On Monday, MSNBC’s Morning Joe (minus Mika Brzezinski) reflected upon the internet-based Trump TV, which informally debuted last week with a Lara Trump rant but has now emerged more fully with Kayleigh McEnany at the “anchor’s desk” on Sunday. McEnany, of course, is familiar to CNN’s viewership as one of the network’s lone Trump defenders, and he’s enlisted her to trot out the so-called “Real News.” Naturally, Joe Scarborough wasn’t impressed by the display — because the programming resembles the type of eternally positive, state-run propaganda that one can witness in North Korea or Russia.
Trump TV is intended to counteract everything that Trump hates about the American press, and it’s especially geared toward the president’s contempt toward cable news networks. Trump happens to despise Morning Joe, and the program’s namesake feels that way about Trump TV, too:
“You really have to want to be fooled if you watch this for news. It’s the message from the White House and it’s pretty well branded as that. It’s not quite Between Two Ferns. They’re creating something from scratch trying to get to their audience specifically, not to reach a new audience.”
Whether or not Trump TV’s current incarnation was a last-minute development isn’t clear. McEnany revealed late last week that she was departing CNN, and the network revealed that she requested to be freed from her contract. Last fall — when it wasn’t clear to anyone that Trump could win the election — it was rumored that Trump TV would be a post-election project for Jared Kushner and Trump to make some bank off any residual political appeal of the Republican nominee.
Now, the situation is clearly different, and who knows how long Trump TV’s “Real News” will last, but for now, McEnany has found the job of her dreams. And Scarborough will undoubtedly provide further commentary.
(Via MSNBC)