Free Press

Trump Watches MSNBC? Yep! And It’s Driving Him Crazy. So He Threatens to Tax and Penalize Them

Posted by on May 9, 2025 at 1:17 pm. 0 Comments :

Donald Trump’s television diet is ordinarily filled with the junk food and empty calories of Fox News, or OAN, or other devoted purveyors of MAGA propaganda. He feels secure in the bunker he has built that is populated by friendly pundits whose perpetual outpouring of praise feeds his massive, yet fragile ego.

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Donald Trump

Trump’s fear of honest reporting keeps him in a state of constant anxiety and debilitating dread. However, on occasion he manages to stiffen his noodly spine sufficiently to hate-watch news programs that are something less than worshipful. In the meantime he barricades himself behind a wall of disciples who are ordered to sing his divine praises…

SEE THIS: Trump Gathers His Cabinet Members to Conduct Another Festival of Feckless Trump-Fluffing

On Friday morning Trump took to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, to express his outrage at a segment he had watched on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The segment featured an interview of Stephanie Ruhle, a financial expert and host of an MSNBC primetime show. Ruhle’s analysis of Trump’s recessionary tariffs triggered another one of Trump’s tormented tantrums. He wrote that…

“I just watched an exhausted, highly neurotic Stephanie Ruhle spew LIES about Tariffs, as do many others, in order not to give me the Victory that they all see coming.”

As usual, Trump is delusional. Ruhle’s reporting (video below), unlike Trump’s rant, was calm, reasonable, and rooted in facts. It was in line with what most reputable economists have concluded about Trump’s disastrous tax attacks on America’s international trading partners.

Trump went on to call his alleged “deal” with the UK “AMAZING,” and claimed, contrary to reality, that “We’re going to make a fortune with Tariffs [but that] only smart people understand that.” He still hasn’t explained how there will be any revenue from tariffs after he’s made all the deals he has promised in order to remove them.

Continuing in his infamously infantile fashion, Trump insulted Ruhle as “Never known as a ‘High IQ” person.'” And in closing he accused MSNBC of engaging in a “Major Campaign Violation,” and raged that…

“MSDNC has become the Voice of the Democrat Party, and they should be treated as a Political Advocate with all of the Taxes and Penalties therefrom. Their Ratings are terrible, but Brian Roberts and his crew should be forced to TELL THE TRUTH.”

Trump’s tunnel-blindness in asserting that MSNBC is “the Voice of the Democrat Party,” while ignoring how Fox News is literally aligned with his administration, is the purest form of hypocrisy. MSNBC has numerous Republicans on their roster, including Joe Scarborough, whose show he was actually watching as he unleashed this screed. Trump, meanwhile has recruited at least 21 Fox News hacks to serve in his White House.

MORE HERE: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

What’s more, Trump is again demanding that the free press protections in the Constitution be discarded so that he can impose “Taxes and Penalties” on the network, and “force” it to tell whatever bullpucky he regards as the truth.

For the record, the segment that is apparently the cause of Trump’s concern included the following discourse by Ruhle who warned that Trump “needs to get off this crazy tariff train, and he knows it.” [Because] unless he turns this around…we’re going to have a COVID-like supply chain crisis.”

“Donald Trump is backed into a corner. His grand plan of tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, aren’t working. You’re seeing, day in and day out, more business leaders – whether it’s Warren Buffett or Jamie Dimon or Ken Griffin – on big global stages saying ‘This is going to crush us economically.’ And then you’ve got congressmen, senators, saying to this White House ‘our small businesses are strangling, are dying here.'”

"Unless he turns this around, three weeks from now, you walk into a store and we're going to have a covid-like supply chain crisis, and Trump is looking for an exit" — here's the @stephruhle.bsky.social commentary that triggered a Trump Truth Social meltdown

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-09T16:31:48.237Z

Everything that Ruhle said was true and verifiable. Conversely, everything that Trump said was fantasy and preposterous. Not to mention un-American and inspired by the authoritarian practices of Trump’s heroes, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un. But then, what do you expect from a wannabe dictator who doom-scrolls cable TV networks that he despises?

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Trump Flunky Kari Lake Taps MAGA Propaganda Network, OAN, to Be the Voice of Voice of America

Posted by on May 7, 2025 at 12:33 pm. 1 Comments :

From the very first day that Donald Trump reoccupied the White House, he has orchestrated an assault on the free press and any journalistic effort to report the truth about him. There is nothing that irks him more than accurate reporting of his wrecking of the economy and his contempt for the Constitution.

