Donald Trump, the clickbait candidate

On the significance of Breitbart taking over the Trump campaign

Click.
(Image credit: Illustration by Lauren Hansen | Image courtesy Getty Images.)

Donald Trump is now on his third campaign manager in as many months. And the choice is a doozey: Stephen Bannon, until recently the chairman of Breitbart News LLC, which runs the fiercely combative alt-news site Breitbart. Trump has reportedly demoted his former campaign head, Paul Manafort, a long-term Republican consultant who had spent months trying to reassure a restive Republican caucus that Trump "gets it" and would begin running a serious campaign around the issues they cared about.

The stated rationale is that Trump is chafing under the Manafort program, and wants to be himself. Breitbart had been thriving as the volunteer press shop of the Trump campaign, singing his praises, running exclusive interviews with him, and running down his internal enemies in the Republican Party. But now, instead of letting itself be used by the Trump campaign, it will simply run the thing itself. Much more convenient that way. Trump is now the clickbait candidate: Check out this video of kids playing the knockout game. Pls fwd, then vote Trump/Pence.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.