage, you need the insanity of a cabinet meeting or a pool spray in the Oval Office. When you don’t have it you’re like, wait!
“It’s like you’re addicted, like you gotta eat ice-cream every day, and one day you don’t get your ice-cream and wait a second, something’s missing. What’s happening? The medium is the message. He has created this beast that even he must feed and, when he doesn’t, people are like, ‘wait a second, what’s going on?’ because it’s so out of character.”
Let me be more blunt: The reaction to Trump’s temporary disappearance was akin to that of a junky in need of a fix. The president is the prime purveyor of political heroin in America and he’s hooked his friends and opponents alike. Entire businesses, livelihoods, and micro-economies are built on the attention economy that spins around Donald John Trump.
There is plenty of objective evidence that his actions, and those of his imbecillic cronies, are bad for America and the world. Our collective reaction to him, kicking and screaming and baiting our readers into one more click or forking over a few bucks so they can watch us read someone else’s headline and call it ‘Breaking News’ (as if there aren’t 43,568 identical takes already out there) serves narrow interests.
Tough Love Alert: Screaming about Trump 24/7 is not the same as ‘stopping’ ‘slowing’ or ‘fighting’ him. Unless a higher power prevails, he’s not going anywhere for a while.
So long as all political discussions are denominated in Trump Bucks, the Democrats will not get off the schnide and come up with an alternative, nor will they feel the need to grow a spine and become an actual opposition party. “Trump is bad!” didn’t work last year, so by all means let’s keep him at the center of everything we say and do rather than developing some alternative to MAGA or 40+ years of neoliberalism that has brought us to a place where a third of the country loves Trump, a third hates him, and a third has opted out altogether.
What happens when Trump is actually gone? Whether he shuffles off the mortal coil or leaves office (still not by any means assured) what will we talk about? Will “NeverTrump” become “NeverVance?” If some semblance of ‘normalcy’ returns (if it ever returns) what will scream about then? How will we keep people’s attention? With yet another outrage?
Instead of 24/7 Trump coverage, which outlets such as the Associated Press already provide, we need to spend a lot more time on what comes next. Today, the political and cultural energy lies with MAGA. This will disipate and perhaps fracture in a post-Trump world, but it won’t disappear; the poison seeped into America’s bones.
A lot of collective brainpower, will, and sweat is needed to create the America of tomorrow. As last weekend showed us, our Trump Addiction is preventing us from starting difficult and necessary conversations at the expense of the dopamine rush that comes from little hearts, reposts, and new subscribers.
Truth be told, I didn’t know about Trump’s disappearance last weekend until the middle of last week. You know why? Because I don’t pay attention to him 24/7. I’m spending time with my kids, helping organizations and candidates prepare for the future, and putting my head together with very, very smart and talented people to lay the foundation of AmericaNext. Come on in, the water’s fine.
Programming Notes:
I’m currently in Florida. I’ll have a field report and several exciting podcasts to share in coming days. Stay tuned.
Very good Reed. I personally listen or read as little as possible about him directly. I’m more focused on doing whatever I can to help Democrats win this year and next. It’s important to understand the malevolence and incompetence, but it is so tiresome. With the rest of the regime and GOP, the “banality of evil” is a phrase that comes to mind.
Spot on. I woke up this morning thinking the same thoughts. Thanks for putting words to "paper".
I feel like I just escaped from North Korea. Permission to leave, sir!