"At first glance, Trump and Reagan belong to the same lineage. Both are talismanic figures in the Republican Party and national politics who achieved their stature by translating the skills honed in one media world into the next. Reagan, a studio-film actor and spokesman, seamlessly adapted to the presidency by turning it into a series of televised scenes."
"And yet, the media environments in which both thrived could not be more different. They reward radically different tones, rhythms, and understandings of what political authority looks like. The conflict over the Ontario advertisement, then, is not simply about how the Republican Party has shifted on trade. It lays bare how our media environment has remade the performance of the presidency itself."
An Ontario government advertisement used clips from a 1987 Reagan radio address during a World Series broadcast, reordering his words to emphasize Reagan's free-trade stance. Donald Trump criticized the spot, suggesting AI involvement and later calling it a “fraud” while imposing an additional 10 percent duty on Canadian goods. Reagan and Trump share celebrity-built political stature, but they emerged from different media eras. Reagan moved from film and radio into a televised presidential performance; Trump converted reality-TV and tabloid attention into nonstop provocative digital presidency. The episode highlights how contemporary media incentives reshape the style and expectations of presidential authority.
Read at The Atlantic
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