Forget The White House, This Is What Trump Really Wants

Donald Trump may be trying to lose the election – claiming instead a bigger prize than the White House.

Current polling looks bleak for Republican nominee Donald Trump. “In a four-way match-up, Clinton enjoys 46 percent support this week among likely voters, while Trump drops a single percentage point to 40 percent support,” according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll. “In a two-way race, Clinton leads by 8 points with majority support of 51 percent to Trump’s 43 percent among likely voters,” and, as NBC News adds: “Her margin over the GOP nominee has grown steadily since her successful first debate performance.”

Polling data aggregator Real Clear Politics reports similar results with Clinton enjoying a national polling lead of 6.9 percent and Nate Silver, the statistician and polling expert with a long history of accurate predictions, reported on Monday that “Clinton’s big lead means a steadier forecast” moving forward.

“Trump himself is to blame most of all for his faltering bid,” global media brand Good reports. “It’s hard to compensate for such a litany of grotesque remarks and actions—but Trump hasn’t even embraced campaign basics like disciplined messaging or a proper ground game.”

Now, more details have emerged that could explain these baffling moves. Rather than just an unhinged boor handling defeat badly, Trump might be positioning himself for a different kind of victory. For a guy who was tired enough of his real estate business to mount a run for president, there’s a more suitable prize out there than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave—a media company catering to the massive minority of angry Americans who find delight in Trump’s elite lifestyle and populist rhetoric.

Vanity Fair was the first to report the possibility that Trump’s endgame was the creation of a “mini-media conglomerate,” in an article published this June.

Reporting that Trump has “masterfully—and horrifyingly—demonstrated an aptitude for manipulating the news cycle, gaining billions of dollars worth of free airtime, and dominating coverage on every screen,” Vanity Fair concluded that “Trump is indeed considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States.”

According to several people briefed on the discussions, the presumptive Republican nominee is examining the opportunity presented by the “audience” currently supporting him. He has also discussed the possibility of launching a “mini-media conglomerate” outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC. He has, according to one of these people, enlisted the consultation of his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who owns the The New York Observer.

In August The New York Times reported that Kushner had been exploring the possibility of either creating a media property or acquiring one

“In recent months, Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have quietly explored becoming involved with a media holding, either by investing in one or by taking one over, according to a person close to Mr. Trump who was briefed on those discussions,” The New York Times reported.

Vox reported on Monday that “It looks as though the Trump family may be putting their reportedly grand scheme for a post-2016 election Trump media company in motion.”

Vox added that “in a campaign that has seen Trump make a series of surprising and politically unwise decisions — like feuding with core figures within the Republican Party, showing a lax adherence to his party’s own principles, and openly defying the establishment GOP’s calls for a ‘presidential’ candidate — a Trump media corporation seems like a plausible end game for an election cycle that has brought rise to a fringe line of thought. After all, Stephen Bannon, CEO of the far-right news site Breitbart, is also running Trump’s campaign.”

Indeed, Financial Times reported on Monday that “Kushner has informally approached one of the media industry’s top dealmakers about the prospect of setting up a Trump television network after the presidential election in November.”

Mr Kushner — an increasingly influential figure in the billionaire’s presidential campaign — contacted Aryeh Bourkoff, the founder and chief executive of LionTree, a boutique investment bank, within the past couple of months, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. … The approach suggests Mr Kushner and the Republican candidate himself are thinking about how to capitalise on the populist movement that has sprung up around their campaign in the event of an election defeat to Democrat Hillary Clinton next month.

Noting that they had “reported in August that Mr. Kushner had explored the possibility of either creating a media property or acquiring one,” The New York Times reported that Kushner’s “talks with Mr. Bourkoff were part of that effort, according to a person briefed on the discussions, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations.”

Trump’s intentions regarding the creation of such a venture remain unclear, however. Currently Trump’s campaign is headed by Stephen Bannon, who operates the hard-right website Breitbart, but as Vox reports, “Bannon has said he has no interest in starting a media company.”

Financial Times reports that “Roger Ailes, the former head of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, is a friend of Mr Trump’s but would be prohibited from working on a Trump television venture by the terms of his exit agreement with the news network.”

Then there’s the fact that Trump himself denied that he was interested in creating a media property of his own in a September interview with The Washington Post.

As the Financial Times concludes: “Talk about a Trump network has persisted, partly because of the fervent crowds that Mr Trump continues to attract on the campaign trail and his existing links to conservative media.” Time will eventually tell what happens to Donald Trump post-election.

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