Former President Donald Trump was audible all day Monday, if not visible – and the effect is to keep him at the forefront of the Republican Party’s talks.
His unwillingness or inability to lie low is exactly what many Trump observers expected, but a clear departure from the behavior of other former presidents.
“The code of the presidential club is to get out of the way and let the new commander-in-chief have a year or two,” Douglas Brinkley, CNN’s presidential historian, said.
But Trump is so narcissistic that “he can not accept being out of the spotlight for a day,” Brinkley concluded.
Lately, Trump has been doing what is natural for him – to dictate tweety statements, invoke conservative talk shows and raise issues in general. “I like this better than Twitter,” he claimed on Newsmax. “They actually did us a favor. It’s better. ‘
Trump has not shown courtesy to President Joe Biden since leaving the White House. On the contrary, he repeatedly slammed Biden’s government.
Kelly speculated by telephone on Monday night with one of his biggest psychophants, Greg Kelly of Newsmax, about Biden’s mental abilities, which prompted Trump to say ‘there’s something’ going on with Biden. Trump then asks ‘whether or not he understands what he is signing’ when bills come over his desk.
Trump is the first U.S. president to lose re-election in nearly thirty years. The last president who could not win a second term, George HW Bush, “made it clear that he would retire from public life,” according to historian Tim Naftali’s biography of Bush.
Naftali said that in November 1992, Bush told his successor, Bill Clinton, that “when I leave here, you will have no problems with me.”
The outgoing president added: “I will do nothing to complicate your work and I just want you to know.”
Since then, he has gradually increased his vision, with emails to members of the “45 Office” media so far in March, twice as much as in February. His “Save America PAC” has also become quite active in recent weeks, with numerous endorsements, criticism of ‘RINOs’ and media movements.
Trump was self-conscious about his media approach during a podcast with Lisa Boothe, which was released Monday morning. Trump was Boothe’s introductory guest – meaning the podcast does not yet have a high profile or massive following. Trump said in a statement that she did an “excellent job” on Fox, so he might want to give her a new podcast.
In the conversation, Trump said ‘people have seen a bit of silence from him’, but actually, if you look at what has happened lately, we are sending out releases. They are picked up much better. as any tweet. ‘
Trump told Boothe that he now believes official statements to the public ‘are much more elegant than a tweet, and I think it’s better picked up. You see it. ‘
“Picked up” was the key phrase. The need for a pickup – which means attention from the American news media – is at the heart of Trump’s post-presidential actions.
Instead of flying to a holiday destination and compiling a memoir, he tries to stay relevant and on the media radar. And he continues to campaign the infectious claims that led to the January 6 riot over winning the 2020 election and Biden stole it from him, despite pleas in his own party to stop lying.
“Trump is unique in the sense that he wants to make a lot of rackets and get attention after leaving the White House,” Brinkley said. “And it comes from his psychological conviction that he remains the right president.”
On the podcast with Boothe, Trump falsely stated that “we won, and they took it away.”
“He’s desperate,” Brinkley said, “to let people know ‘I did not throw in the towel, I did not go anywhere, shut me up.’
Brinkley likens Trump to an active political hand grenade, ready to inflate the American political system in any way he can. And he starts by threatening the Republicans who crossed him. He is determined to ensure that it remains Trump’s party. “
He has several TV networks at his disposal that are apparently willing to help.
Last week, Trump called in Fox for a live interview with Maria Bartiromo. The next day, his comments to Bartiromo were in great turmoil on other right-wing networks and outlets.
In some cases, the networks are clearly looking for him. On Monday, when appealing for Harris Faulkner’s program on Fox in the late hours of the morning, Faulkner asked why he needed to issue a statement attacking Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas: “Why did you feel you needed it? “
“Well,” Trump said, “you called me, I did not call you, in all fairness.”
To Kelly, he hedged the possibility of a new social platform, saying that “something will happen to social media if I want it to happen.”
At the end of the interview, Kelly looks stark. “Very cool,” he said, “the president of the United States,” and forgot to call Trump the “former” president.