The ex-president has a problem: most of the mainstream media ignores him. He remains blocked on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. That's why Donald Trump has created his own dangerous media reality.
"I want our country back," Donald Trump said a few days ago in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, the well-known Fox News commentator who has since been fired because of sex scandals.
According to the ex-president, he is doing what is necessary for his plan. He's going on a "Trump Tour" with Bill O'Reilly. The two men have planned a series of public appearances, each drawing tens of thousands of viewers. The interview is intended to promote the paid shows. You can not see them on a conventional channel, but on "Billoreilly.com". A "Concierge" membership there costs around $8 a month – including allegedly personal email contact with Bill O'Reilly.
Trump interviews Fox News legend Bill O'Reilly. (Source: billoreilly.com)
In fact, Trump is currently giving interviews almost weekly away from the mainstream public. Far away from CNN, ABC or NBC, Trump has built up a parallel media universe with which he can still reach an audience of millions. The channels are called Newsmax, OAN, Real America's Voice, or Bill O'Reilly.
They all have a few things in common: They are staunch right-wing conservatives, spread fake news, propaganda and disinformation, are closely networked, celebrate Donald Trump and don't give a damn about his successor Joe Biden. It's not journalism in the true sense. But that's not what the creators care about either. It's about creating a shadowy world that is constantly filled with a mix of untruths, half-truths and truths. In such a way that the audience can hardly distinguish between fact and falsehood.
The goal: to bring Trump back to the White House.
Trump's biggest problem is still the fact that he can no longer feed the conventional broadcasters or the social networks Twitter, Facebook and YouTube directly. But he has long since made a virtue out of it. It's true that his alternative channels are nowhere near the range of the big media. At the latest, however, they could become a danger if Trump were actually to run for the White House again. Then the conventional media would no longer be able to get past him – and the propaganda machine devoted to Trump would possibly set the pace. Even during his presidency, Trump favored media that turned to him. The rest was fake news for him.
These are Trump's most important channels:
Bill O'Reilly
Cancel duo: Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly. (Source: billoreilly.com)
Disgraced ex-Fox News man Bill O'Reilly has long promoted "no spin news" and "honest journalism" on his website. In fact, in his interview with Trump, he offered more Trump strategist-style advice. How Trump could convince moderate voters? If only he weren't always so aggressive on the plaster. Couldn't he do this kind of thing? "At least a little bit?" O'Reilly wanted to probe. Trump stuck to it: "If I have to be harsh, I will be harsh." The "left radicals" are to blame for this.
The conversation was one of the more confrontational Trump interviews in recent memory. O'Reilly pressed several times. Asked, for example, what Trump would have really done differently when withdrawing from Afghanistan? But everything quickly resolved itself in mutual goodwill. The state of the country under President Joe Biden? "It's a disaster," said O'Reilly, and Trump repeated, nodding his head, "It's a disaster." O'Reilly asked, "Are they really all that stupid?" And Trump replied, "I don't know, Bill, I've never seen anything like it." And: "Bill, you're doing a really good job!" How many subscribers O'Reilly has is not known. But his fame helps Trump. 30,000 tickets for the first show in December in Florida have already been sold, said O'Reilly.
news max
Newsmax Logo (Source: Newsmax)
After the presidential election last year, it briefly looked as if the right-wing cable station could become Trump's new home station. Many disappointed viewers switched to Newsmax with the ex-president because Fox News announced Joe Biden's victory. On Newsmax, the lie of mass voter fraud for this is maintained to this day. In the US state of Delaware, the Canadian voting machine company Dominion Votings Systems has been suing Newsmax since August because the broadcaster claims "without evidence" that the election was manipulated.
The broadcaster tries to maintain its own worldview in other ways too. Following the Joe Biden-managed Afghanistan pullout, Newsmax interviewed a veteran in September who didn't say what the moderator wanted to hear. The interviewee was yelled at and kicked off the show: "You don't come on my show here and blame Donald Trump! That makes me really angry!"
At one point, Newsmax had actually overtaken Fox News by the number of viewers watching a given show, averaging more than 300,000. However, the goal set out by Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a close friend of Donald Trump, to really "take over" Fox News has so far failed miserably. Fox News has long since adapted its own strategy and has remained the number one news channel. Commentators like Chris Tucker are constantly fueling the agenda of right-wing Republicans and conspiracy ideologies. And yet: Newsmax has recently picked up again, with more than 140,000 viewers watching on average. The station has around two million subscribers on YouTube.
