The candidate that never was

Trump’s out. His faux candidacy, which ought to be studied in journalism textbooks for years to come, is finally over.

Trump co-opted the incessant newspaper, television and blogosphere coverage, turning the venerated instruments of journalism into a 24-hour infomercial for his reality TV show and line of Chinese-manufactured suits.

From the beginning, the pundits acknowledged that Trump was unlikely to run. But they covered him anyways, passing over hard news about the debt ceiling, the war in Libya and the Ryan budget so they could talk about Trump’s feud with ex-wife Ivana, and speculate about his net worth. Trump and the networks engaged in a thinly-veiled quid pro quo — he got the publicity, and they got the ratings.

A natural-born marketer, Trump understood that interest in his candidacy would be short-lived, a novelty. He tapped into the birther issue as a way of staying relevant and on the front pages. When that ruse was successful, he had a second act waiting in the wings. He began to raise questions about whether Obama was qualified to attend Columbia and Harvard, subtly stoking the anger of socially conservative whites by implying that Obama was an affirmative action President. The argument had little merit, but it made for sensational headlines.

The week of April 24, the media finally ended their months-long Trump bender. The one-two punch of Obama’s birth certificate release and the capture of Osama bin Laden sealed the deal. Trump looked foolish, petty. His coverage began to wane. His interviews became more sparse, his numbers started to drop. Realizing the free ride was over, Trump pulled the trigger. From the haze of their collective hangover, journalists were left to confront an inevitability they had, deep down, known from the start. Trump had been bluffing all along.

Trump dominated political discourse in the US for months. He accomplished this not by offering new ideas or by presenting himself as a formidable challenger. He had no substantive experience navigating the minefield that is presidential politics, and his grasp of the issues left much to be desired. No, Trump accomplished what he did because Americans were willing to suspend their disbelief, because journalists were hungry for election news, and because their corporate overlords liked the ratings.

I used to think Trump’s flirtation with running was just a vanity, a way to feed his insatiable narcissism. But in retrospect, what transpired is remarkable, an unprecedented feat of marketing magic. For three months, Donald Trump transformed the national political dialogue into one of his reality shows. He wrote the script, and the networks produced the show. We faithfully tuned in every week to witness his latest antics, to gossip over the salacious details of his troubled divorce, or his business deals gone wrong. We argued about his intentions, analyzed his statements, studied his travel itineraries. And in today’s finale, when he finally showed his hand, there was no sense of indignation, no outrage that he had manipulated the entire country for his personal gain. Just feigned surprise, mild applause, and hopes that the mid-season replacements would be just as entertaining.