Wednesday, October 06, 2021

"Follow The Money"

Question:  does Trump want to run for POTUS again in 2024?  Or does Trump want to find ways to make money, and grifting people about running for office is the best way to do that he's found in a long time?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Trump plans to own whatever is built, but beyond that little is known about the new platform, which remains one of the most closely guarded secrets in Trumpworld, according to interviews with close to a dozen Republicans and Trump advisers familiar with his efforts in this area, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their professional relationships. Those advisers who spoke with Yahoo say the former president wants to both control and earn money off whatever option he chooses.

Well, of course he does.  Which is why he doesn't want his "platform" sold on the stock market:

Discussions for a Trump Media Group, touted by onetime Trump “Apprentice” star Andy Dean Litinsky, never took off. To launch the effort, Litinsky pushed the idea of using a SPAC, a financial mechanism designed to speed companies onto the stock market, but the former president’s team nixed the idea quickly, according to Trump advisers.

But he's gonna sue his way back into prominence!

Since being kicked off Twitter and Facebook in January because of spreading disinformation, Trump has lost some of his most pliable tools for driving news coverage. He is now suing to get back on those platforms, a legal battle that has thus far had little traction. A Trump spokesperson, however, said the former president’s legal team is in the process of signing up 94,000 new complainants to the class-action suit who say they were wrongfully banned from the platforms.

94,000 times nothing is still nothing. A class-action suit of persons who say they belong on Twitter is not the legal vehicle that makes Twitter a government agent; or whatever the cockamamie legal theory is.  I will remind you Trump lost 60+ lawsuits trying to change the results of the November election.  He cannot be accused of hiring the best lawyers.

A number of other conservative social media sites have courted Trump, still considered to be the single most powerful force in social media on the right, from CloutHub to Skylab. Trump even considered selling his name and expansive base of followers from his now defunct Twitter account to some of the platforms.

I do love the idea Trump has a property interest in his followers of a now defunct account that he can sell like they were a box of widgets.  A fool and his money are soon parted.  There's a sucker born every minute.  And I would recommend guardianship proceedings for anyone stupid enough to "buy" what Trump wants to sell here.  Anyone dumb enough to do that obviously can't take care of themselves.

In the final analysis, it comes down to this:

“If he’s doing Hannity hits, that means he’s figured out how screwed he is right now,” said one Republican familiar with his social media travails. “It’s like a tree dropping alone in the forest. You’ve got the loudest mouth in the world, but is anybody hearing it?”

That and, how does he monetize visits to Hannity?

Meanwhile, future's so bright:

As the year has dragged on with little signs of movement from Trump on a social media platform, talk increased that he may end up buying an ownership stake in GETTR, the conservative platform run by Miller and backed by former Trump aide Steve Bannon and a Chinese billionaire at the center of COVID-19 disinformation efforts, Guo Wengui.

“We continue to talk. He has a number of different options in front of him. I obviously think the GETTR option is the best in terms of trying to get the message out and making him a true partner,” Miller told Yahoo News.

Miller said he is convinced Trump will run again in 2024, but has not heard that conclusively from the former president. And if Trump does run, he'll need a social media platform one way or another.

“As the president looks ahead to a possible 2024 run, his superpower has always been his power to bypass traditional media,” Miller said. “In a very biased fashion, I think GETTR is the best option to maintain that superpower.” 

Let's see:  Trump partnering with Bannon?  Yeah, that'll work out well.  Bannon is on GETTR, but if it weren't for Raw Story I wouldn't know Bannon had a podcast. And GETTR is not Twitter.  Besides, Trump is in the rearview mirror for most people.  They really gonna flock to GETTR by the millions?  For what? His Twitter account was popular because he was the Tweeting POTUS.  Is he gonna do podcasts with Bannon?  Frankly, without the format Twitter provides (which suits Trump's attention span), how does he communicate?  Post videos of his phone calls to Hannity?  Yell at Bannon for telling him Trump is more conspiratorial than Mike Lindell?

Never overlook the fact that what Trump primarily wants is to make money.  And he's going to be spending a lot of it if Georgia decides to prosecute him for election fraud; and if the DOJ decides it needs a special prosecutor to start investigating January 6th (I hate Special Prosecutors, but this is probably a case where we need one). And NYS may yet come calling.

Trump hasn't done anything on social media so far because he clearly can't find a way to monetize it to his benefit.  Even if he does, who's gonna notice?

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