The words "Trump" and "Thinks" should never be used in the same sentence. Trump Thinks GOP Candidates Are Ditching CPAC Because They’re Not as Popular as Him https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump...ing-cpac-because-theyre-not-as-popular-as-him Some of the Republican Party’s biggest names, including likely presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, have decided not to attend this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Some might have been put off the event in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against its organizer, Matt Schlapp, or possibly even just the fact that the conference has skewed so much toward the MAGA wing of the party that a gold Trump statue has been seen at the event in previous years. But the former president says he knows the real reason why his rivals aren’t going. “The only reason certain ‘candidates’ won’t be going to CPAC is because the crowds have no interest in anything they have to say,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. “They’ve heard it all before, and don’t want to hear it again. But my speech, on Saturday night, is already a sold out ‘monster.’” Trump told attendees that his headline speech is going to be “about the fact that, obviously, our Country is going to ‘HELL,’ and how to fix it.”
'Non-Person' Donald Trump faces 'soft ban' at Fox https://www.semafor.com/article/03/...nald-trump-facessoft-ban-at-fox-his-aides-say Donald Trump, who once dominated the Fox News broadcasts, is now running into a brick wall with what four members of his circle say is a “soft ban” from the top of the conservative news channel, as it rolls out the red carpet to even the low-profile rival candidates. “Everyone knows that there’s this ‘soft ban’ or ‘silent ban,’” one source close to Trump told Semafor. “It’s certainly — however you want to say, quiet ban, soft ban, whatever it is — indicative of how the Murdochs feel about Trump in this particular moment.” In recent months, 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls have been seen almost daily on the network, pitching themselves to its vast conservative audience. According to Media Matters' internal database of cable news appearances, Nikki Haley’s been featured on weekday Fox News shows seven times since announcing her presidential bid on February 14. Even the little known fund manager Vivek Ramaswamy, who announced on February 21, has made four weekday appearances. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to run, has been all over the network in recent days. Trump hasn’t been on Fox News since announcing his presidential bid in November. His last weekday appearance on the network was in September with host Sean Hannity. During that interview, Trump said a president could declassify documents “by thinking about it.” One Trump official told Semafor that the former president plans to push for appearances on the network in the coming months as the campaign ramps up. But another Trump aide told Semafor that they’ve heard firsthand about the “soft ban” from people at Fox. The aide said that some prime time hosts — who typically operate largely autonomously from the network’s leadership — have reached out in an effort to book the former president. But those appearances haven’t come to fruition. “The understanding is that they’re [Fox] not to have Trump on for an interview, because the Murdochs have made it pretty clear they want to move on from Trump … Fox is showing that by not having him on,” a Republican operative familiar with Trump’s campaign added. But his aides have found that it’s less strictly enforced on Fox’s website, where he’s often featured with exclusive articles — like when he welcomed Haley into the race or when he planned to visit Ohio after the train derailment. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment from Semafor. Shelby's view Fox News’s recent antipathy toward Trump had been an open secret until last week, when documents revealed in Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network included Murdoch instructing an aide “to make Trump a non-person” after January 6. Other Murdoch-owned companies have been critical of Trump as well, which suggests that Murdoch is, indeed, pushing a hard pivot away from the former president. The New York Post, for example, brutally covered Trump’s announcement at the end of last year with the headline, page 26: “Florida Man Makes Announcement.” The network skipped his speech in Ohio last week and Trump himself has complained publicly in recent days that the network is aggressively “promoting” DeSantis, despite him being the frontrunner in recent 2024 polls. Trump once had a direct line to Fox’s leadership, but he and his team are now more in the dark about what’s happening at the central media company for the Republican Party. Now his aides are reading the tea leaves of Fox’s air, and asking Fox aides for any sign that change might be in the air. “They have been ramping up their efforts to try to give more fair coverage, or fair airtime” amid criticisms from conservatives over coverage decisions, the person close to Trump noted. “I don’t think they’re trying to reverse course, but they’re trying to appease, and tamp down, some of that criticism.” The View From Donald Trump “If Rupert Murdoch honestly believes that the Presidential Election of 2020, despite MASSIVE amounts of proof to the contrary, was not Rigged & Stolen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business as soon as possible, because they are aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, responding to the Dominion court filing. Room for Disagreement Politico’s Jack Shafer suggests Murdoch will ultimately just follow the money. “As late as Jan. 26, 2021, Murdoch was still so fearful of Trump that he had not executed the pivot and was still allowing stolen-election crackpot (and loyal Fox advertiser) Mike ‘MyPillow’ Lindell a platform on the network’s Tucker Carlson Tonight show. Why allow it? Murdoch was asked. Presumably cashing Lindell’s fat checks in his mind’s eye, Murdoch replied, ‘It is not red or blue, it is green.’”
