You had to see it coming: Trump just played the media, again

The U.S. news media still doesn’t get that it’s being played, cranking up the COVID-19 hype machine as President Trump is doing cartwheels on his way out of Walter Reed.

ABC broke into an MLB playoff game to report that Trump was on his way to Walter Reed on Friday, and when he was late to his reported 5:30 p.m. chopper ride, the coverage, there and elsewhere, turned, predictably, to uninformed speculation, in this case that, wow, maybe Trump is going to be stretchered out, maybe he’s on a ventilator.

Or maybe the dude – who, no, isn’t a good businessman, isn’t close to being a good politician, but he knows how to get attention – was just being fashionably late, which allowed for more eyeballs to be tuning in as the delay stretched dramatically into the 6 o’clock news hour.

No doubt this was the plan all along.

It’s sick, demented, but, give the guy credit.

Then on Saturday, he sends out a doctor to tell the world that he’s doing great, while his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, makes sure he’s seen motioning reporters over for a “background” chat in which the president’s “real” situation is relayed, and, yep, it’s dire.

Funny how that happened.

That the “background” source was caught on video motioning the reporters over.

This is troll level: expert kind of stuff going on here.

Sunday, we learn more on that front, about the mix of drugs he’s being administered, as he climbs into an SUV for a victory lap around Walter Reed, in a surreal scene.

And then, today, this:

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

This was where this was going all along, of course.

Trump – who, if there was a Mount Rushmore for carnival hucksters and snake oil salesmen, would be on the short list with P.T. Barnum and Vince McMahon for a spot – has again worked his magic.

This is the guy who used to call reporters using fake names to give gossip on himself, remember.

He just played that game with COVID.

Balls of friggin’ platinum.

Now the narrative is: a morbidly obese, eats KFC for breakfast, lunch, dinner and fourth meal 74-year-old beat COVID in three days.

Trump gets to spin this story forever and ever amen about how COVID isn’t that big a deal.

It’s one-in-a-million that it works in terms of the horse race, but the way things were going, it’s the definition of insanity to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

If it works, you’ll know who to thank for the second term.

Column by Chris Graham