Election Day approaches. As is normal in 21st century America, drenched as it is in television, the Internet, social media and yes, even radio, the presidential election is Topic A. Dominating everywhere an American turns.
Understandably, it is difficult for Americans to focus in any clear sense on a central question. That question would be, with the election over, what happens next? And I’m not talking about the size of the Thanksgiving turkey or the state of the Christmas shopping list.
The question that is not yet being asked?
That would be what will happen with the media if, when the election smoke dissipates, it is clear that the American people have, for the second time, elected Donald Trump as their president?
There will be, without doubt, a rerun of the "moral 9/11" editorial gnashing of teeth from the New York Times, the Washington Post and other liberal papers. Similarly, the televised likes of MSNBC, CNN and the broadcast networks will be out there on the ledges of their respective headquarters.
But the real question will be: what then? What will be the relationship between the soon-to-be-again President Trump and the media? How will that relationship play out day by day as the country moves forward?
Right off the bat the new president will have to go about the task of appointing a new Cabinet and all those who, below Cabinet-secretary status, will be filling the role of presidential appointees.
President Trump has made clear where he stands on what is known as”Project 25”, the detailed prescription for dealing with the federal government and all those potential vacancies from the departure of the Biden-Harris appointees. Here, from August of this year, is but one headline about Trump’s view on Project 25, this one from NPR:
Trump again distances himself from Project 2025
NPR reports:
Earlier today at the Arizona-Mexico border, former President Donald Trump defended himself against a series of attacks Democrats have lobbed at him during the Democratic National Convention.
That includes repeated accusations of Trump ties to Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation blueprint for a second Trump term.
'They've been told officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 25,' Trump said. 'They know it, but they bring it up anyway. They bring up every single thing that you can bring up. Every one of them was false.'
Yet notwithstanding Trump’s crystal clear statement on this, NPR couldn’t help adding this to its story:
Despite Trump's repeated distancing from the plan, many of its writers and architects worked in the Trump administration and would likely be on the shortlist for appointees in a second Trump term.
And right there, in snapshot form, is an indication of what may lie ahead for the relationship between President Trump and the media in his second term.
It is more than reasonable to believe that the media will not see its role as “just the facts” journalism, reporting on the day-to-day facts of the Trump White House and larger Trump administration.
Instead, one can only suspect that the Trump coverage by the media will be decidedly hostile, filled with non-facts and dishonest portrayals of various policy initiatives or personnel.
Potential examples? There is a decided belief in the Trump camp that the Biden-run Department of Justice is corrupt. That it has engaged in serious “lawfare,” weaponizing the DOJ to persecute Biden’s major political opponent - Trump.
With that belief in hand, not to mention plenty of evidence, what will happen when Trump makes it a priority to clean out the DOJ? To replace corrupt left-wing partisans masquerading as non-partisan DOJ attorneys with truly non-partisan federal employees.
Recall the words of former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich on the subject with this headline in the Washington Examiner:
Gingrich says level of corruption in DOJ and FBI ‘unprecedented in American history’
The conservative Washington Examiner opened by quoting Gingrich as saying this:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slammed the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as having levels of corruption “unprecedented in American history.”
Gingrich criticized the agencies when discussing the handling of the Hunter Biden investigation and probes against President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Stop right there. Imagine now that Trump has won, and that he agrees exactly with Gingrich. And proceeds to start cleaning out the DOJ by firing the “career” appointees (meaning liberal anti-Trumpers) with brand new DOJ appointees who supported Trump.
Can you imagine the sheer hell that would be flooded out by the so-called “mainstream” media on this subject?? The Trump-selected Attorney General and every single Trump-selected political appointee would be trashed seven ways from Sunday....as they did to Jeff Sessions in 2017, times ten. There would be a constant war targeting these people, hounding them until they are forced out of their jobs, with replacements threatened with the same treatment.
Run through a list of Trump initiatives that would be similarly targeted. To name but two?
A Trump effort to close the Department of Education? A promise that actually dates to the Reagan era? Or a similar move to shut down the Department of Energy -- another Reagan dream?
Then there could be a Trump move to eliminate the vast federal bureaucracy by shedding both appointees and the positions they hold.
All of these and more would be met by a decidedly hostile media. A media that would spare nothing in an effort to trash Trump, his appointees and just about any conservative policy objective they announce.
As Americans move in slow-motion fashion to the inevitable November conclusion of this election, be braced.
If this election ends in a Trump victory, as is entirely possible, the liberal media will not waste a blink before unleashing unshirted you-know-what on the new president - and the Americans who either work for him or voted for him. It will become Democracy in America versus The Media. Buckle in.