Fox may grant interviews to all of the candidates, including Trump even though Rupert said in an email "we want to make Trump a non-person." But where Trump will get hurt is that Fox will not cover all of his rallies as they did the first two times. Two hour rallies and they covered all of them - usually in prime time. Then the Fox panelists would talk afterwards and do the pep rallies there about how Trump was knocking them dead. They will not that this time. It will be hands off or where they report on selected statements as part of their news, as they will do for all other candidates.
MAGA Storm Troopers want DeSantis. Die-hard Trump fans make it clear: They want DeSantis DeSantis is on a book tour that’s part of a larger promotional push. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/02/trump-desantis-supporters-00085326
Didn't Richard Reeves write a book entitled Do the media govern? Judging by the actions of CNN and FOX, it sure seems they try to influence public opinion and therefore elections. Once elected, if a President does not go with the media's narratives, he risks facing a "trial by media". Trump did not give a major sh*t about the media's narratives, hence all the negative coverage including media attempts to bolster multiple, weak partisan led investigations against Trump. Even after four years of negative media coverage, Trump still almost won reelection. That is assuming the election was actually legitimate, which it may have been, but unanswered questions remain.
Trump's 5-part plan to attack DeSantis https://www.axios.com/2023/03/03/trump-plan-attack-desantis Former President Trump is convinced his attacks on Ron DeSantis are chipping away at the Florida governor's support and confidence, sources and friends familiar with Trump's thinking say. So Trump is planning to amp up the attacks and name-calling in the coming weeks. Why it matters: Trump believes DeSantis is the only candidate who could last with him in a long, bitter campaign for the 2024 GOP nomination. Trump hopes to scare DeSantis out of running, or at least damage him if he follows through on signs he will enter the race, top sources tell us. Between the lines: Trump plans to target "Ron DeSanctimonious," as he delights in branding the governor, in five areas. They are: DeSantis' past support for changes to Social Security and Medicare, including votes as a U.S. congressman to raise the eligibility age for Medicare. Disloyalty to Trump after he helped DeSantis get elected governor in 2018. Trump also plans to pound DeSantis on likability. Trump wants to cast DeSantis as a lackey of former House Speaker Paul Ryan. On Trump's social-media site, Truth Social, he attacked Ryan this week as a loser who "couldn't get elected dogcatcher," and said he should resign or be fired as a Fox Corp. board member. DeSantis' response to COVID is a top Trump target, even though the governor is known for resisting mask mandates. Trump plans to attack DeSantis' caution in the earliest days of the pandemic — and try to fight the issue to a draw. A March 2020 headline in the Tampa Bay Times said: "DeSantis orders major shutdown of beaches, businesses in Broward, Palm Beach." (DeSantis pushes back on this.) DeSantis took heat for muddled comments, in a Fox News interview last week, about whether to maintain financial and military support for Ukraine. Trump plans to portray DeSantis as wishy-washy on the war, while he toes the MAGA line of cutting aid. What they're saying: "There’s a pre-Trump Ron and there’s a post-Trump Ron," a Trump confidant said of DeSantis. "He used to be a Reagan Republican. That’s where he comes from. He's now awkwardly trying to square his views up with the populist nationalist feeling of that party." A DeSantis spokesman had no comment on Trump's criticisms. DeSantis told Fox News' Jesse Watters this week that he sees Trump attacks as "background noise": "He used to say how great of a governor I was. And then I win a big victory and all of a sudden, you know, he had different opinions. And so you could take that for what it's worth." By the numbers: Several polls show Trump gaining momentum in the past month. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll has Trump opening up an 8-point lead (47%-39%), after DeSantis led the former president by 4 in early February. What we're watching: Team DeSantis believes it's smart to not respond directly to Trump's attacks. But waiting to respond could be risky — and undermine DeSantis' efforts to cast himself as a tough, principled alternative to the former president.
So the CPAC crowd thinks DeSantis is a traitor. This won't help him much in the primary. 'If it’s not Trump, I won’t vote': CPAC exposes schism as attendees rip into 'traitor' DeSantis https://www.rawstory.com/trump-desantis-cpac/
DeSantis' effectively wrote himself out of a successful primary. 'A roadmap to his defeat': DeSantis' new book unwittingly hands opponents plenty of ammo https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-book/
The playbook for psychotic fascist leaders always includes discrediting the media and unfavorable election results. I'm amazed really that some of you are so easily duped by these guys. Trump was perhaps the most destructive US President in history.