Video transcript:

Trump may be on twitter but he’s not of it.

He remains a creature of TV. That’s what Fox media critic Howard Kurtz says in a new book.

He grew up in an age when TV was the miracle medium. It dominated. I know. I grew up then too. But it’s now almost a historical artifact like sundials, but not for him. He still watches it in real time, on screens he installed in his White House bedroom.

Despite this, he’s the least skilful president of the TV era. All the others did it better. From JFK to Obama, who’d already moved on to the internet age, but had a masterful onscreen style.

Trump never mastered TV. He merely played a character on it: a billionaire buffoon.

The most telling part of his relationship to TV is his dependence on it as a source.

“The shows” are the pathetic Sunday morning network news panels. Their range of views runs from A to A and a half. They lack wit or insight, they’re predictable and shallow. Trump has access to all the information and expertise in the world but relies almost solely, as he says, on the shows. They’re his comfort zone.

He’ll be remembered not just as the last TV president but the least.

Rick Salutin’s video commentary appears every Tuesday.

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