Trump's squabbles with radio hosts reveal his inner shock jock

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It’s morning zoo in America

You have to imagine that shortly after Guglielmo Marconi realized his telegraphy was possible, he fired off a series of dots and dashes about the poor job Umberto I was doing as monarch.

That is to say, as long as we’ve had telecommunications, we’ve had people using it to slag off the people in power to anyone within range. These potshots were beneath the dignity of your average world leader, however. No respected diplomat would deign to respond on the same band where Art Bell talked to truckers about ghosts and aliens until Donald Trump came on the scene.

Before he was president, Trump was a fan of — and participant in — the most degraded forms of over-the-air entertainment: beauty pageants, pro wrestling and shock jock radio. He’d regularly stop by Howard Stern and talk about how his daughter was a “piece of ass.” He’d take on Vince McMahon in the arena racism and misogyny built. He’d menace beauty pageant contestants and brag to his gossip-trading buddies.

Trump brought a “Can he say that?” sensibility he learned from crude drive-time DJs like Howard Stern to his first presidential campaign, coming out of the gate with a racist tirade against Mexicans that earned him an army of adoring fans. Trump’s followers hung on every new catchphrase and crude nickname in a way that looked awfully familiar to anyone who was around for the phenomenon of Rush Limbaugh. Trump didn’t promise a better life, but he did offer a daily supply of targets.

Trump has reshaped the conservative moment in the image of his mean-spirited television persona, one he built by aping the Mancows and Bubba the Love Sponges of the world until he was behind the Resolute Desk. In doing so, he pulled the GOP away from religious scolds and small government zealots and inserted his own politics of cruelty.

His policy platform is built out of sharp sticks destined for the eyes of censorious liberals. He campaigned on a border wall for the same reason Stern mocked Selena’s funeral with a racist caricature of a grieving fan. It’s all meant to get your hackles up in the short term. Tomorrow is another show.

So, we can’t be surprised when the president feuds with Charlamagne tha God. No fight is too small for him. Trump’s vulgarization of the office of the president is so complete that we find ourselves wondering if accepting obvious bribes and pardoning a treasonous mob even matters. What’s arguing with a guy who names a daily jackass over the sound of a braying donkey compared to that?

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