The Guardian view on Trump and media: attention is power. Can Democrats grab it? | Editorial

The presidency is no longer just a bully pulpit'. It's become part of the disinformation machine

Donald Trump won the White House not with money, though he spent plenty of it, but by dominating the conversation. He hasn't stopped campaigning. He uses attention to bolster his political power, and uses his office to make sure that everyone keeps watching.

He was barred from leading social media platforms after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but four yearslater, their owners attended his inauguration. Many of his key hires appear picked for their media presence as well as their ideological bent and sycophancy. Tuesday's interminable address to Congress was garnished with the kind of wild claims or outright lies that he knows take off on social media. For him, posting online ultimatums to Hamas and a disturbing AI-generated Trump Gaza" video is all partof foreign policy. One of the most chilling, and telling, moments of last week's attack onVolodymyrZelenskyy was MrTrump's remark: This is going to be great television."

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