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Donald Trump, OAN

Trump’s anti-media crusade has taken the form of banishing news outlets like the Associated Press from all presidential events, and stacking the White House press corps with sycophantic Trump-fluffers…

SEE ALSO: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

The Trump regime’s campaign to undermine the free press is not limited by international borders. He put one of his most fervent cult devotees, Kari Lake, in a position to control the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees multiple broadcasting networks that inform people in countries that have no other source for reputable news. The networks under the auspices of the USAGM include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Television Martí, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), and the Voice of America (VOA).

Now David Folkenflik is reporting for NPR (an American public broadcaster that Trump is trying to defund) that “Kari Lake says OAN’s far-right coverage will fuel Voice of America.” Folkenflik writes that…

“Senior presidential adviser Kari Lake appears to have resolved any doubts about what she wants to do with the Voice of America. Lake seeks for it to look and sound a lot like the far-right One America News Network.”

[Lake said that] “the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is excited to announce a partnership with One America News Network (OAN) to provide newsfeed services to USAGM networks, including Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Martí, and Voice of America (VOA). […] I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs.”

The notion that Lake can ensure the VOA outlets of “reliable and credible options” by teaming up with one of the most dishonest purveyors of ultra-right propaganda would be laughable if it weren’t so harmful. And since she has already put the staff of VOA and the other USAGM networks on indefinite leave, OAN will be the only source of news for the these networks.

The “quality” of reporting by OAN is notoriously untrustworthy. After all, they hired former GOP representative, MAGA Matt Gaetz, as a primetime host after he crashed and burned as Trump’s attorney general nominee. And they have been the subject of massive defamation lawsuits, one of which they already settled, admitting that their reporting was false.

MORE HERE: OAN Concedes that ‘There Was No Widespread Voter Fraud’ to Settle Defamation Lawsuit

VOA insiders are justifiably appalled. Their White House bureau chief, Patsy Widakuswara, said that “Congress mandated VOA to report reliable and authoritative news, not outsource its journalism to outlets aligned with the president’s agenda.” And the former CFO of USAGM, Grant Turner, said that “Kari Lake providing One America News Network to our global audiences makes a mockery of the agency’s history of independent non-partisan journalism.”

It is entirely understandable that honest journalists would be disgusted by Trump and his lackey, Lake. But it is not unsurprising that the Trumpists would exploit and abuse their power to spread their disinformation to the world. They are already doing it here at home. Fortunately, however, they are losing in the courts, and in the court of public opinion. But we must remain vigilant and resolved to resist the totalitarian Trump agenda if we are to prevail.

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60 Minutes Interview of Kamala Harris that Drove Trump to Sue CBS is Nominated for an Emmy

Posted by on May 3, 2025 at 11:53 am. 2 Comments :

The crusade by Donald Trump to suppress the media, intimidate journalists, and bring an end to America’s constitutional protection of the free press, has accelerated since his reoccupation of the White House. His determination to emulate the sort of autocratic control that his idols (Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, etc.) enjoy is the keystone of his MAGA Cult movement.

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Kamala Harris, Donald Trump baby

Among Trump’s brazen efforts to clamp down on independent news organizations and reporting is his lawsuit against CBS for what he claims was their “illegal” editing of an interview of Vice-President Kamala Harris near the end of the 2024 election campaign. It was just another attempt by Trump to use meritless legal tactics to bring the media to heel with threats and the abuse of the power of the presidency.

SEE THIS: Trump Threatens CBS Over Kamala Harris Interview on 60 Minutes He Says Was ‘Possibly Illegal’

Trump was furious at CBS and 60 Minutes for reporting in a manner that was consistent with honest and professional journalism. He posted a frothingly rabid comment in October of last year on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying that…

“60 MINUTES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OFF THE AIR – ELECTION INTERFERENCE. CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN BROADCAST HISTORY. Kamala should be investigated and forced off the Campaign”

Trump is going to have an aneurism after he learns that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has just announced that the interview that triggered Trump’s wrath has been nominated for an Emmy in the very category that ruffled his scales. As reported by the Associated Press (which Trump has banned from presidential events)…

“Last fall’s ’60 Minutes’ story on Kamala Harris — the subject of Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS — was nominated for an Emmy Award Thursday for ‘outstanding edited interview.’ Trump, in his lawsuit, complained that the interview was deceptively edited to make his Democratic election opponent look good.”

That’s right. The interview that Trump baselessly asserted was “illegal” and “election interference” due to its editing, has been nominated for an Emmy for “Outstanding Editing.” Could there be a better example of the irrational inanity of Trump’s impotent whining?

