The Wannabe Conqueror of the Fourth Estate

On May 24, 2017, Montana's newest congressman, Greg “The Body-Slammer” Gianforte, followed suit with President Donald Trump's campaign trail boast to do with the willingness of Republican voters to shrug off his vulgar, even thuggish manner – “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Ever the Trump loyalist, it seems Gianforte was also following through on Trump's Feb. 24, 2017, comment labeling the press in the USA as the “enemy of the people.” At this desk it isn't known how many votes Gianforte won, or lost, by roughing up a reporter and then lying about the incident ... before offering up a tepid apology after he won the election.

Given his many other over-the-top statements deriding and threatening the fourth estate in the USA, it has become clear to me that Trump's "enemy of the people" quip was tantamount to declaring war on the working press, itself.

More importantly, I've no doubt Trump plans to win this war. Furthermore, I see no reason to hope he's merely trying to manipulate the news media – tame them, so to speak. No. When it comes to any kind of battle, or contest of any kind, there's just no way Trump means to come out of it as less than the greatest winner, ever!

Biggest ever! A conqueror.

On the other hand, if freedom of the press continues on as we've known it to be, as guaranteed by the Constitution, President Trump probably can't become emperor of all he surveys. Thus, the free press has to go. Truth goes with it.

Trump may not win the war on the truth, but he probably won't fail because he didn't give it his best effort. Of course many people will disagree with my analysis, because they like Trump. Or maybe they can't imagine he could covet more power than he already has. Well, I can.

Whether the focus groups that guided Trump's campaign were run by propagandists from Madison Avenue or the Kremlin, or both, perish the notion that he was doing all of it on the fly. Trump and his PR team may not understand how governments work, but they know plenty about propaganda.

Trump sees a time in which the mainstream media are cowed. Some well-known publishers and journalists will be in jail. Marshall law will be in effect to prevent terrorist attacks. The resistance will have become an outlaw underground movement. In that environment the social media will be dominant and zillions of the nation's adverting dollars will be spent there.  

In other words, I'm imagining that the legit press can't lose this war.