Conor Friedersdorf: A president falsely charging ‘treason’ is what the Founders feared

Second, promptly upon landing, he began complaining about CNN, and encouraged a boycott of its owner, AT&T. (Trump previously called for the government to block AT&T’s acquisition of the network’s parent company, but a federal judge allowed it to go forward.) The president tweeted:

I believe that if people stoped using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News! Why wouldn’t they act. When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019

Before 2017, the president of the United States calling for a retaliatory boycott of an American company because of unfavorable coverage would have been unthinkable. In 2017 and 2018, it would have been a huge story. This time around, AT&T didn’t even bother to comment to CNN’s own reporter, and the company’s stock ticked up.

One reason for the collective shrug is that more than two years into Trump’s term, there’s much more substance to focus on, making his rhetorical outbursts less comparatively interesting. But Trump has also worn away the novelty of such pronouncements. The first time you wildly, baselessly accuse a political opponent of treason, it’s a horrifying break with normalcy. The umpteenth time you do it, it’s, well, the umpteenth time you’ve done it.

Trump has become the president who cried wolf. As former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report showed, many of Trump’s own aides have learned to disregard what he says, for better or worse. (Often better in the short term, but with bad implications in the long run.) At other times, Trump’s pronouncements have proved to be less than meets the eye, because his own aides are unprepared to implement them. Just last week, his decision to institute tariffs on Mexico to force immigration changes took many aides by surprise, according to Axios.

The public is slowly learning the same lesson, too. In addition to the anecdotal evidence that Trump’s statements carry less weight, his tweets are eliciting less engagement, fewer people are searching for him on Google, and he’s on TV less. The president has responded by tweeting more frequently, but that seems to further dilute the effect.

In some ways, this is a clearly positive development. As they say on Twitter, don’t feed the trolls. When, in July 2017, Trump tweeted a silly video of himself body-slamming a man with the CNN logo superimposed on his face, it elicited a frothy overreaction. This didn’t make CNN look good, and the fury only encouraged Trump. Many of his comments reflect the president just shooting from the hip, and if left alone they will quietly dissolve into the ether.