Dave Schilling, a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist, spent an hour watching Trump TV, the president's 24/7 YouTube streaming channel, and described it as a "digital pathway to hell" that is "deeply, deeply dull." The channel airs nothing but White House-sanctioned content, and Schilling noted it is "kind of like cable news, if it served absolutely no purpose and had even fewer human beings watching."
An Hour of Trump's Greatest Hits
Upon logging in, Schilling was "treated" to a speech from 11 March 2016 in Hebron, Kentucky, where Trump repeatedly pronounced the state as "Keentucky." The remarks were clearly unprepared, and Trump spent time describing the steel stairs at the event, saying, "I might slip, it's soaking wet." He then mocked Joe Biden for falling down but offered a backhanded compliment to Barack Obama for not falling, expressing shock that Obama "made it without a major, noticeable fall."
The stream then moved to a re-airing of Melania Trump's 16 January speech on artificial intelligence, where she declared, "The most powerful skill is knowing what to ask." Schilling quipped that he realized the thing he should be asking was, "Why am I watching this?"
A Prayer Breakfast and a Viewership Decline
Schilling then watched the National Prayer Breakfast from 6 February, where Paula White-Cain, senior adviser to the White House Faith Office, said no president in history has done more to protect religious liberty than Trump, a claim Schilling noted overlooks George Washington and the first amendment.
During the breakfast, Trump declared "something is wrong" with Republican congressman Thomas Massie from Kentucky, who lost his re-election bid to Ed Gallrein, whom Trump endorsed. Schilling wondered if the day's schedule was a subtle troll aimed at Massie, given the stream's tiny audience. As Trump droned on about the military budget, the view counter kept dropping, indicating even the die-hards were getting bored.
A Disastrous Launch with Little Effort
Schilling noted that the launch of Trump TV has been "a fairly obvious disaster," with real-time data showing pitiful concurrent viewership. There are no graphics or lower thirds, just a number to text for "updates." He contrasted this with cable news, which retains significance as a battlefield for ideological warfare, but suggested Trump TV might be the best way to consume the president, presenting him in all his "repugnant glory: vain, myopic and worst of all, deeply, deeply dull."
