“Jeopardy!” needs a new category: “Things Trump Hates.”
The Q&As are endless: “Donald Trump embodies a 19th-century mercantilist due to his hatred of this.” What is free trade? “Donald Trump hates this legal concept from the Magna Carta.” What is due process? “Donald Trump is the first president in modern times to not have one of these because he hates them.” What is a pet?
The judges might also accept: What is a first lady?
By the way, where is Melania? Has anyone checked to see if her cellphone is pinging from a Hermès storage room or El Salvador?
But of all the Things Trump Hates, the media is numero uno.
This week, Tariff Man took to Truth Social to reignite an old grievance: “Almost every week, 60 Minutes, which is being sued for Billions of Dollars for the fraud they committed in the 2024 Presidential Election with their Interview of Failed Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all.”
I will never get his random capitalization and use of quotation marks. But Trump is a COBRA and There are “NO SNAKE CHARMERS” left in his “Party” of Grifters.
So what did “60 Minutes” do to trigger 60 seconds of hissing rage? It sent correspondent Scott Pelley to Ukraine to interview President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Makes sense. For three years, Mr. Zelenskyy has defended his country from Vladimir Putin’s illegal and barbaric invasion.
Maybe Trump does not want to be reminded that he failed to end the war in 24 hours. Or that Putin is playing him like a balalaika. Maybe he didn’t like that Zelenskyy invited him to visit Ukraine to witness the death and destruction.
A war zone? Trump doesn’t have the stones to visit Sky Zone.
The second “60 Minutes” story he hated on Sunday was about reaction in Greenland to his stated plans to “own” it. The newsmagazine was reporting the news. Trump is acting like they did an expose with anonymous sources dishing on how he rubs his cheeks on traffic cones to get that orange hue.
He is demanding the Federal Communications Commission impose “maximum fines and punishment” on CBS for “unlawful and illegal behavior (sic).” This would be laughable in saner days. But the new FCC chair, Brendan Carr, wears a gold lapel pin of Dear Leader’s silhouetted head. I’m afraid sanity is on a four-year hiatus.
Also, per the New York Times this week: “The White House is planning to ask Congress to claw back more than $1 billion slated for public broadcasting in the United States … a move that could ultimately eliminate almost all federal support for NPR and PBS.”
Conservatives despise public broadcasting more than “The White Lotus” cast despise one another. The right sees NPR and PBS as chambers of left-wing indoctrination. This is why “Sesame Street” is a frequent target.
You need not inject Marjorie Taylor Greene with truth serum. She will gladly speculate about how Cookie Monster is communist. Big Bird is trans. Rosita is an MS-13 gangbanger. Elmo wants to ban guns. Bert and Ernie are gay. Count von Count is an illegal migrant. Oh, and Abby Cadabby is clearly a drag queen.
These scattershot absurdities distract from Trump’s kinetic war on the media.
A judge recently ruled the White House can’t ban the Associated Press because it refuses to change “Gulf of Mexico” to Trump’s rebranded “Gulf of America.” Despite this injunction, the AP was still barred from the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump keeps making wake-up calls. The media keeps hitting snooze.
All aspiring tyrants torch journalism. It’s why Trump has filled his press pool with blithering chuckleheads from MAGA outlets. He does not want reporters speaking truth to (illegal) power. He wants compliments on his golf game.
The toughest question at a White House presser will soon be: “What’s your favourite afternoon snack?”
You think Trump isn’t drawing up plans to shut down the Wall Street Journal ed board? Or sell ABC News to the Kremlin? Or send masked thugs to grab Maggie Haberman and disappear her to a South American gulag where she will be forced to stitch “48” into red hats while vowing to have Elon Musk’s next baby?
Trump is all about divide and conquer. He is attempting this with law firms, universities and companies that do not bend to the edicts of the Mad King.
The media needs to stand together and ditch the competitive impulses of yesteryear. Compete when sanity returns. Every outlet should ghost the White House until the AP is granted re-entry. Every outlet should call out Trump’s intimidation tactics, whether he’s fantasizing about turning MSNBC into a bodega or calling for CBS to lose its broadcast licence.
Donald Trump wants to control the media because he hates the truth.
The media must unite and resist this assault on reality.
