WASHINGTON (AP) – Former President Donald Trump insists he is enjoying his life outside of Twitter. The press releases that his assistants are increasingly firing are “more elegant,” he says. Plus, there is no risk of backlash when retweeting unsavory accounts.
But as Trump was banned from major social media outlets after helping instigate the deadly January 6 uprising at the Capitol, his power to shape the national conversation is being tested.
Trump transformed from a reality television star to a politician and president by manipulating the means of communication and the media. He is still in touch with his supporters through his releases and appearances on Fox News and other conservative outlets, reiterating misinformation about the 2020 election. And he remains a powerful force in the Republican Party, starring Saturday at a Republican National Committee event to be held at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Still, the dominion over American life he once enjoyed seems to be eroding – at least for now.
“It will never be the same for Trump unless he’s a candidate again,” said Harold Holzer, a historian who is director of Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute and wrote a book about presidents and the press. ‘I don’t think it’s unnatural that the coverage decreases. I’m sure it’s tough on his ego, given how much oxygen he draws in and how much ink he generates, but it’s not unnatural for an ex-president to get less attention. “
It has been a dramatic adjustment nonetheless. According to a GDELT analysis of television news archives, Trump’s tweets used to be the driving force behind the news cycle, with CNN, MSNBC and Fox News often spending tens of hours a week together displaying his messages. Having been banned from Twitter and other platforms, Trump can no longer speak directly to large swaths of his audience and now has to rely on his supporters and conservative and mainstream media to bolster his posts.
To make up for the ongoing blackout, Trump aides have been pumping out statements and approvals that often sound like the tweets he dictated. “Happy Easter to ALL, including the radical left CRAZIES who rigged our presidential elections and want to destroy our country!” read one from his political action committee. (“Happy Easter!” Was the more subdued version offered by his official government office.)
At the same time, Trump has stepped up his appearances on conservative media – even with his daughter-in-law for her online program. But few of those comments have resonated when mainstream outlets, long criticized for allowing Trump to dictate reporting, have become increasingly wary of repeating his falsehoods, especially with regard to the 2020 election.
While Trump is still getting attention, Google search results for his name are at their lowest point since 2015, as noted by The Washington Post this week. And on late night TV, some have tried to brush him off altogether, with ‘Late Show’ host Stephen Colbert declining to say his name.
After five years of wall-to-wall Trump, the contrast is shocking.
He was different from any previous president in the amount of oxygen he sucked in. But he looks more and more like many former presidents because of the little oxygen he now gets, ”said Ari Fleischer, who served as George W. Bush’s press secretary. While that’s the reality for any former president, Fleischer argued that Trump is still “looming big” in the party and could come back into the spotlight if he chooses to flee again.
And while his cable news dominance has fallen abruptly from its peak in fall 2016, when he was mentioned tens of thousands of times a month, according to GDELT data, he nonetheless continues to have a presence on cable news channels.
“Two months out of the office, he’s still roughly where he was in March last year, when the pandemic largely drove him out,” said Kalev Leetaru, the creator of the project. “It shows that even when he’s out of the office for two months, he’s still looming big.”
While most of Trump’s statements receive relatively little attention, some, such as one who accused Senate Leader Mitch McConnell as “ a stiff, gruff, and unsmiling political hack, ” dominated news coverage, with CNN in particular there for more than 44 minutes.
“President Trump is the greatest news generator in US history,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said, insisting, “There has never been such a media interest in the post-presidential careers of Clinton, Bush or Obama.”
Others see it differently.
“I think he lost all momentum when he was pulled off the platforms. Politics is about momentum and he doesn’t have one now, ”said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
While Trump has tried to inject himself into the coverage, Brinkley said his comments are largely treated as additions to the coverage focused on other matters. “Where it used to be, he shot tweets like Zeus, they were like lightning bolts from above, and now they’re little beeps from Mar-a-Lago’s mouse,” he said.
Still, Trump remains an impressive figure for the Republican Party. His approval is highly coveted heading into the 2022 Republican primaries. And he continues to publicly flirt with running for president again in 2024.
And Holzer believes Trump could reappear if he is allowed to rejoin Twitter or continue many hyped plans to launch his own social media outlet, as assistants have said he is still considering.
GOP strategist Alex Conant argued Trump’s power is “waning by the day” as other Republicans plan to flee in 2024, saying Trump could take a more strategic approach if he wants to remain a part of the day-to-day conversation. .
“When you’re president of the United States, it’s really easy to insert yourself into any news cycle. But once you leave, it has to be more strategic, ”Conant said, arguing that Trump could have announced a book, conducted primetime interviews, or made a series of important speeches about the party’s future.
Fleischer also argued that Trump could have more influence by following in the footsteps of Presidents Bush and Obama, whose statements are drawing attention because they are rare.
“The risk to a former president is that you run the risk of being seen as former senators or former congressman or contributors who are on TV on a fairly regular basis. A former president should take an elevated stance, ”he said. “But Donald Trump has always done things differently, with some success.”