Well, actually there can be. Because Trump is still doing it with even greater force of idiocy. A few days ago Trump posted a new comment absurdly claiming that “The case we have against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount is a true WINNER.” He reiterated his false accusation that the interview was improperly edited. But then he escalated his legal threats to include the New York Times because they published an article that correctly reported that legal experts regarded his case as “baseless.” He wrote that…

“[T]he Failing New York Times, which is Fake News both in writing and polling, claims that ‘people’ said that the case is baseless. They don’t mean that, they just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, possibly to the point where the Times’ interjection makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying.”

It is also notable that Trump’s legal threats are both a conflict of interest and a flagrant abuse of power. As David Corn of Mother Jones reports, Trump is simultaneously suing CBS and it’s corporate parent, Paramount, while his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, is reviewing a proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance Media. So Trump can extort a settlement from CBS under the threat of declining to approve the merger.

That wholly inappropriate scenario may have contributed to the resignation of 60 Minutes executive producer, Bill Owens, whose reason for leaving after 37 years included the complaint that he “would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.”

Hopefully CBS will not capitulate to Trump’s demands. What is clear is that everyone who has done so previously has paid a price for it, financially and reputationally. And those who have stood up against him have prevailed. That’s because the law, and the Constitution, and the people are on the side of unfettered freedom of the press. And it’s why Trump’s totalitarian efforts to undermine it will fail in the end.

UPDATE: An outraged and deranged Trump is predictably whining that the 60 Minutes interview “has now been nominated for an award by the totally discredited Emmys. Did 60 Minutes and its Corporate Parents apply to get an Emmy for an illegally falsified interview?”

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Trump’s Justice Dept Threatens Journalists as ‘Treasonous’ for Not Disclosing Sources of Leaks

Posted by on April 26, 2025 at 12:52 pm. 2 Comments :

The authoritarian aspirations of Donald Trump have hardly been kept hidden. To the contrary, he brags about it, even celebrates it, on a daily basis. His brazen attacks on everything from universities, to law firms, to independent federal agencies that he is expressly prohibited from interacting with, are naked attempts to unlawfully expand and abuse his position as president.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

Among the institutions that Trump regularly persecutes is the one profession that is explicitly protected in the Constitution by name: Freedom of the Press. For many years Trump has maligned the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” But more recently he has taken to filing ludicrous lawsuits and banishing those who are insufficiently worshipful from presidential events.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Takes Questions From a Russian Funded MAGA Podcaster in the WH Press Room

Trump’s most recent assault on the free press comes on the heels of its abhorrent attack on the judiciary with the arrest of a judge in Wisconsin on phony charges that she helped an undocumented immigrate evade apprehension by Trump’s ICE goons. This escalation of the Trump regime’s demolishing of the Constitution has infuriated even conservatives worried about Trump’s overreaching into totalitarian tactics.

However, if you thought that it couldn’t get any worse, you don’t know Trump. On Friday, Trump assigned his lickspittle Attorney Genuflect, Pam Bondi, to issue an official Justice Department memo aimed at threatening journalists with legal consequences – including arrest and potentially much worse – for merely doing their job.

Journalists have long been shielded from these sort of government threats by the First Amendment of the Constitution, along with Justice Department policy to refrain from imposing pressure on them to disclose their sources or other work product. But now Trump and Bondi are exacerbating their bullying by rescinding a Biden administration policy that prohibited such oppressive conduct.

What follows are a couple of the most harrowing portions of the Bondi memo, wherein she advocates for “the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to compel production of information and testimony by and relating to members of the news media.” As reported by Ken Dilanian, NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent…

“I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland’s policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks.”

Translation: Bondi is permitting Trump’s Justice Department to demand that journalists give up their confidential sources, including personal communications (texts, phone records, emails, etc.), under threat of subpoena, incarceration, and criminal prosecution if they refuse to comply. That is flagrantly unconstitutional. What’s more, it would hamper the ability of reporters to gather information from government sources who would be too afraid to talk if they knew the reporters could be coerced into revealing their identity. And leaks are not “improper” unless they include classified data. The memo continued…

“This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people. ‘Where a Government employee improperly discloses sensitive information for the purposes of personal enrichment and undermining our foreign policy, national security, and Government effectiveness— all ultimately designed to sow chaos and distrust in Government- this conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous.'”

Translation: Bondi is improperly assuming the role of policing the media’s disclosures of presidential activities. That is not remotely within the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. And it is especially improper if the intent is to avoid what it regards as “undermining” the president’s policies. The public has a right to know what the president is up to, whether the president or the Justice Department likes it or not.

Even worse, Bondi is overtly threatening journalists with the capitol crime of treason. She is actually advocating for the execution of a reporter who might tell the truth about some malfeasance by the president. Which the public also has a right to know about.

