There is the possibility that Trump is not just deeply neurotic but either has long been or has recently become psychotic. In that event, his egomaniacal delusion could well lead him to summon violent resistance to his removal. While such resistance would have very little chance of being successful, however unsuccessful it might be it would have enormously detrimental effects on America’s economy, institutions and prestige. But I think it’s more likely that Trump will be dissuaded from taking such a risk.
Trump knows that crowds of
prosecutors and creditors will be at his heels the moment he relinquishes the
Presidency. He will need money urgently,
and the only way he has made money in the past was as a reality-TV performer. He will try to reproduce that success, but the
fantasy biz-world format of his old show won’t work for him any longer. He has to exploit his political following, and he can do that only through some sort of alternative-news
offering.
The Fox News network has
already betrayed him unforgivably (that’s a low bar with Trump). Newsmax might provide a viable medium, but it
will find DJT a prickly partner. They’ll
both be in it for the money, and there won’t be enough to go around. Major advertisers will not be rushing to sign
up.
Creation of a subscription
streaming service would require more creativity than the Trump family can
command, and anyway Trump’s core constituency will not be coughing up, at least
not for long. If TrumpStream were
launched, it would be well advised to
require subscribers to sign two- or three-year contracts. Then Trump would be way ahead if he could get
Deutsche Bank to take an assignment of the contracts in satisfaction of his
debt – only that would leave him without a desperately needed income stream.
Come 1/20/2021, Trump’s
Twitter account will lose its special head-of-government treatment. For a time Trump might profit from his “persecution”
at the hands of Twitter, but will he be foolish enough to court expulsion from
the medium? TrumpTwitter could only be
created with talent and capital that are not at his disposal, but if the
investment were made, what would be its burn rate, and for how long would there
really be interest?
Anyway, TrumpChannel, cable
or streamed, is going to be Trump’s only possible financial lifeline. (I’m predicting any economic collaboration
between Trump and Newsmax, or some even-farther-out media splinter, will be extremely
short-lived. Who – even under less
Trump-trying circumstances – has been a business partner of DJT’s and lived to
tell the tale, or even been a Trump lender, vendor or customer at other than considerable
loss?) And he must keep his audience
stoked up to support the product launch.
Of course the “I wuz robbed”
fantasy is essential to that stoking. Hence, to the extent DJT controls what comes
out of the Administration there will be no concession, no cooperation and no letup
in the whining. Right through January 19
the True Believers will keep being riveted by the remarks of Rudy Giuliani even
as he moves on from blaming Hugo Chavez to unmasking the role of V.I. Lenin. (Or will Rudy’s targets be limited to dead non-Russian
Marxists? Is Putin’s blackmail that strong?)
If Trump were really a
shrewd businessman or a talented media impresario, he would recognize that
TrumpChannel has to launch on or before Inauguration Day. But that would mean that a serious
business/creative effort would have to have begun two weeks ago, and there’s no
sign of one yet.
