Mr. Trump’s tendency to “come up with nicknames for his opponents, float conspiracy theories,” works for<br />him, Mr. Favreau said, “because he wins when more people are cynical about politics and politicians.”<br />“Our job,’’ he added, “is to give people a reason to believe<br />and participate in politics, which means our version of entertainment can’t be as frivolous or nasty or dishonest.”<br />So they set out to mix jokes with insider descriptions of executive branch norms<br />and interviews, often with people who can recommend political action — a protest, a phone-call campaign, an organizing drive — which is the sort of thing mainstream news media can’t do because, as Mr. Favreau said, “it would be picking a side.”<br />With episodes being downloaded up to 1.4 million times, according to data they shared from their hosting platform,<br />ART19, they tapped into “a wave of interest about this president, a lot of it based on fear,” Mr. Favreau said.<br />“The fusion of media and politics now — and media as a platform for politicians and for movements — is something<br />that we’ve never seen before, because that’s where people are,” Mr. Favreau told me.<br />When I asked the founders if they thought it was a “media company,” Mr. Favreau said, “I don’t know if it’s a political movement or a media company.”<br />Mr. Vietor added, “We’re going to maximize for the political impact, not the financial impact.”<br />These days, they can be one and the same.
