How Trump’s most 'favored' White House reporter is declaring war on the First Amendment

Brian Glenn of Real America's Voice at the 2024 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2024 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Although Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is far from a Never Trumper, he found some common ground with the Never Trump right when he forcefully called out Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr — accusing him of sounding like a "mafia boss" when he threatened to revoke ABC's broadcast license if they didn't take action against late-night lost Jimmy Kimmel. Cruz argued that attacking the First Amendment in 2025 could could come back to haunt Republicans if a left-wing president comes to power in the future. And many Never Trump conservatives and libertarians responded that while they often disagree with Cruz, he was spot on this time.

But Brian Glenn — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Georgia) boyfriend and chief White House correspondent for Real America's Voice — is, according to Salon's Sophia Tesfaye, encouraging the Trump Administration's attacks on the First Amendment.

In an article published on September 22, Tesfaye stresses that Glenn "essential to" the Trump Administration's "calculated campaign to redefine what press freedom means in America."

"Under this administration," Tesfaye explains, "freedom of the press is a conditional privilege. If you praise the president, you're welcome. If you challenge him, you should expect retaliation. The White House feeds its preferred outlets — Real America's Voice, Right Side Broadcasting, Fox News, and a handful of right-wing influencers — while starving mainstream reporters of access and painting them as subversive threats. The president has encouraged lawsuits against journalists and media outlets for doing their jobs, and threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of networks he dislikes."

Tesfaye continues, "Across the Potomac at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has quietly rewritten guidelines on press access. In a matter of months, we've witnessed a quiet conversion of the American press corps into something more akin to state media. Access is granted on the condition of favorability — and no member of the press is more favored than Glenn."

Glenn, the Salon reporter warns, "masquerades as a White House correspondent while serving as a glorified PR agent for the (Trump) Administration."

"Many of Glenn’s questions for Trump are softballs," Tesfaye observes. "They parrot MAGA talking points and inject policy proposals straight from Greene's desk into the official press pool. When Glenn asked the president whether he would eliminate capital gains taxes on home sales — one of Greene's pet policy proposals — it wasn't an inquiry; it was a plant. The president joked about Glenn being Greene's boyfriend and moved on. But the question did its job. The congresswoman's bill made it into the headlines, and it reinforced the unspoken understanding that Glenn is not there to interrogate: He's there to assist. He is propaganda wrapped in a press pass."

After Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in Utah, Tesfaye notes, Glenn "pushed Trump to focus his ire on the transgender community." It was also Glenn who "asked Trump about banning Pride flags or dismantling protest encampments."

Tesfaye writes, "This isn’t how a free press functions. Dismantling a 40-year anti-nuclear protest in Lafayette Square after a single question from a friendly reporter? That's suppression. Entertaining the idea of banning Pride flags based on one loaded media prompt? That's soft authoritarianism. Refusing access to reporters who cover government abuses, while elevating influencers who openly promote administration propaganda? That's state capture. And it's all how autocracies operate."

Sofia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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