Over the weekend, Donald Trump exploded during an on-air interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. He called her “crooked” and “stupid” and abruptly ended the interview in a fury. This was ostensibly because she questioned his claims that California’s ongoing vote counting is rigged against GOP candidates. But we think the real reason for Trump’s fury is darker. As the votes are being counted, those candidates—Spencer Pratt for Los Angeles mayor and Steve Hilton for governor—are looking weaker than advertised. In real time, Trump is witnessing the failure of MAGA’s online disinformation apparatus to invent reality whole cloth and inflate the strength of his candidates into something it isn’t. In today’s episode, tech writer Gil Duran, author of the forthcoming The Nerd Reich, a book about techno-authoritarianism, puts this in perspective. He explains the California contests, why it’s so infuriating for Trump to watch real votes coming in, why this saga represents a larger failure of Trump-MAGA online propaganda, and why that has heartening deeper implications. (After we recorded, Pratt’s defeat became official.) Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
PODCAST
Angry Trump Storms Out of On-Air Interview for Unnervingly Dark Reason
As Trump viciously abuses an NBC reporter on national television, a tech writer explains why this saga really reflects his rage at the failure of MAGA propaganda to sway political races in California.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
