Has Trump Lost His Media-Commanding Mojo to Marjorie Taylor Greene? Sure Seems Like It.
Former President Donald Trump seems to be freaking out. No matter what he says in statements released via his Save America PAC or on his goofy “From the Desk of” blog, he can barely merit a ripple in media attention.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, is currently enjoying her time as “It girl of crazy town.” Her near-constant comparisons of mask-mandates—designed to mitigate a deadly pandemic—to Nazi, Germany, is not just batshit crazy, it’s remarkably offensive to “rational” people of all persuasions.
These two observations do not come in a vacuum and illustrate two truths of how political media has evolved of late: 1) De-platforming from social media is a remarkably effective tool in neutering tools of distraction, and 2) Marjorie Taylor Greene is now playing the media better than Trump.
Last week, the Washington Post reported on Trump’s sudden and newfound irrelevance as a de-platformed ex-president. On Monday, Trump responded to that with a lengthy reply, which earned mostly mocking attention for the naked “look at me!” energy of his salvo.
On Tuesday morning Trump returned to the old chestnut of mocking the ratings of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi — including over-the-top insults to boot. Morning Joe wisely ignored the insults — as did we here at Mediaite — because the statement read more as sad desperation than anything else.
Trump’s tweets during his campaign and presidency were often entertainingly crazy and felt like they came straight from the WWE writer’s room. But without Twitter and Facebook minions amplifying comments with shares, quote-tweets, and reactions, Trump’s email statement commentary barely makes a blip.
On the other hand, Majorie Taylor Greene can’t pass wind without getting a headline. Her role in Congress is more than a curiosity, it’s like watching a reality show unfold in real-time, the concept of which could be explained as “watch what happens when an uninformed and xenophobic person enters Congress.” Or a logline for that fictional show concept might look like “The Dunning Kruger effect in the nation’s capitol building.”
Trump commandeered the media’s attention like no one else in American political history by being relentlessly crazy. Now that he’s out of office, the shtick is … tired, and he no longer has any leverage over media outlets. Since his self-imposed exile to Mar-a-Lago, Trump has spent much less time in front of microphones and doing interviews. He is an ex-President, after all, regardless of what some polls suggest.
Greene is now operating under the same strategy that propelled Trump to office, whether or not it’s intentional: if you say crazy shit as a political candidate, then get elected, you will get media attention. The real question is whether or not Greene can prove the master of pitting her base against the media in the same way that Trump did.
There is no question that, given the tools that she has at her avail, Greene is managing the media better than Trump. And there is a decent bet that the newcomer to the national narrative will fade just as quickly as she rose to “stardom.” But we’ve seen much stranger things evolve in the past five or so years, and eventual reports of Taylor Greene’s political death will almost certainly be exaggerated. The more she is criticized. the more power she will get from her and Trump’s base.
The better question to ask might be, whose base is it really?
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
