RWNJs Think Trump’s Latest Media Con Was ‘Brilliant’ – WTF?!? (TWEETS, VIDEOS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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Donald Trump on the campaign trail in Phoenix (image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
Donald Trump on the campaign trail in Phoenix (image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

By now, you know that on Friday, Donald Trump pulled off the biggest con to date of his campaign–or at least one of the biggest cons of the campaign. He made the nation believe that he was going to use a press conference to announce he’d come down from the ceiling and renounced birtherism.

Instead, he hyped his swanky new Washington hotel, then paraded a number of pro-Trump veterans before the cameras to trumpet his leadership. He then made a quick statement declaring President Obama was born in this country, and blamed Hillary Clinton for the debacle before walking off and not taking questions. CNN reporters probably spoke for most people who don’t have their heads up their butts when they claimed they had been “played” and tricked into “a political rick-roll.”

But what of those who do have their heads up their butts think? Well, apparently they think it was just peachy. TownHall’s Katie Pavlich, for instance, gave Trump the equivalent of a standing ovation, declaring that this was Trump’s “most brilliant campaign move yet.”

Pavlich wrote that by making us think he was going to explain why he led the charge in promoting a borderline racist conspiracy theory and instead turning it into what amounted to a national security event, he made everyone waiting for his statement “look like fools.” As far as Pavlich was concerned, no matter what you think of the Donald, “it was brilliant.”

As if she hadn’t already made it clear, Pavlich continued applauding the Donald on Twitter.

Trump’s favorite media outlet, Breitbart News–formerly helmed by Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon–also took the opportunity to stand up and applaud this blatant attempt to manipulate the media.

Breitbart also trolled a number of Trump’s critics by tweeting several of its pieces about their denunciations of this con and telling them to “cry more.”

Along similar lines, Trump BFF and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones declared Trump “the king of the trolls.” Watch here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGt1ygBse9w

So a significant sector of the wingnut fringe finds it acceptable for a presidential candidate to manipulate the press. I wonder–if Hillary Clinton did something similar, would they consider it “brilliant”? Well, we need not imagine the answer to that question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6vn-c4XK2g

And I have another question for these wingers. Are they okay with Trump deliberately avoiding questions from the press? That’s what Trump tried to do when he refused to allow any pool reporters to follow him on a tour of his new hotel. The networks responded by pulling the plug on the pool camera and deleting the footage. Do they think this second attempt at a media con was “brilliant”? Apparently Pavlich does, because she posted her article at 3:10 p.m. Eastern–well after it emerged that Trump had tried to use the media to create what amounted to an infomercial for his new hotel.

I’m reminded of how the hypercharismatic Christianist cult that tricked me into joining it in my college days found it perfectly acceptable to lie and deceive people into joining. Apparently they believed that all is fair when trying to get people saved–including tactics that would get anyone else run out of Chapel Hill on a rail. And now some of the most vocal elements of the right are standing up and applauding a major-party candidate attempting to con the media not once, but twice.

They think it’s brilliant. A better way to describe it would be disgraceful–and yes, deplorable.

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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