Tom Minear: Why Australia must watch the Trump reality show

There is a creeping sense of fatigue over the unprecedented legal drama engulfing Donald Trump, but Tom Minear argues there is a big reason why Australia can’t look away.

Donald Trump’s rage against the media machine has always felt like an act of political theatre. He blasts the outlets he doesn’t like as “the enemy of the people”, delegitimising their reporting in the minds of his supporters while cleverly creating a straw man to attack.

Here in the US, the media has willingly played its part too, riding the so-called “Trump bump” during his presidency as soaring ratings and readership boosted their revenue.

Eventually, however, those numbers began to flatten out. Many Americans who once could not look away – regardless of whether they loved or hated Trump – grew tired of the drama.

Donald Trump after being arrested for the third time last week. Picture: Tasos Katopodis (Getty Images)

After he left office, media outlets adjusted. They no longer covered his every utterance, a marked shift from 2016 when his election rallies were live even on the networks he attacked.

Of course, that has changed in the past four months, as Trump has been hit with three sets of criminal charges while simultaneously establishing himself as the overwhelming frontrunner to be the Republican candidate at next year’s presidential election.

In Australia, the sense of Trump fatigue was never as acute, perhaps because we were mostly spared the consequences of the chaos. But with each arrest, it seems to be creeping in, as though we are watching the second season of a reality show that’s turning stale.

The shift reminds me of a post-Covid phenomenon. In the heat of the pandemic, headline after headline covered events we never imagined: curfews, border closures, even playground bans. If Scott Morrison had announced he was taking on extra ministerial portfolios at the time, I doubt many of us would have cared or even noticed.

A playground in Melbourne is closed during the pandemic. Picture: David Crosling (NCA NewsWire)

Since Covid subsided, it seems easier to be immune to the significance of events around us, given nothing will compare to the unprecedented restrictions that were placed on our liberty.

That adjective – “unprecedented” – began to lose all meaning during the pandemic, as it is now with the twice-impeached and thrice-indicted Trump.

But while he is ultimately America’s problem, now is not the time for Australia to look away.

Like it or not, we rely heavily on the US to provide stable leadership – from the economy and climate to China and AUKUS – which relies on their democratic institutions to remain strong.

Those institutions very nearly fractured as Trump disputed his 2020 defeat. They will be put to the test again in 2024, when Trump could be sent to jail or the Oval Office. Or both.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Why Australia must watch the Trump reality show