Trump posts book reviews on Twitter and the public responds with hilarious derision
If there is one thing that Donald Trump can begrudgingly be acknowledged to be good at it is public relations.
PR is, after all, merely the hucksterism and con-artistry developed by the P.T. Barnums of the world dressed up in a nice suit and covered in makeup to make it acceptable for polite society.
While Trump may have mastered the form long ago when he variously assumed the aliases of “John Barron” And “John Miller” and pretended to be his own publicist when calling journalists to push whatever false notions he was peddling at the time, his current dismal approval ratings only serve to prove the adage that you can’t fool all the people all the time.
Nevertheless, a quick perusal of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed this morning demonstrates that the president still believes that he can fend off his removal from office through the Democrats’ impeachment efforts by a massive direct public relations appeal to his base on social media.
Combining a bevy of retweets of Fox News clips with those of his unctuous Republican congressional supporters, Trump created a torrent of counter-accusations against the government officials who testified to Congress under oath about the extent of his corrupt, extortionate foreign policy, peppering it with praise of his economic stewardship of the country gathered from his usual reliable propaganda generators, mostly employed by the Murdoch family.
By flooding his feed with a deluge of fallacious counter-punches to the Democratic offensive of sworn impeachment inquiry testimony, Trump likely hopes to bedazzle the low-information voters among his followers — who at this point consist of only low-information voters and the billionaire beneficiaries of his tax policy largesse — with so much bull crap about the impeachment efforts that they’ll eventually simply tune out all of the details of the investigation no matter how incriminating they may be.
Trump’s reality-distortion-generating machine was punctuated several times with a meme promoting an exaggeration of his approval rating from the latest Rasmussen poll — rated C+ for reliability with a decidedly right-wing bias by polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight — touting a 50% approval when the poll actually reported an already exaggerated 49%, far above the average of 41.4% among all the recent polls reported by FiveThirtyEight.
But the Witch Hunt continues. After 3 years of relentless attacks against the Republican Party & me, the Do Nothing Dems are losers for America! https://t.co/met2y8VoPe
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2019
Among the multiple retweets this morning, a number of Donald Trump originals were sprinkled throughout his feed.
Among the ones generating the loudest chortles among the president’s many critics were the book reviews posted by the notoriously reading-averse Trump.
Naturally, for someone for whom transactional avariciousness is practically a religion, Trump’s book reviews included a plug for his son Don Jr.’s new book that included a pathetic claim of victimization and a pugnacious vow to retaliate against their critics.
Just finished reading my son Donald’s just out new book, “Triggered.” It is really good! He, along with many of us, was very unfairly treated. But we all fight back, and we always win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2019
Those critics on Twitter gave him plenty to retaliate against as this short sample of replies to his post suggests.
If anyone believes Junior WROTE it I have a million dollars worth of chips for Trump Casino to give you.
— EU Queen. #FBPE (@VeeCee30) November 9, 2019
would that be this book? pic.twitter.com/ozIrOMeXXI
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) November 9, 2019
Besides his son’s book, Trump also did a social media blurb for a new book promoting his co-opted doctrine of “Nationalism” by Rich Lowry, the editor of the long-running conservative journal, National Review, whose late founder, the conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr., is surely turning in his grave in reaction.
Bringing the word “Nationalism” back into the mainstream – great job by Rich Lowry! Very important book. https://t.co/yQI4ylGgDb
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2019
Since no day would be complete without a presidential proclamation of “Fake News,”™ Trump also took the time to deny media reports that he had been in discussions with Celebrity Apprentice producer Mark Burnett about creating a new The Apprentice — White House Edition to add to his stable of virtual state media enterprises.
Fake News is reporting that I am talking to Mark Burnett about doing a big show, perhaps The Apprentice, after the presidency, which I would assume they mean in 5 years. This is not true, never had such a conversation, don’t even have time to think about it. False reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2019
Lovers of quality, peak-TV-era television will be desperately hoping that for once Trump is telling the truth on this one, although it is telling that Trump still believes that he will have a post-White House career that doesn’t involve an orange jumpsuit or the more traditional black and white prison stripes.
The Apprentice — Guantanamo Edition, anyone?
Trump may believe that he can tweet and retweet his impeachment defense and cast the Democrats’ efforts to hold him accountable for his corrupt and obstructive actions into oblivion, but it won’t be long before the remaining half of the public — those who don’t already support his removal from office will be convinced by the televised impeachment hearings and the subsequent news coverage on non-Fox News stations — are convinced of his guilt and we can rid ourselves of the taint of criminality that has suffused the Oval Office since his inauguration.
No amount of phony public relations will be able to prevent the inevitable.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
