Did Trump Just Bury the Lead or Did He Punk the Media Again?
December 16, 20202–Our favorite president launched two new big things from Trump World yesterday. Early in the day, he issued a 7-minute video outlining a fresh policy proposal to protect free speech. He promised he would implement his proposal day one of his presidency should he be elected in 2024. Conservative pundits issued plaudits. Later on, he launched a line of digital Super Hero NFTs (remember Melania’s Christmas ornaments could be purchased using an NFT? See article here.) Conservative pundits — notably Steve Bannon, Steve Cortes, and Sebastian Gorka — all boxed their former boss ’round the head. See below.
I caught the above segment on Bannon’s show live yesterday. Bannon said flat out, “Whoever came up with that pitch for the NFTs should be fired.” Cortes chimed in with, “His very important announcement on free speech was drowned out by marginalia.” Gorka — the most irate of all — spewed: “I’m getting such blowback on this thing. I texted the Mar-a-Lago comms unit and told them what people were saying.” “Dropping this after the free speech announcement…it just never should have happened,” he added.
For once, I’m almost buying the criticism. This so-called (but not self-styled) Trump fan girl – some would say a loathsome lowly sycophant – is nodding along in agreement. Trump is wrong this time, boy. He really stepped in it. If having dinner with Kanye and Milo weren’t enough, this truly is The End. Finito. Bring on Ron DeSantis!
Then I notice the action hero tchotchkes on Seb Gorka’s book shelves. I’m seeing Spider Man, some kind of robot and a toy Bat Mobile arrayed behind him on his TV-ready bookshelves. On any other day, I wouldn’t notice and it wouldn’t bother me, but if I’m allowed a critique of my own, I’d advise Seb Gorka, ‘If you want to make a serious point about a serious subject, maybe do it against a serious background…’
Shortly, after the release, meme factories swung into high gear. Spoofs sprung up. Fat Trump of gold toilet seat fame was back.
The day before Trump had teased us about a big announcement that had ‘something to do with Super Heroes.’ No one could guess what it was. American Sunrise hosts Ed Henry and Karyn Turk ran an informal contest on their live chat yesterday to see if anyone could guess it. No one did. I explored the Trump as Hero narrative in a blog post and in my book. Memes depicting Trump as a leader with warrior attributes abound. We’ve seen him as Rocky Balboa, Braveheart, and even Atlas or Sisyphus.
My first thought when he teased the Super Hero announcement was that he is of course aware that these images are a cultural phenomenon that he could somehow leverage. I did not think digital Super Hero NFTs however, but it follows Melania’s NFT Christmas ornaments, doesn’t it? I guess I wasn’t using my noodle.
I went to the Super Hero product site, CollectTrumpCards.com My initial thought was $99 for what? Not clear but maybe that is because NFTs are not clear. My second thought was: You’re launching a crypto product when FTX — a multi-billion dollar crypto company — just crashed? What will people think?
Trump’s Grifty or is it Nifty Super Heroes?
The MSM already labeled his NFTs ‘grifty’ – I prefer ‘nifty’.
As with the explanation of How It Works with Melania’s NFT ornaments, it looks like this is what our favorite president is offering for purchase:
For the low low price of $99 you get:
A unique digital asset of a Trump Super Hero of your choosing that you can access on your computer. Eight are on offer.
Depending on which Super Hero you choose, you are entered in a sweepstakes with a chance to win thousands of other prizes like signed memorabilia, dinner with the President at Mar-a-Lago, a golf date with the President, or perhaps a Zoom call.
But hurry! “They will be gone, I believe, very quickly,” says 45.
Enough of this Frivolity!
Lest I bury the lede, obviously the more important announcement on free speech policy came first.
Click on the link below this screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social feed to access the full video of President Trump’s free speech policy announcement.
To view this video, click on this link:
https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/statuses/109518990392565381
A day later, we have the Cliff Notes of his remarks:
Trump opens with a simple declarative statement: “If we do not have free speech, then we don’t have a country. It’s that simple.”
His policy straightforwardly outlines the consequences to any bad actor – in media, government, academia, et al – for censoring free speech. Until now there has been no accountability or consequences for tamping down free speech. Congress – Republican and Democrat – have yet to make a serious run at big tech censorship. Trump vows to take rectify under an Executive Order.
It is no longer acceptable to allow various factions in this country to label free speech as something that is harmful, hateful, or misinformation/disinformation when firstly it is not; and, secondly it is not the purview of any faction in a free country to regulate speech. We are all aware how censorship has been used by the Democrat party and its allies to punish political opponents thereby giving them an advantage. (Some say the impact was so big, it may have swung the 2020 election.)
Democrats and the powers that be are essentially creating apartheid. They are The State. Everyone else is Not the State.
Clearly, Trump is on point with this policy. It comes on the heels of the Twitter File revelations that show that the FBI has worked closely with Twitter to tamp down speech for years. In the last few years, Twitter suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, anyone who questioned the Covid pandemic, anyone who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election and a lot more.
These thumb-on-scale pogroms are authoritarian and antithetical to a functioning Constitutional Republic.
Twitter was essentially a wholly owned subsidiary of the FBI but while the FBI was intimately involved with flagging individuals and groups whose speech they didn’t like, agree with or deemed threatening to the narrative set forth by these deep state actors, profiles for pedophiles, child traffickers and so on were not banned or suppressed.
Just go to Twitter for the latest releases. See Matt Taibbi’s release of 12/16, The Twitter Files, Part 6, Twitter, the FBI Subsidiary here.
According to reports, Trump will be issuing more policy statements like this one regularly.
Did Trump Troll the Media?
By Friday morning, negative chatter had simmered down replaced by a chorus of voices essentially saying, ‘This is what Trump does. I get it. Everyone making fun of the Super Heroes is also mentioning – in the same breath – his free speech policy announcement.’
This anonymous post appeared in my feed on Friday.
However, despite Newsweek’s obvious negative slant toward this Jan 6th so-called rioter, was not pleased with Trump’s ‘grifty’ NFTs. It made me wince. Read it here.
By midnight Friday – 24 hours after the Super Hero announcement – memes like the one below from Instagram started to appear telling us the entire NFT Super Hero inventory had sold out.
Methinks it is a bit too soon to be writing Donald Trump’s political obituary. Maybe the indomitable inimitable Donald Trump punked the media after all.
Meanwhile we heard that President Trump gave a major address to the President’s Conference on Torah Umesorah, at his National Doral Club in Miami. He reportedly received four standing ovations but as of this writing, I cannot locate a link to it.
More Links
Newsmax video of President Trump’s free speech announcement posted to Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NEWSMAX/videos/527962882714355
Know Your Meme: Donald Trump’s NFTs:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/donald-trump-nfts
Politico: Trump to Meet with Orthodox Jewish Group:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/15/trump-orthodox-jewish-group-fuentes-ye-dinner-00074158
