Trump versus CNN

At the same time, the dishonest media have forced him to concede to “political correctness”. Over the course of the long bloody 18-month suffrage he has honed himself and his message. What formerly seemed bigoted and outrageous, now seem coherent and conceivable. Here are ways in which this candidate has reconfigured himself, his message, and shifted the ground under CNN.

The wall: It is no longer a wall to stop Mexican aliens, illegals, convicts, rapists. It is a wall to protect illegal entry by Mexicans. And drugs.

An anti-open-borders wall. A wall to defend US sovereignty, from terrorist attacks. To defend the rights of those waiting in line for legal entry.

He has made subtle shifts all along the line to make his wall policy less reprehensible. He has also paid a visit to Mexico; and has discovered that he can work with the Mexican President.

Suspend Muslims: His initial call to suspend all Muslims from entering the US, until “we know what the hell is going on,” has shifted. He now speaks of “extreme vetting” of immigrants from those nations “prone” to producing terrorism. He insists on a pragmatic policy of d?tente with Russia to counter the Islamic State (also called ISIS), “radical Islamic terrorism”; but does not say, “We are going to knock the hell out of ISIS.” Afro-American and Latino rhetoric: Trump’s platform rhetoric on Afro- Americans has changed. They are no longer “these” or “those” people.

Or seen as antagonists. A lead CNN interview had sought to portray him as favourable to the Klu Klux Klan.

He has now vowed to bring education, jobs, factories to the inner cities.

He has vowed to “fix” poverty; to work on the ground, with a new contract for amelioration. He has repeated: “What do you have to lose?” He now uses vital, actual statistics to describe the deplorable living conditions of this “constituency”.

Left, liberals, blacks: The Trump phenomenon has destroyed the masks of many of the spokesmen for the left, liberal, and proverbial black agendas. These CNN “experts” and “contributors” have sold out their professed principles for the partisan cause of Clinton.

If they are anti-war, why do they support the hawk, the war candidate? If they are anti-Wall Street, why do they support the Wall Street candidate? If they are anti-establishment, big trade deal, big lobby, why are they supporting the candidate who makes pacts with these interests? Partisan and race politics have trumped mainstream left, liberal and black agendas; weakening and destroying their credibility.

CNN the fixer: As Trump has reformed, honed his agenda, CNN has been caught fixing the questions for the presidential debates.

The phony war: The Obama/CNN network has invoked a phony war in Iraq, late in the day, “against IS” in Mosul. It is a phony CNN+White House propaganda war because it magnifies considerably the dangers involved, with CNN staff walking over alleged IED minefields. It has been choreographed, primarily, to give the impression of success, strength; to halt Trump; to absolve the administration from their Middle Eastern debacles; and will cause more civilian deaths than anything else. Democratic terror.

The Augean stables: There is something rotting in the State of Denmark. The Augean stables need to be flooded out. We will drain the swamp. There is something holy, missionary, therapeutic, healing, cathartic about flooding out the stables.

The Clinton-CNN compact, ancient king and pope, is contaminated.

Trump has promised a new contract to curb the establishment; term limits for members of Congress, for example. He has been continually shedding skin, topping up himself, his game, his slogans. He has inspired the curiosity, the daring of the American imagination: the thirst for renewal, the fresh; the bold, the appetite for risk.

What will Trump actually do if he wins the White House? The question is mesmerising.

Trump has his CNN deniers banging on a cardboard replica of himself.

As the candidate has progressed, they have been left demonising an old Trump, a myth of their imagination, a chimera long gone. They are shuffling and jabbing at spaces long vacated.

Will Trump actually help America and the planet? American problems are deep-rooted, historical, systemic.

The objective conditions remain: a dependence on war, and an uncompetitive high-wage economy. When trade fails, empires resort to war.

If Trump beats CNN, the chief gospeller of America’s war machine, tomorrow, he will have to keep on doing so over and over again.