Donald Trump bases his entire life around ratings. If he has the best ratings, he is happy. If he is not the center of attention, he is miserable. Like a toddler, he screams "mommmmmmy" over and over again until we pay attention. Except it comes out like "MAGAAAAA."
Last nights reporting about FOX cutting back on live coverage of Trump's MAGA rallies in the last few weeks due to low ratings must be killing Donald Trump, which makes it even more delicious.
So tonight Ari Melber ran a highlight reel showing how Trump may be losing ratings because he is just rehashing the same old talking points: "Lock her UP!" and "Build The Wall" and bashing the Democrats. It's like going to the same movie 25 times - eventually you get bored and start dozing off. This appears to be what is happening with Trump's rallies. Whoops.
Melber got right to the point:
Tonight there are signs of trouble even within Trump's base. A declining appetite for his speeches in his rallies. Even the people most expected to consume that material, it turns out a lot of them aren't watching. Get this, FOX is not automatically airing the rallies. Why? You can guess. It might hurt the President's feelings because the ratings are down. Donald Trump doing something, given he's not getting the attention he usually likes for himself, given that the rallies aren't even on tv, at times turning the attention away from himself and towards the Democrats.
(clip of Trump ranting)
Donald Trump also dialing up an old classic and applying it to a different woman in power. You will see the President go from encouraging a "lock her up" chants about Senator Dianne Feinstein, later he will say it's his opponents who are the lawless mob.
(more Trump ranting)
Make what you will of the comparison. There is something else happening. I don't mention this because we like music here on The Beat. I mention it because it will be familiar to anyone who will be to one of those aging rock 'n' roll reunion tours. No shade. But when all of the requests and the big crowd pleasers are really, really old stuff, it looks like this is all Trump has left.
(more Trump ranting)
That's -- that's really happening. But there is a sad part to all this. Trump thanking his alleged band mates or friends from FOX, but FOX News wasn't even airing the rally, which is a change, as I mentioned. You can look at the reporting from Politico, which states the ratings have been lower than FOX's regular shows. The network has stopped airing most of the evening rallies in full. That's a change. When they won't come to him, well, he does go to them.
Again I'm showing you this because it's a political strategy. Donald Trump obviously figured out when he was shouting out the FOX anchors, he was not showing the love back. He did not one but two interviews with FOX in a 12-hour span and brought the TV spectacle into the TV office that many could not take their eyes off of. The original MAGA hat adorned by a hugging Kanye West. Donald Trump needs Kanye and 45-minute FOX interview just to get back on every TV.
The question is: what else will he learn if the polls continue to sag over the next 26 days?
What will Trump do if his favorite propaganda network continues to refuse to play his MAGA rallies live? Especially this close to the midterms? I shudder to think.
