Trump’s MAGA Replacement for the Media Is an Amateur-Hour Disaster

Bulwark Takes

The episode examines Donald Trump's escalating conflict with the traditional White House press corps and his efforts to replace them with MAGA-al

Key takeaways

• The White House barred CNN from flying on Air Force One despite court orders regarding press pool access.
• Real America's Voice and Mike Lindell's MyPillow network are emerging as a 'shadow' press pool for the administration.

Main topics

• White House press pool restrictions
• MAGA media alternatives

Notable quotes

I want real news, not fake news like you.

Conclusion

The episode highlights a systemic erosion of institutional norms and t

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey, everyone. I'm Catherine Rampell, economics editor here at The Bulwark, joined by my colleague and friend Will Sommer to talk about all sorts of interesting things that have popped up just over the weekend. First, going to talk a little bit about what what is going on with Trump banning members of the press from the White House and from otherwise covering this administration. So folks may remember that courts have ordered Donald Trump. to allow CNN, MSNOW, where, full disclosure, I am also on staff, and Politico from covering the White House, from being a part of the pool or otherwise having access to the press room. Despite that... The White House barred CNN from flying on Air Force One on Saturday as part of the news outlets duties covering the president on behalf of major TV networks. This is part of their pool duties. That's what they're called. CNN had been scheduled to fly aboard the president's plane on his trip to Tennessee for a college football game as part of the White House TV press pool. That's the small rotating group of journalists that cover the president. And the move, which was announced. Friday night in a White House note that lays out the president's schedule represents the Trump administration's latest salvo against CNN and the broader White House press corps. No outlet was listed as replacing CNN, meaning there will be no television pool coverage of his trip. So before we get into how Donald Trump characterizes all of this, we'll. What's your take on this continued defiance of court orders and continued attempts to shut down press coverage? For Speaker 1 (1:47) what it's worth, I think there actually will be television coverage. It will just be provided by Real America's Voice, the sort of MAGA quasi shadow pool that's been set up. And we'll get into that. I mean, yeah, I think clearly Trump is saying, OK, first, you know, there was this denial on Friday, even after the judge's ruling that people like Politico. MSNOW, et cetera, couldn't get into the White House. And then the networks complained and they said. Oh, sorry, it was a paperwork error or whatever. You can come on in. But clearly, they don't feel that that applies to riding on Air Force One, being part of the pool. There's kind of this issue now of refusing to let the band networks back into the television pool. And look, I mean, I think the White House is, you know, they're clearly mad that they don't have a legal leg to stand on here. And so they're trying to sort of pick every way. Oh, you can't force us to let people onto Air Force One, stuff like that. And, you know, that may be sound or legal ground for them. Speaker 2 (2:38) I Speaker 1 (2:38) mean, we'll have to see. Speaker 2 (2:39) Who's going to force them is the real problem. But that's always the problem with any time that a court, which is the judicial branch, obviously supposed to be a co-equal branch of government, tries to tell the president to do something. There's often this little bit of a dance of who's going to make him. So you mentioned real America's voice. So real America's voice is not so great. It actually. capturing real American voices because their audio sucks. We would love Speaker 1 (3:09) to Speaker 2 (3:09) play for you a clip of a delectable set of comments that Donald Trump made regarding his approach to freedom of the press and his respect for it, of course. But the audio sucks so badly that we are not going to put you through that. Instead, let me read you a brief transcript of what went down. Kayla Gardner from MS Now says, do you only want outlets that support you to be a part of the press pool? Trump says, no, no, no. I want real news, not fake news like you. Trump says, I want real news. I love an open, free press. What I don't like is the fake press where a group like CNN, few people watch it, or MSDNC, which they chained, I guess, to now. But you know why they changed it? Because the ratings are so bad. What I don't like. And Kayla Gardner says, do you not want tough questions, sir? Trump says, wait, wait, quiet. What I what I don't like is fake news and their fake news. One hundred percent in two years. I doubt they did one good story and I won the election in a landslide. So what we don't want is we don't want fake news. What Donald Trump is saying is he loves a an open, free press so long as it is open and free to say nice things about him. And if it is not saying nice things about him, then it is no longer allowed to be open and free. This seems very similar to the kinds of comments he's made about other institutions that he has tried to destroy or hobble through weaponizing the state. So like he's basically said, the Federal Reserve is free to remain independent so long as it independently decides to. cut rates, which is what he wants. His take is, yeah, of course, you're free to do whatever you want as long as whatever you want is also what I want. Speaker 1 (5:03) So this has been an interesting part of Trump's crackdown on the networks and banning them, what have you, is he's very open about like, look, I don't like what they're saying. I don't think they have a freedom of the press. And so, you know, in this we still see here, I mean, this kind of ties into the argument they were making about national security. Well, what's the national security issue? And they say, well, the national security is you were rude about the president. You didn't respect the president's mandate, you know, after his election landslide. And given that we just talked about the awful audio, let's talk a little bit more about Real America's Voice. So if you're hoping to keep up with the president, I hope you get used to this audio because basically Real America's Voice is this sort of YouTube channel. It's a real murderer's row here of characters like Steve Bannon, Jack Posobiec, kind of these various characters who have shows. And so early last week, they said they got a midnight phone call and they wouldn't say who, but I think it's pretty clear at this point that it was the White House. And they said, hey. You know, the networks are boycotting the pool. Can you kind