For the record, that portion of Bondi’s memo was lifted verbatim from Trump’s prior executive order instructing the Justice Department to conduct a punitive investigation of Miles Taylor, the former Chief of Staff to Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, whose only crime was writing an honest book about Trump’s scandalous first term in office.

Trump’s fondness for threatening to execute his political foes is well documented. He has made a habit of calling his critics “treasonous.” Some of those he has targeted in the past include, Barack Obama, Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, James Comey, Adam Schiff, the New York Times, and Google.

Now Trump has had his Attorney General codify his bloodlust so that he can begin to carry out his campaign of vengeance. This must not be allowed to proceed. And since his Justice Department cannot be relied on to do the right thing, it is left to Congress to find the courage to impeach him before he gets away with any more of his monarchal madness.

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Trump’s Press Secretary Takes Questions From a Russian Funded MAGA Podcaster in the WH Press Room

Posted by on April 22, 2025 at 1:48 pm. 0 Comments :

From the very first day that Donald Trump entered politics, he has been an avid opponent of the free press and the Constitution’s First Amendment. He frequently refers to the media in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people.” And whenever he is confronted by a reporter whose inquiries are less than worshipful, Trump responds by insulting the reporter and dodging the question.

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Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

So naturally Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, devotedly reflects Trump’s heinous animosity toward the press. In the few short weeks since he began his second occupation of the White House, Leavitt has reshaped the press room into a propaganda factory whose purpose is to advance the lies of Dear Leader, rather than to inform the American people.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Pledges to Plant Pro-Trump Crackpots in the White House Press Room

On Tuesday Leavitt opened her press briefing session by recognizing a notoriously repugnant character who would be more at home in the Kremlin’s press briefing room than this one in the White House. Tim Pool is an ultra-conservative MAGA proselytizer whos dispenses some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories and hate mongering that the right-wing has produced. But in the Trump White House he has a seat in the press briefing room and gets the first question. Which went like this…

“Many of these organizations that are represented in this room have marched in lockstep on false narratives, such as the ‘very fine people’ hoax, the ‘Covington smear,’ and now what’s being called the ‘Maryland man’ hoax. Where an MS-13 gang member, adjudicated by 2 different judges I believe, is just simply being referred to as a “Maryland man” over and over again.

Now, in an effort from the White House to expand access to new companies, you’ve created this New Media Seat. So I’m wondering if you can comment on – following this expansion, you’ve had numerous outlets disparage the companies that you’ve had sit here, as well as the reporters, I’m wonder if you can comment on that unprofessional behavior, as well as elaborate on if there’s any plans to expand access to new companies.

To summarize, Pool is asking Leavitt why credible journalists are being so darn mean to the bullshit spewers, like Pool, that she has installed in order to prevent any real questions from being asked by professional reporters. And he prefaced his ludicrous question with a stream of crackpot complaints about accurate reporting that he called hoaxes. To this Leavitt replied…

“Sure. Well, we certainly welcome diverse viewpoints in this room. Which is one of the reasons we have you in here. And there’s many new faces in this room in comparison to the previous administration. We wanna welcome all these points into this room. We welcome unbiased journalists who really care about the truth and the facts and accuracy. And you rightfully pointed out the ‘Maryland man’ story.”

First question of the briefing comes from Tim Pool

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T17:44:09.898Z

REALLY? So Leavitt regards Pool as an “unbiased journalist” who she welcomes into the room because he “cares about the truth and the facts and accuracy?” This would be a good time to take a look at Pool’s record of “diverse viewpoints.” For instance, it was recently revealed that he was the recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Russian state media to produce anti-American propaganda…

“Podcaster Tim Pool was one of six conservative influencers featured by Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based company that was secretly funded by Russian state media employees, according to a criminal indictment filed in September.

“The indictment charged two Russian media executives with allegedly funneling $10 million to Tenet, whose personalities were paid to ‘amplify domestic divisions in the United States’ by parroting Kremlin talking points on immigration, inflation and foreign policy, according to the Department of Justice. […] Pool earned $100,000 per episode for a weekly show he hosted.”

That’s the caliber of “unbiased journalist” that Leavitt has been introducing into the White House press room. While simultaneously she has been banishing respected media organizations like the Associated Press. And the result has been a plethora of preposterous questions from the MAGA goon squad.

MORE HERE: Trump Escalates His War on the Press – and the Courts – with Predictably Preposterous Results

Pool is certainly earning his pay by posing questions that are mostly rabidly biased statements, and pushing the propaganda that is mandated by both Trump and his BFF, Vladimir Putin. Would anyone be surprised if Putin was still paying Pool, and Leavitt as well? Or are they serving their Russian master for free, just because they share the same mission to bring down American democracy?

