Donald Trump ‘Quadruples Down’ On Nationalism To Lose The 2016 Election
Over the last few days, it’s been widely reported that Donald Trump has “shaken up” his campaign by adding new people to it, as reported by Reuters, with the hiring of Breitbart News editorial CEO Steve Bannon as part of that “shake up.”
The other new addition to Donald Trump’s campaign, Kellyanne Conway, made an appearance on PBS NewsHour on Wednesday night in what might have been one of the least aggressive exchanges between a news anchor and a Trump-loyal guest.
At the beginning of the video, Robert Costa of the Washington Post explains what the new additions mean to Donald Trump’s campaign, saying that rather than take the partisan approach of right versus left that Paul Manafort seemed to favor, Stephen Bannon is steering Donald Trump’s campaign toward a more nationalistic approach.
Conway correctly says that there was no “shake up” among the campaign staff as no one was fired. But in true Trump form, Conway says that Hillary Clinton is lying when she said in a recent speech that this was the case. Conway added that the campaign is not embracing nationalism when Judy Woodruff asked her if Stephen Bannon’s addition meant that it was.
“But we know that the Breitbart News website is what they call; it’s been called alt-right: a movement of hard right ideologues and white nationalists who scorn traditional conservatism. Is that the philosophy Trump is embracing?”
Judy Woodruff of PBS News asked whether Bannon’s involvement with Donald Trump was something to be concerned about, as putting Bannon in charge would actually cause Donald Trump to quadruple-down and head in the wrong direction of courting the general public.
But there is no doubt that the addition of these two does, in fact, translate to a “shake up” of sorts, where Donald Trump is only focused on his nationalist supporters and away from the traditional Republican establishment who have already rejected him.
Ironically enough, Robert Costa’s reporting over this news is for the Washington Post, a news organization that Donald Trump banned from covering his campaign in June.
Donald Trump’s banning of the Washington Post, along with the threat to ban the New York Times, did two things. The first was to ignite outrage as both media services have a relatively great record among those who depend on high-quality reporting and journalistic integrity.
According to one media source, even though Donald Trump publicly went after the Washington Post, he had apparently already approved the effort for a story, which set him off, revealing the likelihood that Donald Trump is saying one thing and doing another.
Trump threatening to ban @nytimes. Here's a list of previously banned outlets – no TV networks except Univision: https://t.co/R26mPupPI7
— Sarah McCammon? (@sarahmccammon) August 14, 2016
The second thing it shows is that his game with the media is about distributing his version of the facts by establishing his own truths and breaking down the ones already set up. By positioning someone like Stephen Bannon of Breitbart for all to see, he is also attempting to inflict his own manipulation.
Clearly, as the article referred to above by the Washington Post describes, Donald Trump is going it alone with his campaign to embrace his nationalist audience. But again, Conway completely denies this.
It still makes sense that Donald Trump has come out to say that he’s going to run his campaign the way he wants to, and if it involves a controversial media company, then it’s just further proof of Donald Trump’s pandering of the far right. It also suggests he’s not interested in winning the election.
The involvement of an alt-right nationalist media company only further proves that Donald Trump is injecting that aggressive philosophy into the daily discussion as he’s on his way out the door.
[Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP Images]
