NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politicofrom the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage and “fake news,” and threatened that more such media bans could be coming — the latest salvo in the president’s increasingly aggressive response to media coverage he finds unfavorable.
If you believe the President of the United States should have the power to decide what news can be published and what can’t you will feel very comfortable in Russia or China, or as a Republican in America.
Like many of Trump’s other confrontations with news organizations — some of which are playing out in the legal arena — this threat has potential First Amendment implications. There was no immediate indication, though, that he was following through.
Trump wrote on his social media site that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”Minutes later, speaking at an event in the Oval Office, Trump was asked to explain his statement.
“Because they’re fake news,” he said. “You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it’s just fake. That’s why their ratings are no good. When you look at MS NOW … , it’s fake news.”
“And when you look at Politico … the stories they wrote are fake. So there’s a lot of news and there may be others to join them, and maybe they can get better,” he said. “But our country has to have honest news.”
He gave no further details on how the ban would be implemented. Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were still on the White House grounds as of late Friday afternoon with no signs of being removed.
CNN denounced the move, saying it stands behind its White House team and their “fair and accurate reporting.”
1970s: Discrimination against Black renters 1980s: Sexual misconduct allegations begin September 2005: Trump is caught on tape advocating “grabbing women by the pussy” April 2016: Trump is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl October 2016: A journalist accuses Trump of assaulting her in Mar-a-Lago 21 June 2019: E Jean Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a department store
It’s hard to believe that Donald Trump has only been back in office for a year, given the relentless news cycle he seems so obsessed with commanding (once a reality star, always a reality star?). From ordering especially high numbers of thuggish ICE agents into states that voted for his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, to belittling allies in Europe (much to the delight of Russia’s President Putin), Trump sadly shows no signs of ending the chaos that is impacting the lives of millions the world over.
Outside of these vastly consequential decisions, the 79-year-old’s critics are also quick to point out that Trump is the first twice-impeached president with a criminal conviction to his name – and are now calling for him to be impeached a third time (something which could theoretically be possible if his party loses in the mid-term elections this coming November).
Alongside the two previous impeachments, Trump also has 34 felony counts to his name and one official conviction (plus six instances of bankruptcy). Accusations levelled against the President range from raping a teenager in 1994 to rigging the 2016 election and allegations that he incited and encouraged violence that led to the 6 January 2021 storming of Capitol Hill.
So, what has Trump actually been accused – and convicted – of over the years? Here’s a timeline recapping the key cases…
If you have any doubts about whether the Trump/Musk comedy team is honest and knows what it is doing, let’s disabuse you of those doubts. They aren’t and they don’t. Read the following article written by Carl Gibson in AlterNet:
But aside from the Coast Goard contract completed in 2005, the billionaire’s group has also committed several other glaring errors, casting doubt on the veracity of its claims of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
“These are not savings,” government spending tracker Lisa Shea Mundt told the Times.
“The money’s been spent. Period. Point blank.
”
Out of all the budget cuts DOGE (which is not yet an official federal agency authorized by Congress) has taken credit for, Musk has said five particular cuts saved taxpayers $10 billion.
One contract for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that DOGE claimed was for $8 billionwas actually just for $8 million.
DOGE also erroneously counted a $655 million contract three times.
And the group also claimed to have cancelled a $232 million contract at the Social Security Administration, when in reality just one individual project was cancelled to the tune of $560 thousand.
Out of the $10 billion in purported cuts Musk claimed for these five line items, the actual savings was just $19 million,which is 99.8% smaller than the initial number DOGE proffered.
That’s a similar error to the Coast Guard contract, which was 99.7% less than what Musk claimed.
“It’s obvious that they don’t understand,” said Eric Franklin, who runs a firm that consults with the U.S. government on contracting procedures.
A $14 million contract with Franklin’s firm was actually on DOGE’s wall of receipts, even though it had been completed in 2021.
In just the first few minutes of the speech, Trump proclaimed that he won the 2024 election with “a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.”
New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel pointed out that Trump won the popular voteby just a 1.48% margin, while Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama each had margins of victory of 4.45% and 7.27%, respectively.
This led Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to stand up and shout that he has “no mandate to cut Medicaid.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) then ordered the House sergeant-at-arms to remove the longtime lawmaker from the chamber. Aaron Fritschner, who is the deputy chief of staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) posted the viral photoof Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shouting during Biden’s State of the Union address with the text: “They weren’t removed.”