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The Committee to Protect Journalists Releases a Frightening Advisory for US Bound Reporters

Posted by on April 20, 2025 at 1:04 pm. 1 Comments :

The long-running, seething animosity that Donald Trump has for the free press continues to be on full display with each new day’s attack on the media that fails to sufficiently worship him. And it isn’t just an attack on the reporters than he singles out for his infantile insults, it’s an attack on the Constitution and the keystone American principles of freedom of speech.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

Despite his addiction to demanding from the media the constant attention that he craves, Trump can’t stop lambasting them when they accurately report on his recurrent foibles and flagrant crimes. His assault on the media regularly descends to wholly unconstitutional threats to shut down the outlets that he disapproves of and even to arrest and incarcerate reporters who offend him by doing nothing more than telling the truth.

SEE THIS: Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

Among the consequences of Trump’s perverse and un-America behavior is the recent advisory from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), warning reporters about the risks they now face should they consider traveling to the United States. The advisory states that…

“Foreign nationals whose countries do not meet U.S. vetting standards may be barred entry. Journalists will not be exempt and should anticipate potential restrictions or questioning when traveling to or from the United States.” […]

“Increased border control, inconsistent enforcement, and broad discretionary authority among border agents suggest an unpredictable environment which warrants proactive preparation.”

The CPJ cited some of the potential risks that journalists should be prepared for, such as “prolonged questioning at U.S. borders,” “device searches,” and “citizenship status and denied entry.” They warned of possible detention and provided an extensive checklist of measures to take prior to and during any U.S. visit. They suggested using burner phones and other devices that have been stripped of information that the reporter wouldn’t want border authorities to have access to.

If these sound like precautions that a reporter might have to take when entering a totalitarian state, that is not coincidental. According to Reporters Without Borders…

“Press freedom in the U.S. has fallen significantly in the past year, […] Once considered a bastion for free expression, the U.S. is now on par with developing countries that have few resources or protections dedicated to journalism.”

Testifying before Congress in February, Craig Aaron, President and Co-CEO of Free Press Action, enumerated the attacks on the free press by Trump and his administration that “is using the power of the government to shake down the media and quash dissent.” Including…

  • Trump’s FCC chairman (and Project 2025 co-author), Brendan Carr’s threats to revoke broadcast licenses because he doesn’t like the viewpoints he sees on TV.
  • Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News for $20 billion because he didn’t like how 60 Minutes chose to edit an interview with Kamala Harris.
  • Disney/ABC, Meta, maybe now CBS — paying tens of millions of dollars to settle specious lawsuits. They appear to be paying off the president to shield themselves from reprisal or gain regulatory favors.
  • All the billionaire owners of these companies line up on the dais at the president’s inauguration clutching million-dollar checks to show their loyalty.

It is undeniable that, under the Trump regime, America has fallen to new lows with regard to its First Amendment protections of the free press. And that is by design of the aspiring authoritarian currently occupying the White House. Trump is taking his cues from his idols Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orbán.

And Trump won’t stop until he he is forced to by those in the media who are not afraid of him, by those in Congress who have the courage to perform their constitutionally mandated duties, and by patriotic Americans who refuse to be oppressed by a wannabe dictator.

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Trump Escalates His War on the Press – and the Courts – with Predictably Preposterous Results

Posted by on April 14, 2025 at 2:28 pm. 1 Comments :

The road toward totalitarianism that Donald Trump has taken since he was reelected last November is becoming ever more clear with each day of his reoccupation of the White House. Despite being reprimanded and constrained by judicial injunctions, Trump continues to ignore the courts and forge his own unlawful path to satisfy his autocratic cravings.

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Donald Trump

Earlier this year, Trump acted out his aspirational dreams of being America’s first dictator by banning the Associated Press from presidential events because they refused to obey his petty and unconstitutional demand to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. It was a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s protection of the free press.

SEE THIS: The Media Must Boycott Trump’s Phony Press Conferences Until He Stops Censoring Journalists

Undaunted by the principles of press freedom and the rule of law, Trump has now defied a court ruling to allow the AP into his media avails. According to Mediaite…

“Despite a recent injunction reinstating access, an AP spokesperson confirmed their journalists were denied access to an Oval Office press event on Monday. ‘Our journalists were blocked from the Oval Office today. We expect the White House to restore AP’s participation in the pool as of today, as provided in the injunction order.’”

The AP is being extraordinarily naïve if they really expect Trump to comply with the law. He has already demonstrated his disrespect for law and order by refusing to comply with a judge’s ruling to facilitate the return of a Maryland father that Trump’s immigration regime unlawfully sent to a gulag in El Salvador.

