MARK HALPERIN: The real reason Trump keeps beating the media at its own game
There are many reasons why covering Donald Trump is the journalistic challenge of a lifetime.
His temperament. His velocity. His volume. The sheer fact that he can generate three news cycles before most reporters have finished their first cup of coffee.
But there is one explanation that is often overlooked, and it may be the most important of all: Donald Trump understands the business of news better than any modern president — better, in many cases, than the people who work in it.
That may sound surprising. It shouldn’t.
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Trump did not grow up in politically friendly territory. Things were different for him before he entered the campaign world as a Republican. As a businessman and then a reality TV star, Trump luxuriated in dishy and usually aggrandizing gossip items, including in the august columns of New York Post legend Cindy Adams. His friendly, bantering relations with the press helped turn him into a larger-than-life figure.
But that all changed when he joined the political fray. Like George W. Bush before him, Trump learned how the press really works in a hostile environment. He was never granted automatic goodwill. He was rarely given the benefit of the doubt. He had to study the system, test it, provoke it, and sometimes fight it just to survive.
So he learned.
And he learned well.
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Other recent presidents — Democrats Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — operated in a media climate that, while not always gentle, was structurally sympathetic. They were criticized, yes. But they were also understood. Interpreted generously. Given time. Granted patience. Their mistakes were often softened by context and explanation.
Trump never had that luxury.
So long before he descended the escalator in 2015 — long before rallies, red hats and chants — he was paying attention. Watching. Noticing patterns. Studying how stories were framed. Who was treated as "serious." Who was treated as "dangerous." Which narratives stuck. Which faded. Which sins were forgiven. Which were never forgotten.
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And he reached some conclusions.
He saw, first, a cultural bias — not necessarily in every article or every reporter, but in the air newsrooms breathe. In assumptions about what is normal and what is radical. In who is presumed reasonable and who is presumed reckless. Conservatives, he concluded, were playing uphill — and tens of millions of Americans knew it. It made them angry.
He saw, second, elitism: newsrooms clustered in a handful of coastal cities; journalists with similar educations, similar friends and similar politics. The press spoke endlessly about "ordinary Americans" while growing more distant from them every year. It struggled to grasp why illegal immigration worried so many families or why trade deals felt like personal losses in factory towns.
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He saw, third, a broken business model: newspapers and networks that missed the digital revolution; revenues shrinking; newsrooms shrinking; panic setting in. A few outlets found lifelines. Most did not. Layoffs became routine. Survival became uncertain.
And from these three problems flowed the fourth: collapsing trust.
When audiences see bias, distance and desperation, confidence erodes. And once credibility is gone, it is almost impossible to restore.
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Here is the great irony:
When Trump began attacking the media for these flaws, he did not fix them. He intensified them.
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His criticism put news organizations on the defensive. They closed ranks. They hardened. They became more ideological, more insular, more brittle. Every attack convinced them they must be doing something right. Often, it meant the opposite.
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Trump, meanwhile, turned his feud with the press into a permanent political weapon.
Before him, Republicans sometimes complained about coverage. But Trump transformed grievance into theater. He did not merely dispute stories. He made the media itself a character in his drama — the villain, always lurking, always scheming.
With humor. With ridicule. With exaggeration. With showmanship.
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And it worked.
It still works.
This was never accidental.
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Behind the scenes, Trump and his advisers learned the incentives of modern journalism. They know which outlets crave clicks. Which reporters thrive on conflict. Which controversies spread fastest. Which phrases become headlines. Which outrages travel farthest.
They understand the machinery.
They know how to trigger it. How to flood it. How to redirect it. How to exhaust it.
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They know that outrage is oxygen. That conflict is currency. That attention is power.
And they know their supporters love watching it all unfold.
Criticism becomes proof of persecution. Coverage becomes confirmation of importance. Attacks become fuel.
Knowledge, in politics, is power. And Trump’s knowledge of the media has given him power — over the press and over his own movement.
He plays the system as it exists, not as journalists wish it were.
He understands that modern news is part information, part entertainment, part combat sport. He understands that narratives matter more than footnotes. That emotion beats nuance. That speed beats reflection.
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So he moves fast. He moves loud. He moves relentlessly.
For reporters and news organizations, this is the real challenge:
Not simply covering what Trump says and does — but covering someone who understands their industry’s financial, cultural and psychological vulnerabilities and presses on them constantly.
Every weakness becomes leverage. Every habit becomes a pressure point.
Trump is not just running against and competing against Democrats.
He is running against and competing against the media.
He treats it as a rival, a foil, a stage and a punching bag. He studies it like a brilliant Ph.D. student. He probes it like a boxer testing defenses.
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And he knows exactly where it is fragile and vulnerable.
In an age when trust is scarce and attention is priceless, that knowledge may be his greatest political asset.
Better than any president in modern history — perhaps better than almost anyone in public life today — Donald Trump understands how the news business really works.
And he knows how to use that understanding to his advantage.