Donald Trump is laughing at the media

It often looks as if Donald Trump's entire media strategy is to be covered — just covered. Whether the coverage is positive, negative or neutral doesn't seem to matter much. He gripes about bad press, to be sure, but if he really cared about critical stories — and wanted to avoid them — he wouldn't say half the things he says. Well, the Republican presidential front-runner pretty much confirmed that perception is reality when it comes to his all-press-is-good-press philosophy.

Time magazine reporter David Von Drehle rode with Trump on the billionaire's private jet during a Super Tuesday flight from Virginia to Georgia and published this fascinating account of how Trump watches the news from his TV lounge in the sky. When he flips to Fox News, Trump notices a caption that sums up everything:

“News outlets around the world are covering Trump.” Turning to me on the sofa, he gestures at the screen and remarks with satisfaction, “The key word is covering.” So much exposure comes at a price. As he watches, Trump maintains a quiet but constant critique of “dishonest” and “inaccurate” statements. He would like to “open up the laws” on libel to protect people like himself, he says — but adds with a shrug, “I don’t know exactly what it means to do that, or exactly how it works.” Nor does he care, because what matters more than accuracy is the sheer fact of being covered. Own the airwaves, own the campaign, run the world. “You see what this is, right? It’s ratings. I go on one of these shows and the ratings double. They triple. And that gives you power. It’s not the polls. It’s the ratings.”