As a result of Trump’s efforts to banish credible journalists from the White House press pool, we are seeing more questions like the one that Trump received on Monday about his recent physical examination. Brian Glenn, a “reporter” from the rabidly right-wing MAGA outlet, Real America’s Voice (and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend), raised the subject with an adoring preface and a sickly sycophantic slant in the following exchange…

Reporter: You got a perfect health report. Everybody in the press wants to know this. How do you do it Mr President? … How do you stay so healthy? … How in the world do you do it? I’m 55 years old and I can’t keep up with you.
Trump: Because I enjoy what I’m doing […] Thank you. That’s a nice question. I like this guy!

Q: You got a perfect health report. Everybody in the press wants to know this — how do you do it Mr President? How do you stay so healthy?TRUMP: Because I love what I'm doing

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-14T15:26:26.285Z

HOLY SHIH TZU! Could this get any closer to parody? Why didn’t the reporter just ask why Trump is so handsome, smarter than Einstein, and better fit than an NFL quarterback? Which is not far from what Trump’s alleged physical report claimed. It says that he is 6’3″ and 224 pounds. Which is almost identical to that of Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The question above was not the first of its kind. Last week a “reporter” from MyPillow’s Mike Lindell network asked…

“Trump looks healthier than ever before. I’m sure everybody in this room could agree. Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy and is he eating less McDonald’s?”

Are these reporters so infatuated with Trump that this is their way of asking him out on date? Notice that in both questions the reporter spoke for everyone else in the press pool, asserting that they all agree that Trump is a superior human specimen. However, most of the rest of the country doesn’t hold these perverse views. In fact, they are increasingly repulsed by Trump and his performance in office.

According to a new CBS News poll, “Most Americans recognize that the economy is getting worse.” Although there is a sharp partisan divide showing that 80% of Democrats say the economy is “bad” while 62% of Republicans say it’s “good.” Overall, Trump’s disapproval rating shot up to a majority 53% from 47% two short months ago.

What’s more, the percentage of Americans who say the economy is getting worse rose 11 points from 42% to 53% between November and March. And who is to blame for the worsening economy flipped in the past month from Biden by 4 point to Trump by 33 points – a 54% majority saying Trump is to blame.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to attack the media. His latest salvo is another swipe at CBS 60 Minutes over Sunday’s program that featured an interview of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, and a story about Greenland. Trump posted a rambling rant on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying that…

“I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount, over their fraudulent, beyond recognition, reporting. They did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions.” [And that…]

“They should lose their license! Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”

This psychotic scrambled egghead is still obsessed with Kamala Harris. And he is imagining “unlawful and illegal behavior” where none exists. Over which he has given orders to his FCC chair to commence some sort of punitive proceedings. These are the acts of an aspiring authoritarian who seeks to muzzle the media and ship his critics off to foreign prisons. And if the American people don’t rise up to reject it, many of them may find themselves in the same boat.

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Trump and MAGA Rep FREAK OUT that ‘Monsters’ at NPR and PBS ‘Hate Christians and America’

Posted by on April 2, 2025 at 3:10 pm. 1 Comments :

Conservative Republicans have been trying to kill off NPR and PBS for decades. There is nothing that they hate more than an informed and educated populace. But their obsession with eliminating public broadcasting has never been more pronounced than it is today, during the second coming of Donald Trump, who famously gushed that “I love the poorly educated.”

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Donald Trump, Censorship

It’s no wonder why Trump feels such affinity to those without the basic elements of intellect and critical thinking. Such people are the most easily manipulated and are the best candidates for indoctrination into hive-mind cults where everyone is expected to think alike. Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, Susie Wiles, said so explicitly on a recent episode of Lara Trump’s Fox News program…

SEE THIS: Lara Trump’s Interview of Her Sugardaddy-in-Law’s Chief-of-Staff on Fox News is Pure Cult Dogma

With all of the swirling catastrophes circling the newly minted Trump 2.0 (SignalGate, annexations of Greenland and Canada, inflationary/recessionary Trump Tax/Tariffs, unconstitutional deportations, mass firings of critical federal workers/services, etc.), the regime is desperate to deflect to matters that they think they can spin in a more positive direction.

