Trumps once and future marks.
Trump's once and future marks. mikeledray / Shutterstock.com

During the Trump tax release fiasco earlier this month, we were all reminded that Trump is only worth as much as his name.

Several recent allegations of sexual assault, over a year of constant dissembling, and a sustained drop in the polls have rightfully deflated the value of that name so much that the Trump Organization is planning new hotels without the wannabe despot's golden moniker glued to their facades.

Trump's name still holds sway, for now, god help us, in the media. As Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison reported back in June, the GOP's presidential nominee has been considering expanding his current production company into "a mini-media conglomerate" to serve the millions of supporters.

Yesterday The Financial Times reported that Trump advisor/son-in-law/assbag Jared Kushner has spoken with a media investment firm about starting up a Trump News Network following (fingers crossed) Trump's defeat in November.

Derek Thompson over at the Atlantic shows us what Trump's new media empire might look like. Each of his theories are horrifying in their own special way, but the most realistic option is, like all things Trump, ultimately just really mean, corrosive, and sad.

Thompson argues that a full-on Trump Cable News Network is likely too expensive, an internet TV network a lá Glenn Beck's The Blaze might be doable but financially risky, and that a Trump television show (maybe on RT!) would be possible and less risky.

If any of those ideas do come to fruition, life would be horrible to imagine. A TNN would not just be "fair and balanced" Spin Zone nothingtalk, it would be a platform for white supremacists who were previously relegated to Stormfront forums and other dark corners of the internet before Trump came along and started retweeting them. And also maybe Sean Hannity.

TNN would amount to a war on information. An information war, if you will. You might call it an Infowar for short.

Precedent gives me some pause, though. For better or worse, Americans have a short memory and an endless appetite for the new. Sarah Palin's stint as the host of On Point for One America News Network, for instance, didn't do much to relaunch her career as a media personality.

And to me, the saddest and most likely of Thompson's theories is what he calls "The Trump Purgatory:"

Ultimately, Trump may be frozen out of each of these possibilities. Building a successful television network requires a lot of upfront investment and cooperation from conservative media stars, which might be difficult in a period of bitter recriminations following a tough loss. Trump’s pride might prevent him from doing something small-bore, like a radio show or streaming television program. But without a suitable distribution partner, Trump might be left with something like a permanent pseudo-campaign. It’s not impossible to imagine him continuing to tour the country giving speeches, while asking for his supporters to pay higher prices for the tickets.

In this scenario, Trump continues to con vulnerable people who live in rural areas out of what little money they have. This course of action seems most convincing not only because Trump probably doesn't have the money or the stamina to build a television network from the ground up, but also because it aligns with the Trump Organization's history of cheating contractors out of money. A perpetual, post-election lecture tour will turn him into what he's always been: a good ol' fashioned slimy American huckster.