Rumors have been flying for months that Donald Trump would start a TV network if his bid for the White House failed. Those rumors have been substantiated by Bloomberg, which reports that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was discussing the possibility as far back as the primary season.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Kushner, the publisher of the New York Observer, discussed creating the network as a “threat” to Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, possibly because the Trump campaign was “unhappy with the tenor of Fox News’s coverage.”
Bloomberg notes that Fox News and the Trump campaign effected a rapprochement, but the titillating idea of starting a network appealed to Trump “after five media companies expressed interest.”
As reported by The Daily Wire, Trump has attempted to start a nightly Facebook Live broadcast resembling a television show.
A true TV network on the level of Fox News, CNN and MSNBC would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but an online network could be created at a fraction of the cost.
As Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign chief, told Bloomberg, “Trump will get 40 percent of the vote, and half that number at least will buy into his claim that the election was rigged and stolen from him. That is more than enough people to support a multibillion-dollar media business and a powerful presence in American politics.”
On Tuesday, Trump told Cincinnati radio station WLW, “I have no interest in Trump TV. I hear it all over the place. You know, I have a tremendous fan base. We have the most incredible people. But I just don’t have any interest in that. I have one interest, that’s on November 8.”
