• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 21, 2016

Some $3 billion in “earned media” for Donald Trump has been the big news. But what if the presumptive Republican Presidential candidate went one better and started his own cable TV news channel?

What kind of TV news channel? We could only imagine it would be similar to the likes of Fox News — but perhaps go in an unusual, "yuge" direction.

Trump cannot get enough of TV apparently -- even when CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC do all they can to ply their networks with wall-to-wall Trump content.

Would-be presidential and vice presidential candidates have used campaigns to springboard themselves into higher profiles on TV networks --  Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, to name a few.

But mostly these were just as regular guests stints on news channel programs — or, in Palin’s case, being featured on a non-news channel series about her home state of Alaska, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on TLC.

Trump has a better deal than that.  As a provocative news source, his calling card is simply: “Come and call me anytime, I’ll show up. No matter what.”

As long as Trump keeps talking about anything, no matter how seemingly outrageous, it sounds better than your normal TV political speak. So, a news channel gets more bang for its buck.

With a possible cable TV news network, we can only guess Trump senses that even if he doesn’t become president, he can still win by pulling in big viewership and selling lots of TV advertising.

Think about it. In the past, he has constantly talked about TV advertising in relation to his appearances in Republican debates -- especially how much money those networks would be making during these programs.

Additionally, he has threatened not to show up in a few of those, unless some of those networks, like CNN, would donate certain millions of dollars to charities.

He may be looking at his presidential campaign as a no-lose situation, one that could only further his TV career with the Trump brand.

If nothing else, Trump wants a piece of this political TV economy system. And he’ll be looking to gain more than earned media exposure.

But, wait. Will CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News be in a state of withdrawal after the elections? Expect Trump then to earn some more media value in the promotion of his new TV outlet.