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Trump Should Get Ready to Rumble on the Radio
President Trump has been effectively throttled by the social media billionaires, cut off from all dominant media megaphones. He has a way out by hybrid political warfare, linking the growth of Rumble to an old-school media play: talk radio. Trump should take a lesson from the Gipper, providing a modern version of Reagan’s 1976-1979 daily five-minute radio commentary. Conservative talk radio networks would surely fight to get such a huge audience draw.
President Trump is trying to shape Congress through endorsements, yet his endorsements are not necessarily having the powerful positive effect they did during his first term in office. This is because the general public, even the general primary electorate that might turn out in GOP primaries this year, is not hearing constantly from President Trump. He cannot build a new social media architecture fast enough and attract enough eyeballs and ears to make a difference in this crucial year. So, he must go old-school with a new twist.
Ronald Reagan built a national brand between 1975 and 1979. He engaged in the disciplined process of talking to the American people five days a week until launching his 1980 presidential campaign. Reagan did so with a five-minute radio commentary, interrupted only for his 1976 Republican primary campaign.
In a daily radio commentary that ran from 1975 to 1979, former California Governor Ronald Reagan used his considerable acting and broadcast talents to build his reputation as “The Great Communicator” and lay the groundwork for a successful presidential run in 1980. These radio commentaries also helped Reagan transition from a national public figure appreciated more for his acting ability than his political acumen into a serious political figure. Reagan gave 1,027 of these addresses to an audience of 20 to 30 million listeners each week, interrupted only by his initial run for the White House in 1976.
President Trump should follow the Great Communicator’s example over the next two to three years. He should launch a daily podcast on Rumble of a fixed length, between two and five minutes, calculated to fit the talk radio network show clocks. Show clocks define the talk segments and breaks for news and commercials. You may have heard Bill O’Reilly providing one such break segment commentary.
Going old-school advances President Trump’s agenda in more than one way. Reviving daily media exposure, outside the ability of the left to cancel him, would make him far more formidable as an ally and enemy in the political arena. Leveraging the old format to get a much wider audience, Trump would drive eyeballs and clicks towards Rumble, turbo-charging its growth as a social media platform. Providing a daily program, likely 120 seconds, would help Trump craft a disciplined set of messages, with needed repetition and brevity, making him an even better communicator.
Never mind the Gipper, President Trump, win one for the American people!
Published in Politics
Fascinating idea, Clifford! I wonder if he’d be willing to commit to the effort. Even a five=minute commentary takes time and discipline to write and record. He’d probably need someone to help him manage the process.
Excellent suggestion @cliffordbrown. President Trump can be very engaging in a personal non-confrontational setting. I have seen it in action. Radio could be a great way of counter messaging the narrative without grandstanding in a way more suited to Twitter and rallies.
Good luck with this idea.
I remember listening to Reagan back in the late 1970’s. He was hopeful, inspiring, welcoming, generous and funny. Listening to Reagan left a smile on my face, and a warmth in my heart.
Trump has none of Reagan’s qualities, he just gets people mad. Reagan either soothed or won over Democrats over to his side. Reagan inspired Republicans and Independents.
Trump would rile up Democrats and Independents who thought that they were done with him. Republicans would think, hey, we lost with this guy, let’s find someone smarter and more welcoming that we can win with.
My reaction to listening to Trump has been “everything I have,” as in “I will give everything I have [bear any burden, and make any sacrifice] to stop this guy.”
As I said, good luck with this.
Glenn Beck has had him on several times recently – I catch a few tidbits on the radio when I’m driving and checking properties, and it’s excellent.
Ten minutes would be the sweet spot for me.
He could revive Rush’s morning update.
“Trump o’ the Morning to ya”?
But Ronald Reagan was truly one of a kind. I don’t expect anyone to duplicate his achievements in that or many other areas.
I agree that Ronald Reagan was sui generis. But so is Trump. I don’t think that Trump will wear well with Democrats and Independents.
I thought he was busy taking over Canada according to the 100% reliable, uncorrupt Canadian Liberal government’s Minister of Foreign Affairs?