Trump also used a significant portion of his speech to falsely assert there was widespread fraud in the Social Security Administration (SSA), arguing that people well over 100 years old were receiving benefits. On Bluesky, Washington Post columnist Philip Bumpcalled that claim “total horses—“ and posted a link showing that
Trump was misreading data from the SSA. The agency has a database of every American who has been issued a Social Security number, but many of them don’t have a date of death listed, as they passed away before electronic records were put in place.Kansas University law professor Corey Rayburn Yung described the president’s remarksabout Social Security as “a lengthy diatribe that is all false.”
LUTNICK, magically GDP changes to the numbers we want. We simply change the definition
When a Trump appointee realizes the facts contradict his boss, he either misrepresents the facts or hides them.
The facts are the facts. They never change, but for a Trumper, it’s the perception, not any fact, that matters.
Thus, when Trump claims Ukraine invaded Russia, the lie doesn’t change the facts. But Trump and his MAGAs care only about public perception.
The economy is measured by a statistic known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), calculated using the formula: Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports.
In the U.S., the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)—a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to economic research—determines when we are in a recession by examining indicators of prolonged economic decline across various sectors.
It analyzes data points including real income, which reflects individuals’ purchasing power after adjusting for inflation; employment levels; industrial production output; wholesale and retail sales; and gross domestic product (GDP).
Mathematically, imposing high tariffs on imports, while deporting millions of workers and consumers, must raise prices and decrease GDP. Neither of these is a hypothesis or a prediction. It is a statistical certainty.
When GDP declines over several months, it is referred to as a “recession.” Conversely, when GDP decreases significantly and/or extensively, it is known as a “depression.”
Trump’s advisors must have realized that Trump’s plan to levy import duties and cut federal spending must result in inflation and recession or depression.
Rather than trying to correct Trump’s flawed policies, and actually prevent the depression, MAGAs prefer to change the measure.
Imagine selling a 2,000-square-foot house and wanting to tell the buyer it’s bigger than 2,000 square feet. Instead of physically enlarging the house, you simply change the measurement and decide that from now on, a foot will be eight inches long.
So your 2,000 foot house suddenly would be listed as 4,500 square feet. The house didn’t change, but by arbitrarily changing the measure, you could claim it was bigger.
Sounds ridiculous, even fraudulent, doesn’t it? But that is exactly what the Trump administration wants to do with GDP, in a futile effort to hide the inevitable recession and depression.
“A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform. “Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don’t make people’s lives better.”
Is Musk asserting that federal spending on bridges, roads, dams, flight control, disaster recovery, anti-poverty efforts, medical research and development, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and countless other initiatives the government undertakes to enhance our lives “doesn’t create value for the economy”?
That’s such nonsense.
Due to Musk’s budget cuts, GDP will decline. This presents a significant issue that Musk is well aware of. He is scared silly that when people see the decrease in GDP, they will accurately conclude that he is responsible for causing a recession.
The argument as articulated so far by Trump administration officials appears to play down the economic benefits created by Social Security payments, infrastructure spending, scientific research and other forms of government spending that can shape an economy’s trajectory.
“If the government buys a tank, that’s GDP,” Lutnick said Sunday. “But paying 1,000 people to think about buying a tank is not GDP. That is wasted — inefficiency, wasted money. And cutting that, while it shows in GDP, we’re going to get rid of that.”
Is Lutnick paid to come up with such a nonsense objection? His salary could be considered a waste of money. Thinking about war strategy is as important as building tanks.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis published its most recent GDP report on Thursday, showing that the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.3% in the final three months of last year.
The economy will drop like a stone under Trump, no matter how hard he tries to fake the numbers. While he remains in office, we will fall deeper and deeper into a depression.
The report makes it possible to measure the forces driving the economy, showing that the gains at the end of last year were largely driven by greater consumer spending and an upward revision to federal government spending related to defense.
Still, the federal government’s component of the GDP report for all of 2024 increased at 2.6%, slightly lower than overall economic growth last year of 2.8%.
Thus, even eliminating Federal Spending from the GDP equation won’t save Trump. His economy is doomed and everyone will know it. Fudging the figures won’t save him.
Lutnick’s false claim that federal spending doesn’t “make people’s lives better” is evident. Cutting federal spending will reduce personal income.
The government is not always a contributor to GDP and can subtract from it, which is what happened in 2022 as pandemic-related aid expired.
Lutnick said that the Trump administration would balance the federal budget with spending cuts, saying that would help growth and reduce the interest rates paid by consumers.
Historically, balancing the federal budget has led to depressions.
“When we balance the budget of the United States of America, interest rates are going to come smashing down,” Lutnick said. “This is going to be the best economy anybody’s ever seen. And to bet against it is foolish.”
Under Biden, the economy grew massively. Under Depression Don Trump it will sink. My advice: Do what I have done. While Depression Don remains in office, convert a significant part of your asset portfolio to Treasuries.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 