Former President Donald Trump attended a town hall in Harrisburg, PA, yesterday evening, September 4, hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. While such formats are far from rare for the GOP hopeful, Trump’s engagement in this style of campaign event and others of a more digital-age bent are perhaps redefining what it means to both be a candidate and a president.
The questions from Hannity and the mix of voters* were par for the course for most presidential contenders. But it seems Trump is in the process of remolding the idea of what “accessible” means. And this could have enormous ramifications for all future potential commanders-in-chief.
The Big Moments
Surveys indicate that the top two issues concerning Americans are the economy and illegal immigration – both areas where Trump outperforms his Democrat rival. It was on these topics that the former president delivered his biggest applause lines of the night.
“They want open borders,” Trump said. “She [Harris] wants open borders. Now she’s all of a sudden said, oh, I think we’re closing the borders. She was the border czar, whether you like it or not, but even if you don’t want to use that term. She was in charge of the border.” He continued:
“It’s the worst border in the history of the world, not just here. There’s never been a country that allowed 21 million people to come in over a three-year period. There’s never been. And 21 million people, many of whom are from prisons, many of whom are murderers and drug dealers and child traffickers.”
And then there is the economic question. Trump painted a bleak vision should Ms. Harris’ plans come to fruition. “If she gets in, I think we will have a Depression, a 1929-style Depression. That’s what I think will happen. Already, they’ve put us on the path.”
Responding to a question about the proposed price controls, the former president said:
“Every time it’s been tried, no matter over hundreds of years … you end up with no product, you end up with massive inflation, and you end up with the destruction of a country.”
While Trump ranged from topic to topic, the overall importance of this town hall – despite being held in the most crucial swing state in the nation – was not what it once would have been.
It seems 45 is taking his campaign show on the road in a manner reminiscent of 1948. The son of President William Howard Taft, Robert Taft, accused then-President Harry S. Truman of “blackguarding Congress at whistle stops across the country.” Truman was falling badly in the polls and was widely expected to lose the election by a wide margin. Indeed, the Chicago Daily Tribune on November 3 was so confident of a Thomas Dewy victory that they erroneously ran the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
The now-infamous “whistle-stop” campaign changed on a fundamental level how hopeful contenders interacted with the American public.
Trump Taking His Message Global
Trump has spent the last few months speaking to audiences beyond the narrow confines of network news. Whether it was a live stream with Elon Musk, a podcast with popular podcaster and computer scientist Lex Fridman, a one-to-one with comedian Theo Von, or cozy chats with numerous other social media influencers, each encounter served two grand purposes. First, it put him in front of audiences who may not be engaged with the nightly news. More importantly, the Internet got to hear from him directly rather than being defined by his opponent or a legacy media determined to derail his candidacy.
What was the most fascinating about these tête-à-têtes was that they were in-depth, unscripted, and non-partisan. The Musk interview lasted more than two hours; the recent Lex Fridman show was an hour, as were the Dr. Phil and Shawn Ryan talks. What they showed was that the former president can think on his feet and has little trouble engaging on topics from politics and mortality to UFOs and beyond.
In fact, above all, they demonstrate the levels of access and communication that one might hope for from those who seek the most powerful post in the nation.
“Out-Defining” Kamala
Some things are best defined in contrast, which seems true for the distinctions between Donald Trump and VP Kamala Harris. Their campaigns are polar opposites, with one candidate speaking at every available opportunity and the other dodging questions, refusing to engage, and limiting public exposure.
VP Harris has been touting her mother’s advice on the campaign trail, relating that she said, “Don’t let people tell you who you are — instead, tell them who you are.” These are, indeed, wise words. And yet Kamala is actively ignoring that sage pronouncement. It appears that she has outsourced the definition of Kamala Harris to the pro-Democrat media, who are only too happy to craft a narrative, an origin story, and a semi-fictitious legacy to get their gal over the finish line.
Conversely, Trump is fighting a different kind of battle. He has been putting himself in front of audiences – both physical and digital – and speaking candidly on any topic that folks care to raise. While this level of access is virtually unheard of in the modern political realm, it is surely galling to Harris supporters that their chosen candidate is doing the opposite.
Such campaigning is, without doubt, a double-edged sword. Yes, people get to hear a candidate’s opinions in a new format that allows in-depth analysis, but the flip side is that the more one says, the more ammunition the opposition can gather and deploy. And yet, overall, such exposure speaks of a willingness to put oneself before public judgment and ultimately to define oneself without fear.
Left with Little Choice?
A free-wheeling town hall with unscripted audience questions directed at a presidential candidate is newsworthy – more so with just 60 days to go until the election. And yet this hour-long Pennsylvania event received scant coverage from the left-leaning Fourth Estate.
CNN’s homepage and politics page combined had a single story concerning the Trump interview: a two-minute video that sought to fact-check the former president. Specifically, the post concerned a comment about Iran having “no money” to fund Hamas and Hezbollah during his administration. The fact-checker said this was simply not true – and then admitted that, because of Trump’s sanctions, it did “reduce funding.” Weak sauce, indeed.
Not to be outdone, The New York Times also ran just a single story fact-checking the president, this time focusing on his accusation that Ms. Harris might have September 10 debate questions in advance. The piece says that Trump aired these suspicions “without evidence,” and while that is correct, CNN contributor Donna Brazile did, in fact, leak debate questions to Hillary Clinton back in 2016.
And then there is Washington, DC’s most prominent media outlet, which, despite running several Trump-centric articles on its digital front page, made not a single mention of Donald Trump’s town hall in a state that will almost certainly decide the outcome of November’s presidential election.
In fact, when one considers that the legacy media is apparently determined only to run stories that are detrimental to the former president and not cover, in any substantive way, his comments and opinions freely delivered, it seems inevitable that Donald Trump would attempt to cut his own path in the media wilderness.
Taking Legacy Media Out of the Equation
Trust in the so-called mainstream media is at an all-time low ebb. Much of the Fourth Estate is now considered partisan propagandists (on both sides of the aisle), and news consumers are shifting their habits accordingly. In August, X CEO Elon Musk shared a post showing that his social media platform was now considered the number-one news app in 160 countries.
Combined with the growing popularity of long-form podcasts that reach audiences who are skeptical of Big-Box media, it is almost a certainty that Trump’s approach to this election, whether successful or not, will set the model for future presidential contests. American voters may have rewarded Joe Biden with the keys to the White House in 2020 despite his basement-style campaign. But the times they are a-changin’, and the public’s demand for accessibility and spin-free coverage is a wish that the new media nexus of independent outlets and social media ubiquity seems poised to grant.
Win or lose in November, Donald Trump has brought down the closed-shop media edifice; the only question remaining is how long it will take for the Fourth Estate to realize it is a spent force.
*The audience question part of the town hall will air tonight, September 5.
