Being president of the United States hasn’t given former reality TV star Donald Trump what he was probably looking for all along—control of the media. He’s tried to deflect the collusion investigations and other untoward matters by declaring everything but Fox News ”fake,” presumably after watching a report on Fox News about how it’s the only legit outlet around. But the loss of two of his mouthpieces in as many months, not to mention the leaks (no, not those), haven’t actually thwarted our obfuscator in chief. These setbacks have just inspired him to once again go outside official channels, and go full propagandist.
Trump’s Facebook page, which was to be the home of “Trump Tower Live,” is now the site of his damage control team, led by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Lara’s married to Eric “Other Brother” Trump and therefore had, until recently, been relegated to the president’s periphery. But she’s now a spin doctor of sorts, repeating the day’s Trump-related headlines in the kind of Klonopin-coated voice that’s sure to soothe all the viewers who regularly get angry at the TV people telling them things about the economy and civil liberties that are in direct contradiction to what the president’s Twitter already stated.
These news ”flashes” are garnering millions of views, despite essentially being press releases that are light on facts. For example, Lara Trump announces her father-in-law donating his Q2 salary to the Department Of Education, but fails to connect it to the $9.2 billion cut he proposed to the department’s budget. And when Oferic brags about Trump’s police outreach, she doesn’t mention that he all but promised to look the other way when it comes to police brutality. Instead, she looks unblinkingly at the camera, repeating “jobs, jobs, jobs,” like the Twilight Zone narrator who tries to reassure everyone that “It’s A Good Life.” There’s no reporting being done here, which might be the purpose of this new platform. That, and to finally give Lara Trump and her dead-eyed stare something to do other than gaze resentfully from the wings at the first daughter and real first son.