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The media circus never sleeps, and this week delivered yet another masterclass in premature prognostication. Fox News briefly halted its regular programming for a breaking alert this week, and the chyron that followed would’ve made Nostradamus blush: according to the breathless coverage, Donald Trump is apparently “finished.” One has to wonder how many times the press has declared this particular obituary before.
Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening here. The same outlets that assured us Trump couldn’t win in 2016, that he’d be impeached out of office, that he’d face criminal convictions that would end his political career, are now telling us—with the same absolute certainty—that he’s politically finished, whether due to a special election in Florida or some poll showing temporary headwinds. The usual cocktail of wishful thinking masquerading as analysis?
This is the fundamental problem with our current media ecosystem. When you treat every development as an extinction-level event for your political opponents, you eventually become the boy who cried wolf. The American people have seen this movie before. They’ve watched the press corps declare Trump’s political death approximately seven hundred times since he rode down that escalator in 2015. And yet, like a figure from some political Book of Revelation, he keeps rising.
The reality is far more mundane than the apocalyptic headlines suggest. Trump faces challenges, as every political figure does. He has opponents, both within and outside his party. Some of his policy moves generate controversy—that’s the nature of actually doing things in Washington rather than simply talking about them. But “finished”? That word implies a finality that simply doesn’t exist in American politics, especially not for a man who has survived more political near-death experiences than perhaps any figure in modern history.
What’s particularly rich about this latest round of obituaries is the source. When even Fox News—the network that supposedly carries water for the former president—interrupts programming to amplify a “Trump is finished” narrative, it tells you something about how deeply the establishment narrative has penetrated every corner of the media landscape. This isn’t about left versus right anymore. It’s about insiders versus outsiders, the permanent class versus the disruptors, those who benefit from the current order versus those who threaten to upend it.
The American people would be wise to take these declarations with a mountain of salt. We’ve been here before. The same voices now declaring Trump’s demise were equally certain about his impossibility in 2016, his vulnerability in 2020, and his irrelevance after January 6th. Each time, they discovered that politics doesn’t follow the script written in newsrooms and green rooms. It follows the messy, unpredictable path of human sentiment, economic reality, and genuine democratic choice.
So is Trump finished? History suggests that’s a dangerous bet. The better question might be: when will the media learn that declaring someone’s political death is the surest way to guarantee their resurrection?
Providence watches over the bold.
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