Trump’s latest attack on the press is beyond chilling
In his latest attack on the First Amendment, President Donald Trump announced Friday that he’s “banning” three news outlets from the White House—Politico, CNN, and MS NOW.
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them ‘alive.’ Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” he wrote on Truth Social.
To be clear, the claim about Politico is a false interpretation of subscriptions for news publications that have occurred under presidents of both parties.
Trump offered no proof that news outlets have published false stories about him, but he has often referred to reporting that exposes his mismanagement, corruption, and incompetence as “fake news.”
His announcement was immediately condemned by Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
“These attacks on free speech are insane. This isn’t freedom of the press; it’s North Korea levels of censorship,” he wrote on Bluesky. “The First Amendment is sacred in this country. We must defend it at all costs.”
Trump’s announcement comes as the GOP faces massive headwinds before the midterm elections. Republican candidates have started to distance themselves from the unpopular administration, even going as far as directly opposing key Trump initiatives like mass deportation.
To be clear, most Democrats long opposed Trump on these fronts.
Early in his second term, Trump banned The Associated Press from covering the White House after it refused to adopt the administration’s incorrect renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
While other outlets expressed their disagreement with the AP ban, they continued to participate in White House events.
Related | Trump keeps failing to crush free speech
The Trump administration has increasingly packed its briefings at the White House and Pentagon with pro-MAGA outlets that bolster Republicans rather than inform the public.
Even when mainstream outlets have provided soft coverage of the administration’s blundering, Trump has whined and complained about it, arguing that anything less than full adulation is “fake news.”
Trump has expressed a preference for outlets like Fox News and CBS News—at least now under conservative editor-in-chief Bari Weiss—but even those outlets have had to acknowledge that Trump’s failures like his idiotic tariffs and disastrous Iran war are likely to result in massive losses for the GOP this fall.
Things are bad for Republicans, and pushing out the media isn’t going to change that.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
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