How Donald Trump plays the media

Most of you have probably been listening to Rush Limbaugh delight at the way Donald Trump plays the media.

Why is Donald Trump still a candidate? Why hasn't anybody been able to force him out? Why hasn't anybody been able to humiliate him? Why hasn't anybody been able to destroy him? Why hasn't anybody -- and by anybody, I mean, the media, 'cause that's who both parties rely on to do this. Why can't the media touch the guy? He's given them all kinds of ammo. If anybody else says what Trump says, and they're history, they're shamed, they're humiliated, they are forever forgotten, and they have gotten so low they could never recover from it.

Trump is leading the Republican presidential primary. Why can't they touch him? Why do they keep covering him? Why don't they just ignore him? They can't. And that and therein lies something fascinating. Trump has direct access to his voters, his supporters, the American people. Trump has direct access to people around the world. I've got the Trump Stack of Outrage today. It's comical. It's predictable. It's sameness. Even I, El Rushbo, am blamed for it on the BBC, if you can believe that. Yeah. I'm responsible. You know why? Because I have been saying this kind of thing 25 years or more. Trump is just picking up where I left off, according to the BBC.

Meanwhile, I've never said anything like anything Trump says. But despite it all they can't take him out. They can't stop covering him. They can't humiliate him. They can't embarrass him. They can't diminish his support. They're powerless, and this has them in a panic. The media that can make-or-break anybody cannot touch Trump, and every time they try, all they do is make him bigger. They can't explain this. They are frustrated to no end, and so are both political parties who rely on the media to be the great equalizer in all of this.

Nothing's working. No matter what Trump says, the media is there, and every member of the media is there. Every network, every camera, every microphone is there.

...But what really frustrates them, is they can't get rid of Trump by simply repeating what he says. Trump has direct access. Trump did not need the media in order to be heard, in order to have his message flavored and formed for proper receipt by the audience. He has direct access. He doesn't need them. He can go right over their heads. It may be true to say that the Drive-By Media has covered politics, for better or worse, in a predominant way for years and years and years -- and that's the horse-race aspect.

Who's leading? What do the polls say? Who's losing? Who's surprised by who's winning? Who's surprised by who's losing? But it's the horse-race angle. And that's completely backfired on 'em. Their primary technique, their primary way of reporting these campaigns and thereby shaping the outcome of them is backfiring totally on them. There is a deep panic, I believe, in the Drive-By Media. Because, in their world, in their mind, they control the horse race.

They are the ones that are the greatest factor in determining how people vote or what they say in polls. And the fact that they are having absolutely zero impact on Donald Trump is blowing their minds. Donald Trump has a more loyal audience than the media has at this point, which is also what this is showing. And it is causing a lot of people in the establishment -- the elites, the ruling class, whatever you call 'em both parties, the Washington crowd.

It's causing them to come unglued and unhinged, while they think it is Trump who is unhinged and coming unglued. Now, let's look at the politics of this. Take the events of the recent past, last week, last month, last six months. And then add the presidential to those events. Those events have been dominated by Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration and the failing US economy and the absolute disaster that is Obamacare. On the Democrat side, I don't have any recognition of any of that.

And on the Republican side, after Trump's statement here, there's only one guy. I'm just addressing the politics of this, folks. Forget substance, comments, whatever. It's the politics of this. There's only one guy in all of the presidential campaign occupying the position he occupies. Everybody else sounds the same. Everybody else... I don't care if it's Hillary or if it is Carly Fiorina. I don't care if it's Bernie Sanders or if it's John Kasich. They all sound the same. What do they all do? They are condemning Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is condemning ISIS. Donald Trump is condemning illegal immigration. Donald Trump is condemning a weak, stupid United States leadership. Over here, everybody else is not. They are condemning Donald Trump. In a political sense, Donald Trump, leading the presidential campaign, is the sole occupier of his position. He has no competition for it. Just in a political sense, that's pretty brilliant positioning to me. He owns the media. They can't stop talking about him.

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