* When Donald Trump appointed Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, it seemed ominous. Nothing has changed; in fact, it’s worse. (Bannon, who spent seven years in the Navy, has been elevated to full membership in a reorganized National Security Council–at the expense of the downgraded director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.) The man who Andrew Breitbart once called the “Leni Reifenstahl” (Hitler documentarian) of the Tea Party Movement is now a one-man, alt-Reich inner circle when it comes to the media.
“The media has zero integrity, zero intelligence and no hard work,” states Bannon, who could be quoting from a Trump campaign playbook. “The media here is the opposition party.”
Bannon embodies the Trump game plan of targeting the mainstream media as high-profile foil and easy scapegoat. It’s an anti-elitist strategy designed to divert attention from legitimate opposition and pander to a fan base that doesn’t need much beyond Breitbart News, Sean Hannity, Administration-sanctioned “alternate facts” and improvised, presidential-belief tweets.
Trump always manipulated the media when he was a billionaire celebrity. He now misses the promotional puffery as only a pathological narcissist can miss it. It can only get worse.
*The Trump presidency has sparked noteworthy, resonating revivals in two books–neither of which is “The Art of the Deal.”
A current popular choice among book clubs is Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here.” Meanwhile, Amazon.com reports that a top-5 seller is none other than George Orwell’s classic “1984.” The former is a fictitious look at the rise of a populist-fascist, presidential candidate who targets a lying mainstream press. The latter is a dystopian tale where facts are distorted or suppressed into the iconic “newspeak” at the Ministry of Truth. Sobering.
* Combatively divisive, constitutionally suspect, geopolitically-worrisome political theater isn’t governing. It’s posturing, masquerading and neglecting responsibility.
If President Trump’s alarming first week is a harbinger of what’s to come, there could be a President Pence, co-opted by a panicky GOP establishment that will give him enough evangelical cover to finish it out.