President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, hosted a “real news” program on his official Facebook page last Sunday, ostensibly highlighting the president’s accomplishments that she argued have been overshadowed by “fake news.”
The video, first reported by BuzzFeed, featured Lara Trump against a Trump-Pence background as she highlighted several stories, such as the president donating his salary each quarter, the country’s economic growth, and president’s interactions with military veterans and the police, which Trump’s daughter-in-law says she “bet[s] you haven’t heard about because there’s so much fake news out there.”
This program, which has more than 2 million views on Facebook, might be a partial fulfillment of rumors from the campaign of the development of a “Trump TV” program. As Vanity Fair reported, Trump was frustrated at the revenue he was generating for other media companies during the presidential campaign, and “win or lose,” those in the Trump campaign thought they had tapped into something. When asked in October by CNN if Trump was considering such a move, then-campaign CEO Steve Bannon only would say, “Trump is an entrepreneur.”
However, around the same time during the campaign, some suggested Trump’s Facebook page already amounted to Trump TV. During the third presidential debate, his page played host to a full program produced by Right Side Broadcasting Network, a conservative media company, featuring campaign staff like Kellyanne Conway and conservative media personalities like The Blaze’s Tomi Lahren. That video has garnered more than 9 million views.
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Lara Trump ended her video last weekend by emphasizing the stories she presented were the “real news,” though, as BuzzFeed noted, the stories she highlighted had all been widely reported on by the national media. In fact, many had been discussed during the White House press briefings covered by all major networks.
The program, which the video suggests could be weekly, will be another avenue for Trump to push out administration and campaign messaging, though it is unclear whether the program is tied directly to White House or campaign communications teams.
