FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower the day after FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach home, in New York City, U.S., August 9, 2022. REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
Some political strategists said that the recent ramping-up of media coverage around former President Donald Trump during his arrest last week could be used to his advantage.
“This is deja vu all over again,” Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign, told Politico. “Trump dominates media coverage, making it impossible for his competitors to get any coverage or forward traction.”
Last week, Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments he made to Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign. Trump has framed the Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s charges against him as politically motivated and made it the central theme of his 2024 presidential campaign.
“What’s frustrating to me is we didn’t learn a [expletive] thing from 2015 and 2016 when it comes to just giving him absolute, roadblock media coverage,” David Kochel, a veteran of six Republican presidential campaigns, told Politico on Monday morning. “I get it, it’s a big story. But this was getting covered like … the opening of the war in Iraq or the O.J. chase. You couldn’t escape it.”
He said that for now, no GOP rival to Trump can do anything against him after the charges. “I don’t know that there’s a strategy anybody could employ,” Kochel said. “Maybe try shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue,” he added, referring to a quip that Trump made during the 2016 campaign.
Corporate broadcasters like CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox provided live coverage of Trump’s flight to New York City, arrival at the Trump Tower, and entry into the Manhattan courthouse to face the indictment. Throngs of journalists and camera crews were stationed around the court to capture the moment of Trump’s arrival and departure.
“The first-ever arraignment of a former president on criminal charges is a massive story, no question about it,” Adam Serwer wrote in the left-wing Atlantic magazine, claiming legacy media outlets have “learned nothing” from 2016. “But by itself that doesn’t really explain the minute-by-minute broadcasting of his private plane arriving in New York Monday or the blanket coverage of his speech [at Mar-a-Lago last week after his arriagnment]. That kind of saturation approach suggests the networks could return to a model that simply allowed Trump to monopolize coverage.”
Some declared Republican candidates have come to Trump’s defense, accusing the DA of operating in a politicized manner. Others have noted that should any candidate go after Trump in the wake of the charges, he will likely face the former president’s wrath.
Recent polls show that Trump, meanwhile, is dominating over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. In a Reuters survey released on April 7, Trump bested DeSantis by nearly 40 percentage points, while a Monday I&I-TIPP poll shows Trump has a 24-point lead over the governor. DeSantis has not declared himself a 2024 presidential candidate.
On Truth Social, Trump again targeted DeSantis and said that he is “a young man who is not doing well against me in the polls, to put it mildly.” The former president recommended that DeSantis stay out of the 2024 race and remain as governor of Florida.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized in the wake of the 2020 election, told ABC News that Bragg’s investigation is an “unjust case” but will elevate Trump in the GOP primary.
“I think it also may accomplish its purpose, which is to get into the middle of the Republican primary process and turn it into a circus,” Barr told ABC News on Sunday. “Ultimately, the savvy Democratic strategists know this is going to help Trump, and they want him to be the nominee because he is the weakest of the Republican candidates—the most likely to lose again to [President Joe] Biden.”
At least one commentator said in the Politico article that Trump’s arrest will denigrate the former commander-in-chief’s political brand and will make him more vulnerable ahead of the 2024 election.
“I’m not worried at all. I think there’s a bunch of hand-wringing from some nervous nellies prematurely,” Jason Roe, a Michigan-based Republican strategist who worked for Rubio’s campaign, told Politico. “Right now no one occupies the stage except Trump,” Roe added. “The dust has to settle.”