By Noah Rothman
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Even those of us who are allergic to conspiracy
theorizing struggle with the timing of, and apparent lack of any precipitating
incident inspiring, Trump’s latest war with the White House press corps. Sure,
he’s probably just indulging his passions. But the fallout’s proximity to the
midterm elections — a time when Republicans could use at least one galvanizing
cause to draw them to the polls, even something as threadbare as liberal media
bias — has inspired a lot of speculation.
The White House isn’t doing much to disabuse the public
of their paranoia.
It’s remarkably coincidental, for example, that just as
the press pool withdraws its 24/7 coverage of the president in observance of
its contributors’ collective financial and professional responsibilities to one
another, Trump himself is filling the gap with his own 24/7 media venue. The
White House is calling it “Trump TV.”
If you had to craft a capital-C version of the conspiracy
here, it would be that the administration ignited a spat with political media
to inspire a backlash from the press. It would coincide with the rollout of his
TV channel — the content of which consists entirely of unedited broadcasts of
Trump’s speeches — which only the president’s biggest fans will see. That will
increase enthusiasm among Trump’s low-propensity voters. Meanwhile, the
president’s all but ubiquitous visage will no longer feature so prominently on
nightly newscasts, giving unenthusiastic non-MAGA Republicans and GOP-leaning
independents the time and space to forget the president’s polarizing
flourishes. With that, the GOP faithful get a bloody tunic, and the GOP-curious
get less Trump. Everyone wins!
To be clear: This is a terrible theory. It rests on a
bedrock of contempt for Occam’s razor. The likeliest explanation for Trump’s
declaration of war with the press is that the outburst quieted his screaming
id. Nor is there any obvious tactical rationale for “Trump TV.” Again, the most
plausible reason for its existence is that Trump thinks there’s just not enough Trump on the airwaves
these days.
The president must not be seeing many Democratic campaign
spots. If he were, he’d know there’s no shortage of Trump on the average American’s television.
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