Donald Trump may be so horrified by the thought of losing the upcoming presidential election to a woman that he’s willing to rip apart the very fabric of democracy by openly refusing to concede, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have a backup plan if/when he is defeated by Hillary Clinton on November 8. He has to spin this entire campaign in some way that makes him look like a successful businessman, or else people might start to pick up on the fact that he has secretly been a loser this whole time. And he may have revealed his master plan last night while everybody was paying attention to the debate.
As reported by Buzzfeed, Trump’s Facebook page shared a live video last night just as the debate was starting, presented as a Trump-friendly alternative to the mainstream media broadcasts on the normal TV networks. As Buzzfeed explains, Facebook Live videos are nothing new for the Trump campaign, but this “appears to be the first attempt at some original programming and analysis.” In other words, it’s the sort of thing you might see on a news channel, but without all of those facts and poll results that make it sound like Crooked Hillary is winning. Also, to add a bit more fuel to this fire, Buzzfeed noticed that the videos section on Trump’s Facebook page has a playlist called “#TrumpTV” that features some of his speeches and TV interviews.
Now, this stuff doesn’t necessarily mean that Trump is getting ready to launch his own Trump-branded TV network, but it definitely looks like he’s laying the groundwork for something like that. He’s getting the TrumpTV name out there, he’s indicating that he can book political people to talk about current events, and he has been hanging out with disgraced former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. If you throw in the fact that Trump has been ramping up his rhetoric against the mainstream media lately, even driving his supporters to boo journalists at his rallies, then it almost seems like the perfect plan.
It could go down like this: Trump loses the election, then throws a tantrum for as long as he can get people to care. Then he’ll concede, but only after declaring that the corrupt media rigged the election against him, further seeding the idea that even CNN or Fox News can’t be trusted. Then, as his supporters turn their backs on the supposedly biased media, he’ll reveal the paradise that is Trump TV. This gives him a new business venture he can slap his name all over and he gets an excuse to never run for president again. As a media mogul, he’ll be able to speak directly to his supporters and push his favorite agendas—dastardly immigrants, worthless politicians, Rosie O’Donnell—without ever having to actually do anything. It would be his masterstroke.