Reality is catching up to Trump. So he’s turning to reality TV.

MS NOW co-host Michael Steele argues that President Donald Trump, with his presidency faltering, is repeating a maneuver from his business past. When his real estate empire struggled, he played a tycoon on "The Apprentice" instead of being one; now he projects strength without achievements. Recent examples include removing reporters from the White House until a judge ordered them readmitted, starting Trump TV, and running taxpayer-funded ads showing him in slow-motion black and white.

Reality is harder to edit. Gas is nearing $4.50 a gallon, the war with Iran has run for months with no clear end, Trump's approval rating is 27 points underwater, and early ballots are coming in for Senate races in North Carolina and Michigan. Against that backdrop, Steele contends, Trump wants a villain of the week, much as he prized Omarosa Manigault, whom he once said people "couldn't stand" but who was "making a fortune." Winning a fight matters less to him than staging one.

Steele points to the latest attempt to bar MS NOW, CNN and Politico from covering the White House. He says Trump had reason to expect the ban to fail in court, given the administration's earlier loss over CNN reporter Jim Acosta's credentials, but the aim was to energize an audience while the news organizations bore the legal burden. Yet he argues the tactic is losing force, because Americans squeezed by higher bills are living in the show, and a growing number want to fire its star.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →