Donald Trump is the politically unhinged train wreck equivalent of the Kardashians.
National news media executives understand the clickbait appeal of big booties and big mouths swinging around in public.
They also enjoy the fact that Trump has chosen to identify as a Republican.
Sure, “The Donald” has supported liberal issues throughout his life and has donated mightily to the Clintons, but what does that matter when he’s shouting out Lindsay Graham’s cell phone number and calling everybody names?
Just as entertaining are his responses to angry veterans, Republicans, and Neil Young who demanded Trump stop using his song, “Rockin’ in the Free World.” First, he tells the giggly media that everybody who’s angry with him loves him. Then, he busts them.
The national media gleefully covered “The Comb-Over” detailing that “not very bright guy” Lindsay Graham “loved” him when Lindsay wanted campaign money and Neil Young “loved” him when he wanted money, too.
Fact is, both Graham and Young were busted and Neil Young’s rep suffers a bit more as he professes support for Bernie Sanders while schmoozing “The Donald” for investment funding.
Trump is correct when he excoriates the national media for bowing to his every taunt, every slur and every unintelligible word salad dressed with the occasional structured sentence.
He cares for the opinions of no one other than his own, laughingly labeling thoughtful conservatives Charles Krauthammer and George Will as “jerks.”
He is a creature trained to deliver memorable soundbites with less depth and more sting than any other reality show performer. He writes the headlines and the punchlines, relieving reporters of heady research into actual policy fragments articulated by otherwise serious candidates.
It’s a lot easier to record, post, point and laugh at Trump than it is to research the sequence of events enriching Jeb Bush through his promotion of the outrageously controversial “Big Government” Common Core fiasco.
National reporters are relieved of the tedium to research and report on the effects of actual fiscal policies by the former Governor for result and comparison.
I get the sense that it’s more fun for political reporters on the national beat to write about Trump’s latest bloviation or “Trumpadillo” than the Clinton family enriching themselves through Hillary’s scandalous State Department favors for corporate and foreign benefactors.
There’s more.
Trump is wealthier than any of the other wealthy candidates and he likes to spread the loot around when he can profit promotionally.
He’s getting a lot of free press right now while media executives prepare to send their reps to his staff with advertising contracts in hand.
If he stays in the race, there will come a time when Trump’s team will have to start writing checks for the kind of attention he’s getting now and the media execs know it.
Bring him in the studio! Send the video team! Link the latest “Trumpadillo” to the Twitter and Instagram feeds and FOLLOW, LIKE and FRIEND them!
Get the copywriters screaming “Trumpadillo” headlines all across the fruited plain and link those to the home page!
Trump may or may not be worth over $10 billion. It doesn’t matter, as long as he spends a few hundred million on advertising. He won’t admit he spent a dime, and that doesn’t matter as long as the deposits keep coming in.
At this point there are hundreds of people running for president. Many of them are louder, more coarse and just as annoyingly entertaining as Trump. You won’t hear about them because they have no chance of spending as much money as Trump.
Don’t blame the system. They wouldn’t be heard even if the media was “required” to give all candidates air time. Metrics and rules would be created to stifle them.
Trump would still be promoted clickbait because of his historical and potential future media spending.
Rick Jensen is Delaware’s award-winning conservative talk show host on WDEL, streaming live on WDEL.com from 1pm - 4pm EST. Contact Rick at rick@wdel.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL