He came of age in the "Bright Lights, Big City" Manhattan. He was covered as a sort of bad boy of New York City gossip -- his every move consumed by the tabloids. He spent his last decade-plus creating "reality" TV in which he and his producers made extremely watchable TV out of human emotions and foibles.

It is impossible to see the move as anything other than Trump throwing some chum to the news gods -- and some news that tells a much more positive story for this White House than the testimony expected later today from deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and, especially, from Comey on Thursday.

Trump has backed himself into a major corner with his full-scale denials about the reporting coming out of his conversations with Comey. And, when backed into a corner, Trump is doing what he has spent a lifetime doing: Try like hell to change the subject and focus of the media lens.

It's transparent -- and far from foolproof. But, it is working, at least somewhat.

But nominating Wray gives Trump a temporary respite from the relentless -- and negative -- coverage about Russia, Comey and the rest. It also gives him something to talk about in which he doesn't appear angry and defensive. (By the way, that's the same motivation behind Trump's speech bashing Obamacare in Cincinnati this afternoon.)

Manipulating media coverage -- and perceptions about him more generally -- is in Trump's DNA. It's who he is. It's what he does. Hence, the Wray nomination on the verge of what almost certainly will be one of the roughest two-day patches of his presidency to date.

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Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to distract you from the Comey hearing - CNN