As usual, Trump’s desperation has led him to yet another fiasco. He has chosen to escalate the war on public broadcasting to an unprecedented level. On Monday Trump posted a comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social that raged about the “MONSTERS” at NPR and PBS…

“REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”

The sickness and hatred that is Donald Trump and MAGA…They are OBSESSED with killing the "MONSTERS" – NPR & PBS.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-04-02T19:10:08.508Z

That’s right! It’s about time that somebody fought back against the “monsters” that produce Sesame Street, Antiques Roadshow, All Things Considered, and This Old House. Who can deny that they “so badly hurt our country” and must be defunded? And if that weren’t bad enough, a congressional Trump flunky, Brandon Gill (TX-MAGA), chimed in with the following complaint…

The idea that we’re spending so much of our hard earned tax dollars promoting values that we find repulsive is wrong. We shouldn’t be doing this. Let me remind you that Katherine Maher and the entire staff at NPR, I think it’s worth noting, they don’t just disagree with you. They hate you. They hate Christians. They hate conservatives. They hate this country.”

Rep. Brandon Gill says NPR must be defunded because it is "promoting values that we find repulsive" and everyone who works there hates Christians, conservatives, and America.

— Right Wing Watch (@rightwingwatch.bsky.social) 2025-04-02T17:37:10.037Z

Rep. Gill didn’t bother to provide any examples of the “repulsive” values that have him so worked up. So either they are too repulsive to even discuss, or more likely, they don’t exist anywhere outside of his cartoon brain. And his assertion that the entire staff of NPR hates Christians, conservatives, and America, is straight out of the most perverse dregs of wingnut dystopian dementia.

It is troubling to consider that the likelihood of defunding these American institutions is frighteningly plausible. The Republican majority in Congress is devoted to obeying every command from their Dear Leader Trump. Even if it means canceling treasured programs, maligning honorable people, and trashing the Constitution’s First Amendment protections of freedom of the press.

The hysterical rage mongers of the right care only about retaining their grip on power by any means they deem necessary. And attacking public broadcasting serves a dual purpose for these radical lunatics: It helps them to channel attention away from the even more grotesque endeavors that that they are engaged in, and it leads to a more ignorant, compliant base of cult followers.

The good news is that they cannot possibly succeed. They are weak and witless and far fewer in number. The majority of Americans are not as blind and malleable as the MAGA minions. We will resist their efforts to control and subjugate us. And our resolve will see us through. LFG!

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White House Correspondents Association Axes Comedian Amber Ruffin After Tantrum By Trump Aide

Posted by on March 30, 2025 at 12:58 pm. 1 Comments :

The determination of Donald Trump to put his bone-spur infected boot down on the throats of the free press has been a hallmark of his career in politics. And in his reoccupation of the White House, his animosity toward the media that he repeatedly maligns in Stalinist terms as “the enemy of the people” has never been more pronounced.

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Amber Ruffin and Donald Trump baby

In recent weeks Trump has escalated his threats toward the press by filing frivolous lawsuits and banning media organizations that don’t worshipfully exalt him. And, unfortunately, the media has not been particularly eager to confront him or to stand up for themselves. To the contrary, they have been letting him get away with some of the most atrocious assaults on the Constitution’s First Amendment by any president in modern times.

SEE THIS: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

On Saturday the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) provided another example of the lily-livered behavior that has stained their reputation. Every year the WHCA holds a gala dinner to honor members and raise funds for journalism scholarships. That dinner usually features addresses by the current president and a well known comedian.

This year the WHCA announced that the comic host would be, Amber Ruffin, a popular talent with an extensive and impressive resume. She has been an Emmy winning writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers. She has authored best selling books. She has written Tony Award winning plays. And she is currently a regular on CNN’s comedy news program, “Have I Got News For You.”

But apparently that wasn’t good enough for the WHCA to retain her services after an attack by a bitter and belligerent Trump bulldog. As reported by Variety…

“The White House Correspondents’ Association has canceled plans to have comedian Amber Ruffin perform at its annual dinner on April 26, a new sign of the pressures being brought to bear on news organizations during President Donald Trump’s second term. The journalism group, which has seen its control over interactions with Trump eroded in recent weeks, made the decision after Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, raised comments Ruffin has made in the past that are critical of Trump.”

What Budowich was triggered by was Ruffin’s biting satire and political quips. Which is precisely what the comedian’s role at this dinner has always been about, no matter who was in the White House. Other presidents enjoyed the program with good humor, and even joined in it themselves. But Trump’s massive yet fragile ego couldn’t bear it. He was even too afraid to attend the dinner during his prior occupation of the White House. And he won’t be going this year either. So Budowich went after the WHCA and Ruffin saying that…

This year’s WHCA dinner will be hosted by a 2nd rate comedian…What kind of responsible, sensible journalist would attend something like this? More importantly, what kind of company would sponsor such as hate-filled and violence-inspiring event?

