Where Fox News and Donald Trump Took Us

[Zorro]

Roger Ailes understood the appeal Mr. Trump had for Fox viewers. He didn’t foresee how together they would redefine the limits of political discourse.

When Roger Ailes ran CNBC in the mid-1990s, he gave himself a talk show called “Straight Forward.” It long ago vanished into the void of canceled cable programs and never received much attention after the network boss moved on to produce more provocative and polarizing content as chairman of Fox News. But “Straight Forward” was a fascinating window into what kind of people Mr. Ailes considered stars.

Donald Trump was one of them. In late 1995, Mr. Ailes invited Mr. Trump, then a 49-year-old developer of condos and casinos, on the show and sounded a bit star-struck as he asked his guest to explain how a Manhattan multimillionaire could be so popular with blue-collar Americans.

“The guy on the street, the cabdrivers, the guys working on the road crews go, ‘Hey, Donald! How’s it going?’” Mr. Ailes observed while the two men sat in front of a wood-paneled set piece that gave the studio the appearance of an elegant den in an Upper East Side apartment. “It’s almost like they feel very comfortable with you, like you’re one of them. And I’ve never quite figured out how you bridge that.”

Mr. Trump answered by flipping his host’s assertion around. It was because of who hated him: other people with money. “The people that don’t like me are the rich people. It’s a funny thing. They can’t stand me,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “I sort of love it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/business/trump-fox-news.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DPDm4fiO4IGImG9lzWIrZ5et4rmjqcVJpHPaA0Avxuy-sVd2pcdz6VmLrW0pIUP3dy7oupQmI925-KU-ti_zHnNmP8IrZzzvjis0_YdWjpX6zA1iclIQ0x9cc0JgupymVIkvmeapN90tJ93P8gAJpoF3xXNGTR4a6eW1gpM86Gbxrc9gA2R-hePDrQltWf4L8AGx5AXROEFDgspDZht64PfY8fL639LBU_ecDhgLt3CWRgL4-hApZZVJEi3qsnKxW3sInnftkkCulX&smid=url-share

[pandr32]

1. Insightful

Looking through this lens we find the righties loving TFG because the "elitists" and the liberals hate him.

[underpants]

2. "Mondays With Trump." Was how Trump prepped the battlefield on Fox

Aside from being the rich guy white guy who evangelicals would support to stop the unthinkable, a woman President, Trump established hims of with the viewers. By the time he came down the escalator to the cheers of paid actors he was past Fox News’s influence. Fox tried desperately to put him down but it was too late.

There were way too many people running in the primary and no one would drop out. Trump is the only person to take the office POTUS without winning a majority of votes in the primary AND general election.

The “establishment” feared what he would bring out and they were right. They’d worked for decades to placate their fringe elements and keep them out of the picture. What we saw on Jan. 6th was exactly what the GOP RNC knew would be brought out by Trump.

[Chainfire]

3. But apparently the Republicans have learned to not only accept but embrace insanity.

Crazy sells.

[underpants]

4. Democrats fall in love it's their candidate, Republicans fall in line

An old political truism.
strength leadership white male - that’s what they want even if they don’t realize that Trump was by far one of the weakest POTUS’s ever.