cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/42153422
President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks against ABC and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, urging the network to “get the bum off the air” in a social media post sent shortly after the comic’s latest episode ended.
The president this week had also expressed anger at the network’s chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, for questions she asked in an Oval Office meeting, which his press staff followed with a 17-point memo listing grievances against ABC News.
In my experience, when a controversial and populist president wants to control the direction of his critics, they do outlandish and ridiculous statements/actions like this one.
The idea is that critics focus on a stupid, irrelevant thing while they do more harmful things freely. It’s a distraction.
It’s also not deliberate, it’s just the way Trump naturally operates.
This is too convenient to be random. He’s not as idiotic as it appears, and has an expensive team to coach him.
He also has a highly specialized team giving him security briefings, but he prefers to feed off the teat of Fox News. I don’t think he really cares or wants people telling him what he should do. He wants to feel like a big brain and figure it out for himself.
For the last decade, every single thing Trump has done has apparently been a “distraction”.