While once-prominent figures such as Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and Alex Jones sink to the depths of irrelevancy, only one man can pull them out of the quicksand: President Donald Trump. And when he acknowledges their lunacy, that’s exactly what he does.
Carlson, Owens, Kelly, and Jones — who used to be role models for many young conservatives — have destroyed their credibility. But as they have learned, you don’t need to be credible to be relevant. Being Trump’s nemesis is all the relevance they need to keep the clicks coming in.
These people have proven that they will say literally anything for clicks. Trump should ignore them and let their platforms die, as they inevitably will, as they bring nothing substantive to the table. But while the rest of the United States has tuned out the Qatar quartet, Trump is rebuilding their platforms.
TRUMP HATERS CLUTCH AT THEIR PEARLS
When Trump put out his nearly 500-word Truth Social essay on Thursday, blasting the “TROUBLEMAKERS,” how do you think they reacted to it? I’d imagine the same way Charlie Bucket reacted when he pulled Willy Wonka’s golden ticket: JACKPOT.
They say all press is good press. Google Trends tells the story: All four journalists-turned-influencers ranked very low on Google Trends a week earlier. As soon as they provoked Trump into acknowledging them, their scores shot up. People are searching for them again.
Now, any malignant, click-desperate influencer has a blueprint on how to gain traction online: just bait Trump into acknowledging you by pushing nonsense until he blows a gasket. Nobody in the world has more clout than Trump — you know it, he knows it, everybody knows it — but it seems the president doesn’t understand that it’s a two-edged sword.
When Trump attacks an established figure with real credibility among their peers, that’s when he’s most effective. This is how he destroyed the campaigns of former Govs. Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY), former Sen. Marco Rubio, and even the extremely popular Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). When Trump attacks someone with credibility, their supporters engage in a civil war and cannibalize each other. But when he attacks someone on the fringe, who no honest person takes seriously, the target is emboldened instead.
Those who say Trump is being controlled by Israel are just going to use the rebuke as proof of their claim. The few people left in their audiences are not reasonable people whose minds can be changed. All Trump does in attacking “NUTJOBS,” such as Carlson, Owens, Kelly, and Jones, is: he reminds the rest of the world that they exist, he gives them free publicity, he makes them more favorable to the mainstream liberal media, and he shines a signal to the unhinged people on the fringe letting them know where to go for wacky faux journalism.
STEPHEN A. SMITH CRITICIZES CALLS TO INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT AGAINST TRUMP
Ten years ago, Carlson was a rockstar at Fox News. Owens a conservative darling. Kelly wasn’t particularly well-liked by conservatives, but at least she was seen as a reputable journalist. Jones played a major role in getting Trump elected the first time. Now they’re resorting to an Israel obsession for clicks. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, and it’s sad to see.
Trump should learn from this mistake and allow these has-beens to fade into obscurity.