Donald Trump Thinks We’d Be Bored by a Biden Presidency? I Assure You, We’ll Manage

Donald Trump has always treated the presidency like a reality TV show. He’s obsessed with ratings and frequently uses them as a way to attack people and networks that are critical of him or to offer praise to those who suck up to him. For example:

He views high television ratings as a sign of validation and even quality. To him, high ratings = high approval. Even more, he’ll project that view onto his perceived critics, assuming his high ratings equal disapproval of them.

Trump has always been ratings-obsessed, but what’s really strange is that he seems to think the rest of us are equally invested in his ratings. He retweeted a video Monday morning from his director of social media Dan Scavino. It’s a weird one, though totally representative of the kind of crap Scavino likes to post. The video shows Joe Biden mumbling to reporters, overlain with old-timey music and a random shot of birds, all designed to make Biden look … boring, I guess.

Trump captioned the video: “Is this what you want for your President??? With no ratings, media will go down along with our great USA!”

It’s not clear who the “you” is in this tweet, and I’m sure Donald Trump didn’t actually take the time to decide himself. He is constantly attacking media outlets and the concept of the press in general so I imagine that he thinks “you,” the general public, actually would like it if the media as a whole were to go under.

So is “you” the media itself? He seems to be saying that the media needs him because his perpetual awfulness is what gives them an audience. It’s not a new idea—for years, people have been questioning whether Trump is actually good for comedians, journalists, and the like—but it is as wrong as ever.

As someone in a niche little corner of said media, I can assure you, we will be fine without Trump. We long for it. Please, give me a more boring job. Give me a day when Donald Trump isn’t using Twitter to be racist or incite violence or spout full-on dictator rhetoric.

Also if Trump thinks Biden wouldn’t give reporters plenty of opportunities to be aggressively critical of his politics, he’s paying as little attention to public opinion as he appears to be.

(image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

twitter