One America News Network (OAN)
OAN Logo (Source: OAN)
The right-wing populist cable broadcaster, headquartered in San Diego, California, was founded in 2013. There are around 150 employees at the location. False reports and conspiracy ideologies are also spread at OAN and the truth is feigned. The shows there have titles like "Real America" or "The Real Story". The YouTube video platform blocked the OAN channel with its 1.4 million viewers for a short time last year because of the spread of untruths about the Covid 19 pandemic. A lawsuit by the voting machine company Dominion Votings Systems in Delaware is also pending against OAN because of false allegations of vote rigging.
It is true that there are hardly any reliable cable TV viewership figures for OAN. In October, however, it became known that the US cable provider AT&T is said to have made a significant contribution to the financial success of the station. Apparently, AT&T didn't just push for the station to be founded in 2013 to attract paying subscribers. OAN is said to have received significantly more license fees from the cable provider than other channels that can be received at AT&T.
Real America's Voice (RAV)
RAV Logo (Source: RAV)
Compared to OAN and Newsmax, Real America's Voice (RAV) is smaller and not a real TV station. In the context of the Trumpists, RAV, like many other similar propaganda channels, plays an important role. Here, too, the ex-president, who is still president, regularly gives interviews about the desolate state of the USA under Joe Biden, which he diagnosed. Election fraud, inflation, open borders, Afghanistan disaster and pandemic failures are running 24/7 here. Trump's ex-security chief, right-wing extremist and Breitbart founder Steve Bannon, is allowed to market his podcast show "War Room" on RAV.
Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN)
RSBN Logo (Source: RSBN Logo)
The Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) is basically Trump's number one live streaming service. The broadcasts of his rallies, which often last for hours, including the supporting program, can be followed reliably here, even if the big media are not there. RSBN dates back to the early days of Trump's first presidential bid. More than 1.5 million users follow the channel on YouTube.
The right-wing channel was one of the first to announce on Wednesday this week that Donald Trump is apparently in the process of founding his own, alternative social network called "Truth Social". RSBN distributed a press release from a so-called "Trump Media & Technology Group", which Trump apparently chairs. It is supposed to be about "creating a rival for the liberal media consortium and fighting back against the 'Big Tech' companies of Silicon Valley". They have too much power and are trying to silence opposition voices. Trump announces that it's about "standing up against the tyranny of 'Big Tech'." A separate video streaming service called TMGT+ is intended to offer "non-woke" entertainment, podcasts and news without "political correctness".
Rumble, Telegram and Gettr
The step is only logical, because the Trump-friendly parallel universe of fake news, propaganda and hate speech, mixed with harmless content, has been expanding for a long time, also with the help of alternative social media platforms. Many of the stations can still be received on YouTube. But Donald Trump himself is blocked there and on Facebook and Twitter.
It was only in the summer that Trump decided to set up his own profile on the Canadian video platform Rumble, which is particularly popular with right-wing conservative supporters. He has since collected more than 800,000 followers there. In addition, there are countless Telegram channels that are busy around the clock processing and spreading Trump's content, some of which are even more drastic lies.
Numerous right-wing conservatives are also currently trying to popularize a "censorship-free" Twitter alternative called Gettr.
Ready when Trump is
It is difficult to estimate how many people Donald Trump will actually reach with his permanent presence in this parallel universe. But the ex-president, who presents himself as the rightful president, is not nearly as invisible in the US as it might seem.
The impact that these networks, which can hardly be overseen, could unfold in the event that Trump is actually nominated as a Republican candidate is likely to be enormous. The fear of a "perfect storm", a storm of disinformation that can hardly be stopped, is not without reason. All stations act according to the announcement that Steve Bannon is said to have once made: "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the area with shit."
Without the conventional media, however, it is obviously not possible. Trump has also been reappearing on Fox News for some time now in the form of courtesy talks. No wonder, because the transmitter continues to lurch in the direction of the Trump conspirators' camp. The voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems also filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against Fox News in March for false allegations.
Before Donald Trump wants his country back, as he said with Bill O'Reilly, he wants his old social media back. Since July he has been suing a federal court in Florida against his blocks on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Trump claims freedom of speech, guaranteed in the US First Amendment.
Here, too, the ex-president and his media armada are again on the wrong track. Because the "First Amendment" actually refers to any state censorship, but not to decisions by private companies. But the listeners and viewers don't care. Because they have long believed that behind the tech giants from Silicon Valley there is only a Deep State controlled by Democrats anyway.
