President Donald Trump is facing an awkward paradox: he hates the “fake news.” But he wouldn’t really be here today without them.
“He still longs for acceptance by the press,” Oliver Darcy, a former CNN media reporter and Status newsletter creator, told The Daily Beast Podcast this week. “He’s very frustrated by the fact that he is no longer the narrator of his own story and he feels betrayed.”
Since 2016, demonizing the media has been a cornerstone of Trump’s reign. But Darcy said it all stems from a place of insecurity.
“Donald Trump was very hyped by the media,” Darcy told podcast host Joanna Coles. “Obviously, with The Apprentice, he was beamed into every living room in the country. People celebrated Donald Trump and held him up. And right when he waded into politics, obviously the media became more critical of him.”
Before long, he had lost control of the narrative. Journalists weren’t reporting on him favorably. “And obviously, that’s not the role of the press, particularly when you’re running for president,” added Darcy.
Trump grew angry, and began slamming the “fake news” in nearly every speech. He’s often insinuated that legacy news outlets are the enemies of the people. But his external persona doesn’t quite match the behind-the-scenes Trump, said Darcy. Despite his repeated assaults on major outlets, he still craves their approval.
“He lashes out in public, but then, in private, he hosts them for meetings,” said Darcy of the very journalists he criticizes. “He calls them up on their phones.”
Even after the “Signalgate” scandal that rocked the White House in March—during which The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg exposed the Trump administration for mistakenly adding him to a highly sensitive messaging chat—Trump agreed to an interview with Atlantic journalists.
But since he can’t get all journalists to bend a knee to his whims, he’s decided to take a different approach this year. The president has been applying pressure on major media conglomerates, especially through the threat of revoking broadcasting licenses or filing lawsuits at companies that don’t acquiesce.
Darcy explained that Trump is “pushing all the pain points” and “putting unprecedented pressure on their businesses.”
Companies like Disney or Paramount, said Darcy, are no longer as strong as they once were. “And so they need to make some deals, and they need federal government approval,” he said.
As Coles put it: “He’s now trying to control the narrative by controlling the owners of media.”
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