Immediately upon his return to the White House for a disastrous and unhinged second term, convicted felon and alleged pedophile, President Donald John Trump and his team os pscyophants adopted an aggressive press strategy to avoid answering actual journalists’ questions, as Trump had to during his first term.
Trump, who always had a combative relationship with the Washington press corps, assembled a communications team to shake up what he saw as an outdated media landscape and replace qualified journalists with far-right content creators, influencers and MAGA psychopaths, most of whom hold no journalism qualifications, such as a degree or a cadetship, but they are good at generating content for MAGA followers and inflating Trump’s ego, their own ego’s and Trump’s daily bullshit.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the communications shop is now more closely aligned with Trump’s style of telling outright – and easily provable – lies to the American public.
“We respond to nearly every single inquiry — no matter the reporter or outlet,” she told The Washington Times. “We provide the clear facts [which are usually easily provable, outright lies] to shape good coverage. When we see ‘fake news,’ – which is just Trump’s way of attempting to discredit proper, qualified journalists reporting – we call it out and aggressively push back to set the record straight.” With more lies.
One of the biggest changes between Trump’s first and second terms is the increased presence of conservative content creators and social media influencers in the White House Press Corps, whilst restricting access and refusing to answer questions from qualified journalists.
Trump’s unhinged and despotic White House restored all the influencers and content creators – not qualified journalists – press passes revoked under former President Joe Biden.
It issued new ones to the influencers and content creators, such as podcasters and other “alternative news” (what Australians call “utter bullshit”) sites, including The Daily Wire, The Daily Signal, Right Side Broadcasting, Real America’s Voice and Lindell TV. That added nearly 500 new passes for people who don’t even hold any journalism qualifications, but they love Trump, the GOP and MAGA, so they get a press pass to assist Trump in spinning and promoting his utter fucking bullshit every day.
They also added a new media seat in the briefing room, which is filled by a different new media correspondent at each briefing. That correspondent also kicks off the briefing with the first questions, a privilege once reserved for the wire service Associated Press, who employ qualified journalists, and not psychopathic MAGA content creators and influencers, who are the people who are actually publishing ‘fake news’ every day on behalf of their master, Donald John Trump.
Sean Spicer, who served as Trump’s first press secretary in his first term, said many of the influencers and content creators have readerships and audiences that were largely shut out when Trump first took office in 2017. Because they aren’t qualified journalists in the first place, perhaps?
“I don’t think we had any indication of the level of hostility the legacy media was approaching,” Mr. Spicer said. “This time, clearly, he has the ability to see everything through the lens of how things went the first term.” In other words, Trump now has those who will lie on his behalf, publish fake news, and are not qualified journalists at his beck and call.
Spicer, who often found himself in heated briefing room exchanges with CNN’s Jim Acosta or ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, said that now, at least 10 outlets in the briefing room cover Mr. Trump “much more fairly.” IN other words, they are happy to lie to the American public (and the world) on behalf of Trump.
Leavitt also said that having MAGA media in the briefing room has a positive impact on how Trump’s lies and non-stop bullshit is presented to Americans, including the 80 million voters who supported Trump in 2024.
“The campaign revealed that the majority of the American people receive their news outside of the legacy media bubble, which is why it is essential that we meet Americans where they are and allow media from across the ideological spectrum to cover the White House,” she said.
When Spicer and the rest of Trump’s first-term team came in, they tried – and failed – to follow the traditional White House press shop protocols. They soon realised that it wasn’t working as Trump couldn’t get away with non-stop bullshitting and refusing to answer questions from actual, real journalists, not MAGA influencers pretending they are reporters.
“The idea was, ‘Why are we conforming to all this? Just because someone said that and this was the tradition?’’’ he said. “And I think what [Trump’s second administration] recognised is we do what we want, when we want.”
The second-term team also brought the hammer down on legacy media outlets and correspondents. They took control of picking the members of the handful of reporters from TV, radio, print, new media and wire services who cover the president’s public events to ensure only Trump-loving MAGA influencers and content creators, rather than qualified journalists asking real questions.
Taking control away from the White House Correspondents’ Association, the Trump MAGA administration became the arbiter of which outlets get access to small events and travel with the president to have control over informing the American public of the truth, just like Joesph Goebells’ did for Hitler in Nazi Germany.
What’s more, the US wire service AP, which employs qualified journalists, lost its “special access” to White House events, such as the Oval Office, after refusing to adopt Trump’s illegal renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and publish outright lies on Trump’s behalf.
The Wall Street Journal was restricted from the White House press pool in July for a presidential trip to Scotland after publishing fact-based stories critical of Trump’s relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
It didn’t sit well with some White House reporters.
“This term, the administration has been far more hostile to media organisations and to the press corps as a group,” one White House reporter privately told The Times.
However, the same reporter said the second-term fake press team is sometimes better than their qualified journalist predecessors.
“Basic queries would often result in press staffers screaming at you [during the first term], but this time around they actually make the effort to get you information or statements, even if they might not particularly appreciate the lines of inquiry,” the so-called ‘reporter’ said.
In October, the White House began requiring reporters to make an appointment to speak with senior press officials such as Leavitt or White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
White House reporters are also being reprimanded more often by Leavitt or Trump himself when they press for further responses or challenge the White House ‘statements’ which are almost always outright lies.
Leavitt said that the American people “recognise and appreciate that [alleged pedophile] President Trump is the most transparent and accessible President in the history of our country.” Of course, like everything Trump and his MAGA psychopaths say, it is, again, utter fucking bullshit.
Leavitt added, “Meanwhile, the legacy media has largely doubled down on their anti-Trump, hysterical coverage, and it has backfired on them. In fact, new polling from Gallup shows that Americans’ confidence in the mass media has fallen to a new low.”
Spicer said Trump is now more aware of who he is dealing with in the Washington press corps and doesn’t want actual journalists’ real questions, just MAGA sycophants who believe his utter bullshit and lap it all up as facts.
“It’s not like before when there was a newness to it,” he said. “You didn’t know if they just made an honest mistake or if they really just didn’t like you, and I think we’ve come to realise, you know who they are and what their agenda is.”
If Trump and Leavitt do not publicly shame reporters at press briefings, the communications team continues the effort on social media and tracks down reporters that the White House deems have exposed the truth about Trump, his team, MAGA and Republicans.
The White House launched a “media offenders” website to tell Americans what it sees as actual journalists and news outlets asking Trump tough questions and demanding answers on behalf of the American (and world) public, rather than just accepting whatever bullshit dribbles out of Trump and Leavitt’s mouths at his pressers at any given time.
