I think honestly a key to Trump's popularity. He inverted the theatrical aspect from one where the Meet The Press class were in on the joke and the conservative voters were the rubes, to one where the conservative chuds were in on the joke and the DC crowd were the rubes bsky.app/profile/rinc...
Eg til ~ 2016, Rs in conservative media talked about eg building the wall to keep out immigrants, or would get rid of Roe because abortion is baby murder. And it was meant as ~ metaphor for "I will be hard-line on this"--they didn't mean it--but for R base voters, was interpreted very very literally
Trump inverted that. He /is himself/ one of those low-information R voters and believes it literally. So when /he/ said "I will build the wall" he meant it literally. And the media kept struggling with this. "Oh you mean a metaphorical wall" and he'd say "no, I mean, literally, a big beautiful wall"
The media gets this backwards often. He's saying things that other Rs say as bait-and-switch, but when /he/ says it, he means it literally. He believes it, and the media refuses to believe it, because they are smart and sophisticated and "know" in the game of politics it's "just" rhetoric, not real.
E.g. when an R politician in a debate or on TV says "other countries in NATO aren't paying their dues", every sophisticated political junkie intuitively understands that "ah, yes, this is the speaking-to-the-rubes way of complaining Germany is not hitting its 2% spending target".
And if Rubio says this, that's what he means. If GWB says that, that's what he means. If /DeSantis/ says that, that's what he means. It's not what Trump means tho. He's inverted the kayfabe: he /literally/ means the talking point, not the sophisticated metaphorical underlying meaning the pundits do.
Which is also why Trump got tons of apathetic R voters on board (and why eg DeSantis crash-and-burn trying to emulate it): they know when DeSantis tells them the border is an invasion, they understand those as R politician words to win elections but when Trump says it he means he'll shoot immigrants
He literally means he does not care if some states totally ban contraception. That wasn't a gaffe.
It's a question that presupposes certain political calculations that even hardline but reality based Republicans answer in a calculated way. Trump spitballs and rhetorically shrugs 'cause he doesn't
Not just the media but many D politicians and many of those initially appointed to the Trump administration. That won't be the same in a new administration.
Good insight... happening now with "mass deportation on day one"... media is like "how is he going to deport 15 million ppl, he's not really going to do it." But he's really going to do it.... I don't know how yet, but....
It's not really the same thing, but I'm reminded of Republican voters being annoyed about pols blaming Hollywood and globalists and international bankers for stuff the Jews were doing
i think about the actual overturn of roe and how many republicans felt that it was an immediate own goal for fundraising and campaigning. so now they need to move on to other extreme measures (deporting millions, for example) just to feel anything.
