Do Trump’s DWAC & MSM Need 1 Another 2 Make Gold?

Holman Jenkins wonders “Will Trump’s Media Startup Pay Off?” yet No. 45 long ago signaled he would create his own media entity & “tap” some of the celebrity money the tv networks cashed in on when POTUS. If The Donald can become president, why can’t he beat The MSM at its oft-sycophantic & always selective anti-Christ shell game?

The WSJ columnist notes there’s an inherent problem in monetizing Mr. Trump’s new startup named Digital World Acquisition Corp ala “meme stocks” such as GameStop & AMC whose share prices “exceed what even the most forgiving Wall Street analysts are willing to rationalize.” That being, unlike the aforementioned, DWAC has “no existing business to analyze, only its unknown potential.” On the other hand, Trump’s new entity has claimed a $2-$8 billion trading valuation since debuting a week ago & Mr. Holman thinks that’s largely based on Mr. Trump assumed ability to again “capture a portion of the enormous value he has been crating for other media outlets, from the New York Times to MSNBC.”

As Holman says, “In the 2016 election, Mr. Trump was estimated by mediaQuant to have generated $5 billion in free media coverage, twice as much as Hillary Clinton …” Meanwhile, as Mr. Trump is no longer living in the

White House, “prime time ratings are down more than 50% at CNN and MSNBC and 37% at Fox – the collective equivalent of $500 million in lost profits thanks to less Trump.” And, don’t forget the “Trump Bump” that saw the NY Times & WaPo triple its subscriber bases. The trick, then, suggests the columnist is for Mr. Trump to again tap into that old “co-dependent” relationship, in which the greedy MSM “will quickly enter into a voyeuristic relationship with his new outlets, driving traffic to his offerings.” Bottom line: “If he plays it right, Mr. Trump could be laughing all the way to the bank,” along with his unlikely MSM “co-investors.”

Davd Soul