The Trump Doctrine demands that any criticism they make of others cannot be merely an expression of their disagreement. It must be rife with insults and threats. Consequently, Budowich resorts to calling Ruffin a “2nd rate comedian,” and adds some totalitarian-style coercion to sponsors to scare them off of contributing to the charity dinner. And to make matters worse, he inserts a preposterous assertion that Ruffin’s presence is “violence-inspiring.” That’s coming from a top aide to Trump who incited a deadly insurrection and then pardoned the rioters who stormed the Capital and put 140 police officers in the hospital.

In response to Budowich’s whining, the WHCA released a pathetic statement saying that…

“The WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year. At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”

With all due respect…BULLSH*T! Why didn’t the Board make this decision last month before they invited Ruffin to be the host? And what is it about “this consequential moment for journalism” that makes political satire unsuitable? What could be more suitable? And how does Eugene Daniels, the president of the WHCA, explain his remarks when he hired Ruffin saying that…

“Amber’s unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate. Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press while roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them.”

So what changed in a couple of weeks? Other than the attack by Trump’s flunky? This is another bad omen for the fate of journalism in the Era (Error) of Trump. Daniels and the WHCA are kneeling at the feet of a neo-fascist authoritarian regime. And it’s a bad sign for Daniels, who was recently hired to co-host a weekend program on MSNBC. After this capitulation, how can anyone trust that he will be a reliable journalist who reports without fear or favor?

UPDATE: Seth Meyers and Amber Ruffin respond to her cancelation by the WHCA. Here are three things that Ruffin learned from the experience…

  • “When you watch The Sound of Music, you have to root for the singing children and the other people [e.g. Nazis]”.
  • “We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners. That’s what it says in the First Amendment.
  • “I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history, and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong. Glad to find that out now because if they had let me give that speech, ooh, baby. I would have been so terrifically mean.”

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Trump at the ‘Justice’ Department: CNN, MSNBC, and Other Media are Illegal and ‘It Has to Stop’

Posted by on March 15, 2025 at 12:42 pm. 2 Comments :

This week the parade of perfidy that has characterized the Second Scumming of Donald Trump (and the first one as well) took its roadshow to the hallowed halls of the United States Department of Justice. It was a particularly nauseating spectacle considering the role that those halls have represented in America’s history.

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Donald Trump, Censorship

The purpose of this presidential outing was, according to the White House, to discuss problems related to fentanyl and other drug trafficking related crimes. But as it unfolded it was clear that Trump had an entirely different agenda. Most the time he spoke was allotted to his whining about the results of the 2020 election; to his fixation on getting revenge for being prosecuted for crimes that he actually committed; and to smearing his political opponents for his own failures. It was little more than a repeat of his partisan and hostile speech before the Joint Session of Congress last week.

SEE THIS: Collected Quotes Displaying Trump’s Obsession with Himself In His Pseudo State of the Union Spiel

Crammed into his caterwauling commentary was another example of his hysterical hatred for the free press that he regularly maligns as “the enemy of the people.” Nothing bothers Trump more than hearing the truth be told about him. He raged that…

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. I can have the biggest victory in history. It makes no difference what kind of a failure the other side has. These people are gonna go after me. […]

“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than highly paid political operatives, and it has to stop. It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges, and it’s really a changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal. And they do it in total coordination with each other.”

First of all, let’s note that Trump uses the word “literally” when he obviously means “figuratively.” That’s because he literally doesn’t understand the English language. More to the point, his rant should serve as a five-alarm warning to all Americans who cherish the Constitution. His attack on the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press is nothing new in his repugnant repertoire, but it remains among the most troubling.

Trump is not joking when he says that, in his opinion, CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets are “illegal” and that, given the opportunity, he will see to it that they are stopped. He has already banished several news networks from the White House press pool, and he has declared that he will now determine which reporters are allowed to ask him questions, a role that was handled by the independent White House Correspondents Association for decades.

MORE HERE: Trump Declares Himself King of the White House Press Corps, Will Now Decide Who Can Question Him

One of the most egregious inanities in his speech was his assertion that any media that criticizes him is “no different than highly paid political operatives.” You’ll notice that he didn’t mention Fox News, a truly political operation, in his attack. And many of their personnel are literally paid to be political hacks. At least 19 of them have joined the Trump administration.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

Trump also claimed, without any evidence whatsoever, that reporting by his media foes was “influencing judges,” and was done “in total coordination with each other.” That’s another example of projection by Trump. He often accuses his critics of the grossly improper behavior that he engages in regularly.

When a national leader’s authoritarian rhetoric descends to the depths that Trump is dredging, it is not long before he starts to implement campaigns of brutal censorship and even incarceration of journalists that he opposes. He is executing the playbook for media suppression that he got from Vladimir Putin. And if the media doesn’t take this seriously now, they will later find out that they are unable to do anything about it from their prison cells.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

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