It's hard for me to see how Trump's war with the media can possibly pay off.
The hard-core Republican base severed their ties with the media (and reality) long ago. There really isn't much more room for a boycott from these people to have any effect. And the media seems to be surviving just fine.
Most Trump voters didn't vote for him to take on the media. It was supposed to be about jobs -- and a host of ill-defined other issues such as turning back the clock to the 1950's social order. This is a tiresome diversion from his promised agenda for most of his supporters.
But more than that, taking on the media is a strategy much more suited for the underdog, not the Party in charge. Republicans now control everything. This idea of an oppressed minority of conservative whites fighting against an authoritarian government is no longer valid. The media casts no votes in the House or Senate. It has no seat on the Supreme Court.
What this comes down to is the weird weakness in all conservative 'solutions'; unanimous applause is always required.
What Trump seems to be demanding is the total elimination of all criticism. His denunciations are meaningless. If the media has as little credibility as he claims it does, he wouldn't need to declare it the "enemy of the people". It would simply be ignored.
It's interesting that conservative positions have so radically changed over the past decade or so. Under the Bush Administration, dissent was "tantamount to treason" - it was a major narrative of the 2004 RNC, in fact. "Shut up, that's why!", became the standard conservative retort on forums when the Iraqi occupation was questioned.
Then, under Obama, dissent became one's patriotic duty. It didn't matter if your dissent was based on reality or not, because the mere act of dissent was sacred. Again and again, conservatives and evangelicals wailed about being "silenced" by people simply disagreeing with them or failing to buy their wild assertions without question.
Now, it seems that we're moving back even further than where The Decider took it. Disagreeing with the Trump Administration is now seen as being dangerous; something that must be stopped for the good of the the country. Dissent is no longer sacred or even patriotic. People who dissent are dismissed as "brainwashed" or worse. Disagreeing with or criticising Trump now seems to mark one as a subhuman enemy beyond redemption or persuasion. It's exactly the mindset one would find in a dictatorship.
A significant fraction of Trump voters cast their ballots only reluctantly for him. Others thought that he "didn't really mean" the things that he said. If Trump's popularity falters, the unanimous applause disappears and he moves into Dubya territory. Trump's war on the media and against dissent is an existential battle.
If anything really defines the Republican political agenda it's "whatever pisses off the libs". In reality, Trump needs the media to convey the wailing and gnashing of teeth of "the libs" in reaction to his policies.
What he also needs is the equivalent of stormtroopers to physically beat, intimidate, and 'disappear' "the libs". It remains to be seen if the majority of Trump voters would support this, though.
It also seems likely that a new major war will be initiated under his Administration. Such military action would undoubtedly be ill-conceived, poorly planned, and weakly justified. The economic consequences would be disastrous. China would be unwilling to loan the vast sums needed to finance the action. Our allies are exhausted from the current conflicts. Conscription would not be unthinkable, and most are unwilling to sacrifice their offspring for Trump's ego -- much less trust them to a military that he commands.
In such a case, dissent would be dealt with harshly by a Trump Administration -- for as long as it could get away with it, of course. The internet has changed the media, and it's not nearly as simple to silence dissent as it was during the Nixon years.
The midterm elections will be a crucial test of how solid Trump's mandate is. The GOP usually does well in midterms, but the real test will be how closely the Party aligns itself with Trump. Trump remaining in "campaign mode" could have negative consequences for his support, especially if his supposed agenda is stalled or discredited.