Then it’s on to Greenland!
Nobody expects a 9 Iron Inquisition.
Maybe he sounds that way to you, but he usually sounds very upbeat and hopeful to me. He was even criticized by the left for being so optimistic about our chances of defeating the Wu Flu. Very often Trump speaks about empowering people to do greatness and how we can overcome (or overcomb?) adversity. Compare that to Biden and Kamalla who constantly talk about what a disgusting racist and unfair country we have, and how people cannot succeed unless the gubmint gives them hand-outs. They would be failures at motivational speaking unless the motivation is to be greedy and ungrateful.
I’m not as concerned as others are for the de-platforming of Trump and other conservatives. The Internet is such a big place that pretty much anybody can have a voice somewhere on the Net. It seems to me that de-platforming just makes it more inconvenient to spread your message in the easiest ways like on Facebook or Twittter. Besides, there are probably hundreds of popular radio and Internet shows that would gladly give Trump a daily platform if he wanted it. I get direct e-mails from the Trump team and other Republicans who I never contributed to nor gave them my e-mail address.
Not to mention the terrible poll numbers from the Biden/Harris’s own Party – Trump is not looking so bad after all (to them). To over half the country, he was a blessing that gave us a four year reprieve from what the powers-that-be hoped for back in 2016 and are now seeing play out. Gary – good luck to you that you still cannot see that.
It is a great paradox that many democrats will now concede that Trump was not as bad as Biden is now, but Gary, a Republican, will not acknowledge it.
I believe that AM radio stations can be purchased fairly cheaply these days…
You could be right. I could be wrong. Trump sounds like fingernails on the chalkboard, but that might just be me.
Exactly so. He should highlight examples of people striving and thriving, as well as the outrages of the harm the left and Republican establishment has done to our people for so long.
Great working title.
No need to purchase and build an audience from scratch. There are established conservative talk networks that would jump at a chance to get a short daily feed from President Trump.
Yes, and this is important to refining his public image with the audiences he needs to bring along.
Exactly so. Indeed he should have a small research staff and a director. The name that came immediately to mind was Kayleigh McEnany.
Yes, but that does not really work with the talk radio stations hourly show clock. You usually get 4 minutes between talk program segments, so dropping a daily commentary in either takes away from the show host’s program time or must fit into one of the breaks, while still allowing time for commercials.
When somebody rubs you the wrong way, it is difficult to judge them neutrally. I have a problem with actor Harry Bellefonte. Trump initially rubbed me the wrong way when he was campaigning, but I eventually appreciated the things he did as President. He still kinda rubs me the wrong way, though.
I did listen to a few of Ronald Reagan’s radio programs, when he left office as governor of California. If memory serves, they were 5-10 minutes long, and once a week. That’s not talk radio, Rush Limbaugh style. Probably the best comparison would have been Paul Harvey’s broadcasts, though his were about 1/2 hour long, and daily.
If Trump wants to do something similar that’s relevant to today, it would be to have a podcast.
Probably the best thing that happened to Trump, post-presidency was his banning from social media. He was undisciplined in how he used it, and again and again he would do more harm to himself than good.
Still, if he decided to do a podcast, people would listen to it, and so far, doing an independent one (as opposed to contracting with Spotify, ala Joe Rogan) probably means he wouldn’t be restricted.
I don’t think he has the discipline to do it well.
The model folks are discussing would be more like Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story”. Five minutes, weekdays. It could likely get on stations already doing conservative talk.
You don’t sound sincere.
The key problem in political persuasion is *reaching those who aren’t already on your side*. It’s nice to ‘heat up the base’…and relatively easy..but harder to reach and influence those who are neutral or leaning against. But you have to do it if you want to win elections.
That’s a good point, but even if you reach everybody, there is no guarantee that they will agree or even listen to you. We are bombarded everyday with unwanted messages, phone calls, and advertising that most people have learned to tune out. I think that if Trump were allowed back on Facebook or Twitter, it would not make much of a dent in his support. It would just provide more fodder for left wing nuts looking for a fight.