Trump's Big CON: It's All About the Theatre/Show

UPDATE VIII:  It looks more and more liker that shortly after taking office Trump ordered a risky special operation's raid in Yemen as part of the show -- to advance his 'tough guy' image.

Read The New York Times, Father of Commando Killed in Yemen Refused to Meet Trump.

Where is the outrage by the right-wing media?

UPDATE VII:  "What Washington has been trained to perceive as disorder — a blizzard of contradictions, a president saying one thing while his top appointees say the opposite — is actually a long-running theatrical event, The Trump Show, a time-tested method by which the star builds excitement, demands attention and creates soap-operatic story lines that at least superficially seem like success. The most important thing about this presidency, to the man in the Oval Office, is how it looks. . .

The Trump Show is new to the White House but old hat to anyone who has watched its star as casino magnate, hotel builder, pitchman for all manner of products or reality TV host."

Read the Washington Post, President Trump wants to put on a show. Governing matters less.

And the reason he hates the media now is that the media just won't clap. 

UPDATE VI:  The "conservative movement in the age of Trump . . [is] strangely stuck in opposition mode. . .

[No need to be] particularly conservative . . . [or offer] a cogent political point of view or new ideas . . . [Yiannopoulos] earned his speaking slot at CPAC because he pisses people off — liberal people. And that was apparently good enough. . .

It's an outgrowth of the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' approach to politics that has become so popular with Trump. Trump's GOP has come to be defined as much by what it's not — politically correct, playing nice, a friend of the mainstream media, adhering to political norms and facts — as what it actually is. It's a long-standing middle finger to the political establishment, and in that way, Yiannopoulos very much fit the mold."

Read the Washington Post, Milo Yiannopoulos’s Trumpian rise shows how the GOP is stuck in opposition mode.

UPDATE V: More proof that it's not conservative principles that unite Republi-CONs, it's the show of outrageous statements and nastiness designed to pander to fear, anger and hatred.

Read the Washington Post, If college liberals are so naive, why did the campus right fall for Yiannopoulos.

Read also The Hollywood Reporter, Milo Yiannopoulos Documentary in the Works as Outrageous Tour Demands Revealed.

UPDATE IV: Nothing evidences the theatre better than this.

As part of an 'Apprentice' style contrived/fabricated drama leading up to the announcement, the Supreme Court "runner-up" Judge Hardiman, was asked by Trump aides to "hit the road to Washington to help them maintain the illusion that the selection process was still competitive" .

Read The New York Times, Runner-Up Didn’t Make It to Supreme Court, but He Did Get to Altoona.

UPDATE III:   "U.S. military officials also said that [a weekend raid on al Qaeda in Yemen in which one Navy Seal died and three others were wounded] was approved by President Trump without sufficient intelligence or ground support."

Read The Hill, Trump-ordered raid in Yemen approved without sufficient intelligence: military officials.

Makes me wonder if Trump approved this risky raid to advance his 'tough guy' image?

UPDATE II:  Trump's theatrics pander to fear, anger and hatred.

Read the Washington Post, Donald Trump often tweets about terror and violence, but said nothing about an attack on Muslims in Quebec City.

UPDATE: "Donald Trump's management style is clear to anyone who has watched his TV show "The Apprentice."

Line up a bunch of contenders in front of you; set their hair on fire; let them squabble; run around and create mayhem.

Once things have reached the point at which the viewer is watching from between their fingers -- and only then -- step in as the arbiter in chief, the man with the answers, the all-powerful figure who brings the whole pitiful thing to a conclusion.

This is how Trump ran his businesses, his TV show and his campaign. But this week he has begun to find out what happens when the myth comes to Washington, with its competing power centers, lawyers and vested interests.

Trump's determination to win Big League is blinding him to what a victory in government looks like. Quick fire stunts that alienate allies and dent your chances will probably limit opportunities down the road. . .

Maintaining the image of getting down to business fast is coming at the expense of the other part of the deal -- that he can deliver.

The story taking hold is chaos over order, weakness over strength, division over unity.

That would be a problem for any politician. But when you have no political experience and when you have built your entire platform on a messianic appeal -- a savior myth built around the politician as strongman -- then it could very easily end in disaster."

Read CNN, Donald Trump is learning the hard way he's not the Messiah.

"The Big Four broadcasters will interrupt regularly scheduled programming Tuesday with specials from their news divisions covering President Donald Trump’s announcement of his pick to fill the open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. The announcement, set for 8 p.m., will be the first live-news event of the Trump administration to prompt broadcasters to break into primetime programming.

In scheduling the announcement for 8 p.m., Trump is diverging from the approach of his predecessors, who introduced Supreme Court nominees in daytime press events. And in a move reminiscent of Trump’s experience as host of NBC reality show 'The Apprentice,' CNN reported Tuesday that the top two candidates for the Supreme Court seat — Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman — have traveled to Washington, D.C. ahead of the announcement. . .

Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported Tuesday morning that the White House had gone to extraordinary efforts to build suspense for Tuesday evening’s announcement. Such a focus would be in keeping with President Trump’s recent track record of treating television coverage of his administration as event programming."

Read Variety, Donald Trump’s SCOTUS Announcement to Take Over Primetime.

This had to be more boring than Dances With the Stars.

Read also New York Magazine, Trump Plans Apprentice-Style SCOTUS Announcement, which notes that "Trump is providing a powerful validation to those who have argued he approaches politics and government as nothing more than a big reality-TV show."

And read also The Atlantic, Trump Ups the Drama for His Supreme Court Pick, which stated that "[a]ll that’s missing is a rose ceremony right out of The Bachelor—a disappointing oversight for a president who was a reality-TV star and has a Rose Garden at his disposal."

Lastly, read The New York Times, It’s ‘The Apprentice, Supreme Court Edition,’ as Trump Summons Finalists to White House.