Donald Trump did perhaps his biggest media stunt since his New Jersey mall appearance today. He did it by not appearing at all. Look at the chronology of the last 24 hours.
1. With escalating violence and real beatings at his rallies, Trump’s campaign is rocked by news of the attack by his campaigner manager Corey Lewandowski on a Breitbart reporter. For them this hits home, because the victim is a member of the right-wing media, not the mainstream media.
2. Trump, in Thursday night’s debate, is confronted with a question about violence at his rallies and his encouragement of it. He responds by defiantly justifying the violence, shows no contrition whatsoever.
3. The next AM he flies to St. Louis, where he pumps up the violent talk like never before. Protester Anthony Cage has his face beaten to a bloody pulp, the bloodiest scene from a Trump rally so far. Trump cackles from the stage.
4. Meanwhile, the next rally is scheduled for the evening in Chicago. At a University. In a big city. Words and images spread about Cage’s beating in St. Louis
5. Trump tells reporter Maggie Haberman in Chicago, “I’ve got word it’s going to be rough tonight.”
6. With a routine number of protesters inside the huge arena (for a big city event), Trump has it announced to the crowd his event is cancelled. Protesters inside celebrate, and some Trump fans immediately attack them, violently.
7. Trump immediately calls in to MSNBC, CNN, Fox News from a 5-star hotel room and plays the victim “you can’t even hold a rally in this country anymore.” He blames all the violence at his rallies on “violent people,” who show up “swinging” at his rallies. His voice goes over a loop of the same two or three punch-ups from the rally, looped over and over like there is a bloody battle in the arena spilling into the streets of Chicago, as if the event is a replay of the 1968 Democratic Convention. Trump lies and says Chicago PD advised him to cancel the event, which is totally fabricated.
8. The narrative changes; anti-Trump people spread a rumor that “protesters shut down a Trump rally,” which never occurred since he himself shut it down. Meanwhile Trump paints himself as a victim, goes all over the media changing the narrative and blaming protesters for all violence at any Trump rally, saying protesters shut him down.
