As Justin Ling said on his CBC podcast, “On issue after Issue, Trump is taking his cue from right-wing radio.” This is what he said about Obamacare: “We have a disaster called ‘The Big Lie—Obamacare.’ They said Obama lied when he promised that people would be able to keep their insurance if they liked it. And according to radio talk show hosts, this was a big lie. They said this was “enslaving the nation to big corporations.”
Right-wing radio host Michael Savage called for “an outright ban on Muslim immigration.” Donald Trump responded this way:
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out ‘what the hell is going on.”
Trump outright stole that idea from Michael Savage right-wing radio host. Right-wing radio hosts had been throwing fuel on this issue for so long it finally was adapted by a presidential candidate. Savage did not mind. He was flattered. He thought this would be good for America. He even said, “I’m going to take credit for architecting Trump’s messaging.” And of course he was not the only one. Many right-wing radio hosts were building Trump’s platform. Right-wing radio built Donald Trump.
Author Brian Rosenwald explained,
“Trump is not just parroting the lines. He is fully immersed in this character. He is everything that people’s favorite hosts were: he is a fighter. Like people who called in to Rush Limbaugh saying, ‘Thank God you are on the air Rush, now we have a voice. If you interview people at Trump rallies, they are saying the same thing. ‘We finally have somebody to fight for us. He is doing exactly what those hosts have been doing.”
The right wing hosts made Donald Trump. Trump is the talk show president!