Trump TV & Florida’s Education - Top 3 Takeaways – April 17th, 2024
- Trump TV. For years it’s been rumored. On Tuesday it was made official. Trump TV is coming to a tube near you (or mobile device if you prefer). Dating back to his first run as president some rumors ran wild that he wasn’t really serious, and didn’t really want to win, but that he did want to parlay his campaign into a new TV news network centered around him. He was serious. He won. That obviously never happened. The rumors reemerged after his 2020 election loss along with the rumored creation of his own social media platform after having been deplatformed by all of the Big Tech operated platforms. As we know, that did happen when Truth Social was born and now to is Trump TV...err actually Truth TV I suppose. In any event, as a 60% owner in Truth Social it’s safe to say Tuesday’s announcement of a soon-to-be streaming TV platform by Truth will come with Trump’s approval, if not his name on it. In Tuesday’s announcement Truth laid out a three-phase streaming content plan, that at appearances would attempt to be your one-stop-shop for streaming TV needs. Phase 1 of the plan is live streaming to the existing Truth Social app for Android, iOS and Web. Phase 2 of the plan is the new release of stand-alone Truth Social streaming apps for mobile devices. Phase 3 of the plan is to release Truth Social streaming apps for home TVs. And as for the content that you can expect to be sent to you should you choose to... The streaming content is expected to focus on live TV including news networks, religious channels, family-friendly content including films and documentaries; and other content that has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services. That’s interesting... This suggests that on the entertainment side you might be able to see everything from All in the Family to Last Man Standing. On the religious side, The Passion of the Christ to perhaps the Chosen. What of course piques the most interest is what may be in store for news networks? In the ever increasingly fragmented news space will Truth TV opt for an existing news network of which Trump already approves...perhaps like Newsmax which happens to be the company founded and operated by one of his close friends, Chris Ruddy, or does the Truth team have designs on attempting to create their own thing. What’s interesting to note in that regard is that the news network piece has the potential to be instantly more relevant than some people might think. On the one hand, the world is flooded with streaming services already. That includes a number of fledgling news services as well. On the other hand, there’s only one Donald Trump. Since the creation of Truth Social, Donald Trump has only once posted on another platform (the mugshot pic he posted to X). Should Truth start his own network, or for whichever they may feed, it’s logical to think they might have exclusive access to the former and perhaps future President of the United States (and that interviews on all other networks would cease). With the announcement CEO Devin Nunes said: With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery service. There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they’ll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be cancelled. Who knows maybe Trump TV, err Truth TV will be must see TV... Speaking of Trump...
- Not buying it. Most Americans aren’t buying it. The hush money case. According to the Associated Press’ polling on how Americans feel about the current trial seeking to convict Donald Trump for non-disclosure payments to Stormy Daniels preceding the 2016 Presidential election, only 35% of Americans believe he did something illegal. That implies that even large percentages of people who won’t vote for Donald Trump for president feel that this trial is a bridge too far. With that said, contextually, there was additional info about the implied risk should Trump be found guilty. In the AP poll, right at 50% said they’d consider him unfit to serve as president should he be found guilty. What this implies is that at the wide end of the curve up to 15% of the electorate may be influenced by the outcome of this case. I tend to think the real number would be something less than that, however the initial read suggests that on the one hand nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t believe this case should have been brought to trial but that on the other hand half of the country theoretically wouldn’t vote for him if convicted in it. In what’s likely to be a close election, small moves could be a big deal. Winning this case may be key to Trump being able to win the presidential election.
- Educated but not indoctrinated. Those were the words Governor DeSantis used to describe the state of Florida’s education system – which ranks first nationally in pre-k through college education – as he signed this year’s Education bill. This year’s comprehensive law mandates that underperforming schools (“D” or “F” schools) take corrective action, provides a path for underperforming schools to convert to charter schools, limits book challenges by those who don’t have students in the schools, and creates a Purple Star Schools of Distinction Program...a program designed to make the transition for military families into Florida easier. The new education law also provides for 11th and 12th grade students to be able to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test, to test out of school and join the armed forces. Florida’s #1 in education...the tweaks in this year’s policy are aimed at keeping it that way.