When Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for the Presidency in 2015, much of the mainstream media treated it as a joke. No one thought that this real estate mogul-turned reality TV star could possibly be serious about becoming President. But Trump touched a nerve in American society and had his finger on the pulse of the country in a way that no politician did. And not only did he shock everyone by winning the Republican nomination, he shocked the world in 2016 by winning the election.
Throughout the campaign, the media mocked Trump incessantly. They couldn’t get enough of pointing out his foibles, criticizing things he had said years before, and maligning his character. But if Trump’s aim had not really been to become President, the media unwittingly aided him by forgetting the #1 Rule of the Internet: don’t feed the trolls.
Trump turned trolling the media into an art form, not just as a candidate, but also as President. And as much as some in the media liked to pretend that they had gotten one over on him, Trump almost always came out of his spats with the media with the upper hand.
Now that Trump is no longer President, he hasn’t stopped the trolling. He has now established the Office of the Former President, a vehicle for himself and his policy views that intends to keep him front and center in American politics. The name is a clear jab at Joe Biden’s assumption of the title of Office of the President-Elect last fall, an absurdity if there ever was one. Trump’s clever riposte will ensure that he won’t fade away into obscurity, not even if the media wanted him to.
Of course, Congress won’t let him fade away either, with the upcoming impeachment trial ensuring that Trump will remain front and center in Washington, DC. Once again, Congress can’t leave well enough alone. If the bumbling buffoons on both sides of the aisle wanted to make Trump go away, hauling him in for what is a blatantly unconstitutional trial isn’t the way to go about it.
But once again, the political establishment is demonstrating that it is completely out of touch with the reality of mainstream America, completely tone-deaf and lacking in self-awareness, and unable to comprehend the anger that many Americans feel for business as usual in Washington. What we’re about to see in the coming weeks may be only a foretaste of four years of beautiful trolling of the Biden administration.