Trump: It Is Only The Beginning

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. — Winston Churchill

It would seem that Joe Biden has been elected, if only by the narrowest of margins.

You might think that our long national nightmare with Donald Trump is over, and that when historians look back on the Trump years, they will see this as some kind of weird anomaly.

I think not. I think that rather the election of the 77-year old Joe Biden is the anomaly. By 2024, Trump, in another persona, will be back with a vengeance.

How was it possible that a failed casino operator, heavily indebted mediocre realtor, failed airline operator, failed university operator and wildly successful reality TV star was able to, on his very first foray into politics, not just capture the highest office in the land, but also capture not just the attention but the unmitigated love of tens of millions of Americans? The answer is in his only real qualification for the Presidency — his very deep understanding of television.

America is TV nation.

That is who we are.

By TV, I am not just referring to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, nor am I referring also to cable — HGTV (House Hunters!), Discovery, TLC (My 600 Pound Life!) and so on. I am referring to the whole constellation of never ending entertainment pumped into our homes (and into our brains) 24- hours a day.

I mean all of the above, but I also mean Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Apple TV and all the rest. And… I also mean YouTube, IGTV, Facebook Watch and more. Now you get it.

That’s Entertainment!

The average American, according to the AC Nielsen company, who should know, spends an astonishing 8 hours a day, every day, watching some iteration of TV. We now, as a society, spend more time watching stuff on screens than we do working, reading (19 minutes a day says Nielsen), eating, exercising or for that matter, sleeping.

Watching entertaining stuff is now our #1 activity.

We are the World Class Champion watchers. No one watches stuff like we do, and we have been doing it for years.

What happens to a society that spends 8 hours a day, every day, for years and years watching stuff on a screen?

They get educated.

They get educated to respect, honor and even demand ENTERTAINMENT.

We want to be entertained. We crave it, and it is the thing we respect above all else.

And that is why Donald Trump got elected. He was great TV.

He was such great TV that the networks, who depend on attracting audiences which drive ratings which drive ad sales which drive their income, could not get enough of Donald Trump. He was a ratings machine. That is why thousands turned out for his rallies — The Live Show! See your favorite TV star in person! And he was entertaining — and a ratings money machine.

When his campaign began to run out of cash toward the end of October, when he had to cut back on the TV ads, all he had to do was fire up the rallies, and guess who was there giving him a billion dollars in live TV time? You bet.

The endless years of watching TV over and over and over provided even a loser like Trump with fertile ground for a run at the White House, and a win. But, like all TV shows, The Donald Trump Show got cancelled. That’s show biz. But that doesn’t mean that the desire for even more entertaining stars has gone away.

Far from it.

Keep your eyes open. The time slot that the old Donald Trump Show used to occupy is open and there’s going to be a replacement that is EVEN MORE FUN!

My guess — The Tucker Carlson Show.

Or maybe even someone worse.

An eager audience (and billions in TV ratings dollars) anxiously await.

If you found this interesting, you will really like my new book, Don’t Watch This!