At first, Donald Trump’s strategy for dealing with the US media was intelligent. He considered it part of the coalition of corrupt elites that he promised to get rid of. Seeking to undermine the media and its credibility, called it fake news and said that journalists are corrupt, giving them a long list of titles. In contrast to the perception of many who saw him as an impulsive figure who did not weigh his words, Trump knew what he was doing.
His attacks on the media reinforced his image as an outsider being fought because he was against the establishment and sought to get rid of it. The media, on the other hand, was painted as seeking to protect the establishment and the interests of their owners, who are in bed with the politicians in Washington.
It was an ingenious strategy until he took it too far, becoming paranoid and deluded into thinking he was being targeted. This led him to make one mistake after another, and they eventually led to his ouster from the White House.
In my view, the media cleverly tricked him. They attacked him relentlessly, going as far as depicting him as an unstable man unsuited for the most important job in the country who damaged the image of the presidency. These are among the elements that the Biden campaign focused on, undermining his image as a man worthy of leading the nation.
Most American and Western media outlets were explicitly anti-Trump, and they did not hide the fact their aim was to get rid of him before he even completed his first term. For Trump’s part, he gave them all the material they could have dreamed of.
The symptoms of a man who felt persecuted and unfairly targeted quickly became apparent. His long quarrels with journalists damaged his image. In that famous press conference, CNN correspondent John Acosta deliberately sparked an argument with him and provoked him in front of millions of viewers. With malicious cunning, Acosta triggered Trump’s outbursts, which were not befitting for presidents.
Trump berated journalists at press conferences, treating them like schoolchildren and demanding that they sit down and shut their mouths. However, he forgot that these journalists were devouring him like hyenas without him realizing it, leaving him to bleed out till the end.
By the time COVID hit the US, Trump had reached an advanced stage of paranoia and made glaring mistakes. He sparked a conflict with the medical team, refused to wear a mask, and, terrifyingly, denied the scientific facts at a time when the number of deaths was increasing.
He was primarily motivated by a desire to defend himself against the media outlets that were seeking to exploit the COVID pandemic to push him out. And so he went the opposite direction, denied the facts, and accused others of baselessly attacking him and trying to take their revenge.
Nonetheless, it is his refusal to recognize the results of the elections and the January 6 attack on the Capitol that are the clearest manifestations of his volatility and delusions.
Trump’s story has been well documented, but Elon Musk is repeating this scenario. Musk did the right thing when he opened the door to dialogue and weakened the grip of the radical left on Twitter, breaking the iron-clad monopoly that massive companies had enjoyed. However, he has begun making the same kinds of mistakes because of journalists’ attacks, defending bizarre and illogical ideas put forward by deranged characters and websites knee-deep in conspiratorial thinking.
Musk’s attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the war on the pandemic in the United States, is one example. Sharing a link claiming that Nancy Pelosi’s assaulted husband had been sexually involved with a man is another. These are indications that Musk feels like a persecuted victim. It is not just a desire to hit back at what he sees as unjust attacks from the media that drives him. Convinced that Twitter is the voice of the people and aims to fix human civilization, he also wants to present Twitter as an alternative to journalism and the media.
And that just isn’t true. Twitter is a platform where nothing is sourced, and while it allows information to spread faster than it does through the media, it is an inherently open space where even conmen and sick individuals can spread their obsessions. Twitter is a platform for the exchange of ideas. However, Musk, who is angry with the press and picking fights with journalists, believes he can not only challenge the media and confront it but obliterate it. We have already seen this story, and we are well aware of how it ends.
