I Saw It On Television!

“Well, I’ve seen people on television. People on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food.’”

Well, you can’t argue with that kind of evidence. This was Trump’s response when moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump’s claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

I’m not the first to assert that “I saw it on television” was among the debate’s finest moments. And that’s a mouthful, given the many delectable morsels on offer. It was a veritable smorgasbord of spittle-flecked Trump absurdities.

Trump is rightfully accused of serial lying, but that exchange hints that his fabrications are not all intentional. It seemed that he was genuinely perplexed. (Of course he is serially perplexed.) 

But there is a dynamic to the Trump phenomenon that is insufficiently noted. Perhaps he is less “evil” than we think and considerably more stupid. 

I picture a man out of his blue suit, slouched in his satin pajamas, watching Fox News with a tray of cheeseburgers. He thinks he’s using the television people when it’s actually the television people using him. Well-groomed men and women sitting at desks seem quite credible to the incurious.

Most folks believe that Fox News and brethren are carrying Trump’s message to their mildly brain-addled viewers. The truth is that Trump is carrying Fox News’s message to his severely brain-addled fans. 

Trump gets a great deal more credit than he deserves. Not that the “credit” is for anything salutary. He is credited with monstrous lies, sinister plans, and nefarious schemes. He deserves no such credit. With the exception of sexual predation, for which he is due full credit, he is merely the useful idiot mouthpiece for the monstrous lies, sinister plans and nefarious schemes of others. 

There are a great many forces behind Trump’s “success,” ranging from the somewhat sophisticated ideologues at the Federalist Society to the attention-seeking twits like Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist/racist/Islamophobe nutbag who accompanied him to 9/11 events this week. They are all playing him like a shiny toy, using his celebrity to advance their own interests. 

Trump doesn’t have a world view. How could he? His gaze is glued to the mirror or the television, not to the world around him. He is more than happy to be the barge that carries whatever garbage others are peddling, as long as they flatter him. 

I have often shared my affection for the brilliant movie “Being There,” in which Peter Sellers plays the charmingly dim Chance the gardener, who is mistaken as the taciturn genius Chauncey Gardiner.  Chance has acquired all his knowledge from television. 

Trump is Chauncey Gardiner to a T, except that he apparently can’t even garden and is not charming. 

I suspect that the public does not know the identities of all the operators who manipulate the stable genius behind the scenes. Some like Steve Bannon and the slimy Stephen Miller are exposed to daylight, but others stay in the shadows. On the world stage, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when truly sinister, nefarious monsters like Vladimir Putin talk about a buffoon like Trump in private. 

But here at home, Trump parrots the right-wing propaganda of Fox News with no awareness that he is serving them, not the other way around. Offshoots like Newsmax, Epoch Times and others are playing the same game, enriching themselves and impoverishing the nation. If not so dangerous, it would be amusing that a man who always loses money is making so much money for so many others. 

One of those Trump enriches is Rupert Murdoch. 

As an aside I can’t resist, a few years back I spent some time in Rupert Murdoch’s 5th Avenue mansion, including a few minutes chatting with Rupert himself. Describing him as “undistinguished” would be accurate, yet insufficient. He is slight, a bit awkward, and dressed like a second-rate assistant accountant. His mansion was sparsely and blandly decorated. It is hard to imagine him as mogul or manipulator. But it’s important to note that Rupert, like Donald, inherited the family business. He is not a self-made man, but proves that third base birth can overcome second rate character.

Next time you hear Trump say something preposterous, cut him some slack. After all, he almost certainly saw it on television.