It’s fair to say that Donald Trump owes his political career to the medium of television. It was television that successfully sold Trump to the nation as the personification of American business success—from his frequent appearances on talk shows and newsmagazines in the 1980s and 1990s to his prime-time network reality show that lasted from 2004 until he began running for office in 2015. …
But public discussions of the relationship between television and Trump have perceptibly reversed course in recent weeks. Rather than emphasize Trump’s reliance on television as a tool to reach his supporters, political observers have become preoccupied with television’s influence on Trump. CONT.
David A. Hopkins, Boston College