With the primaries beginning this week, all of the candidates are doing whatever they can to gain voters. That is, unless they think their lead in the polls is strong enough to skip important events such as debates. Or maybe it's just that Donald Trump knows exactly how to play the media and the voters. Sure, the GOP debate is an important part of the election process, but if you are as sure of yourself as Trump seems to be, sometimes the theatrics are a better use of his time than actually participating in a debate. Of course he did spend the time he was supposed to be at the debate fundraising for veterans. There’s nothing like showing up a major media outlet and then going and doing something that makes you look good.
Say what you will about Trump’s politics but the man clearly knows what he’s doing. No matter what they are saying about him, not appearing at the debate was covered in three nationally trending topics on the major social media networks. The fact that news sources are reporting that Ted Cruz won the debate is not. Like it or not, in this day and age, media coverage is probably one of the most important ways to get your message across, and even though televised debates are a form of media coverage, they are slowly going out of fashion.
Whether it is Trump himself or a very smart public relations team coming up with the things he has been doing, it is working. There have been so many GOP debates in the last few months that there really was no reason for Trump to actually go to this one. He has made no secret of where he stands on any issue, so him standing there with the other candidates to reiterate them over and over would actually be a waste of his time. Blowing off the debate is, at the end of the day, one of his best campaign strategies yet.
For those who did watch the debate, it might have been a good way to get a better idea of what the other candidates think about some of the more important issues without being cut off and insulted by Donald Trump. Of course, they all did their best to trash talk him as much as they could before going back to politics as usual, which is something they are not always allowed to do when Trump is present.
While Donald Trump has a monopoly on the media coverage most of the time, negative reactions toward him are still present. At this point, his problem with Fox News is reaching out to mostly ultraconservatives, but there are others who are beginning to latch on to his way of thinking. These are the people who will be most empowered to vote, too. While most of the polls still say that Trump is in the lead, only time will actually tell whether or not the early numbers will reflect this.
