Media

President Donald Trump has had no qualms about using conspiracy theories to rile up his MAGA base and use them to ascend to power, but according to a new analysis from The i Paper, his supporters have now turned this against him with a dire conspiracy theory that he "can't escape."

Laura Trevelyan is a British writer and journalist who, on Wednesday, published a piece for The i Paper explaining that Trump's MAGA followers are increasingly latching on to a theory surrounding his 2024 reelection campaign, and it is "one he didn’t instigate and can’t control."

"Candidate Trump embraced the baseless claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, wasn’t an American citizen and was therefore an illegitimate president," Trevelyan wrote. "Now, without any actual evidence at all, some MAGA figures are asking if the 2024 attempt to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged. Outlandish and devoid of facts as this may be, it’s a sign of distrust in Donald Trump from those who were once his most fervent supporters."

There are numerous compounding reasons for this distrust among Trump's once-ardent supporters, she explained. "The way in which the Epstein files were released and President Trump’s war against Iran" have sown the seeds of disdain for the president deep within parts of the MAGA base, going against everything they believed that he stood for when he asked for their votes in years past. In light of these betrayals, some are beginning to ask venomous questions about what else Trump has been lying to them about.

What makes this particular conspiracy theory so dangerous for Trump is how much political capital he extracted from the assassination attempt during his reelection campaign. The shot of him holding a fist aloft in defiance after the shots rang out became a potent symbol of strength for his base, and was swiftly plastered onto all manner of merchandise and political messaging. The moment has been widely credited with accelerating his return to power, and supporters famously wore bandages on their own ears in solidarity with Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention, when he accepted the party's nomination.

"Donald Trump’s courage while literally under fire became a defining part of his mythology, as he successfully campaigned to regain the presidency, and afterwards," Trevelyan continued. "A portrait of him with a raised fist, wounded ear and bloodied face now hangs in the White House. To his most loyal supporters, inside and outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he is the chosen one. The FBI concluded that Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone when he shot Donald Trump. But questions about what happened in Butler and the FBI’s investigation into the suspected shooter have been spreading online and within the MAGA movement."

Doubts about this incident are spreading quickly among prominent MAGA voices. Tucker Carlson has called into question the FBI's findings about the shooter's online presence, suggesting a possible cover-up. In an interview with Carlson, recently departed national counterterrorism director Joe Kent questioned why more information about the deceased suspect has not been released. There was some indication in the aftermath of the attempt that Crooks may have, at least once, been a Trump supporter. Kent further alleged that "investigations into the shooting had been shut down before they finished."

Jesse Ventura – the former pro wrestling icon, governor of Minnesota and outspoken Trump critic — compared the shooting to a "blade job," a reference to a bit of wrestling stagecraft whereby performers use hidden razors to cut themselves, faking the appearance that a move has caused them to bleed and heightening drama. Trump, a WWE Hall of Fame inductee in his own right, is certainly no stranger to the tricks of that trade.

"Does any of this matter?" Trevelyan asked. "The Trump administration is worried about failing to turn out the Republican base in November’s midterm elections, where control of Congress is at stake. Once devoted supporters of Donald Trump who are now questioning his commitments to bring down prices and keep America out of the Middle East may be more likely to stay at home if they also hear there are unanswered questions about the attempt to assassinate him – regardless of the lack of evidence."

President Donald Trump and his administration attempted to let a huge corporation off the hook for monopoly allegations while no one was looking, but according to a new analysis from MS NOW, a state ruling on the matter has handed him yet another legal "faceplant."

Early last month, Trump's Justice Department moved to settle a lawsuit against Live Nation — the conglomerate with massive control over the live event and ticketing industries in the U.S. — after a Biden-era antitrust suit accused it of maintaining an illegal monopoly. The move was the latest in a long line of Trump-era policies favoring big business and its ability to take advantage of customers.

That decision to let Live Nation off easy could have been the end of it, but instead, this week, a federal jury in New York ruled that the company had, in fact, engaged in monopolistic practices. This, as reporter Helaine Olen wrote for MS NOW on Friday, meant that the case would not "end with a whimper," on account of the "egregious" facts pointing to the company's obvious wrongdoing. Furthermore, she argued, the ruling also dealt "a huge faceplant for the Trump administration."

"The Trump administration [is] doing the bidding of big business," Olen wrote. "Its settlement with Live Nation is in the same spirit as the sign-offs on mergers such as Paramount and Warner Brothers, or HP and Juniper. The judge in this case can and should scrutinize the settlement closely. Congress has the power to look into both the settlement and the mergers, and lawmakers should use that authority. At the same time, this verdict should hearten the state attorneys general who have already joined together to fight these wildly inappropriate and anticompetitive mergers."

She continued: "And, then there were the nine jury members that handed Trump and corporate America this defeat. They didn’t just deliver a verdict on Ticketmaster. They also said enough to an economy in which giant monopolies have grown and prospered at the expense of honest businesses and powerless consumers. Now it’s time for an encore performance — against all the other monopolistic deals getting waived through by this administration."

Live Nation emerged as a major monopolistic force in the live event industry when it merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. As a condition for merger approval from the Obama administration, the company had to pledge not to engage in a variety of anticompetitive practices, which, as Olen explained, they more than failed to do.

"Live Nation didn’t just fail to live up to its promise. It repeatedly, blatantly violated the agreement," she wrote. "The states argued employees of the newly combined company, which controls an astonishing 86% of the concert ticket market and almost three-quarters of the overall event ticketing market, began threatening venues with retaliation unless they used Ticketmaster. Live Nation executives actually boasted in writing about ripping off customers. One employee, who is now a ticketing executive, joked that an increase in parking fees for customers was 'robbing them blind baby. That’s how we do.'”

It has been nearly 25 years since the protests broke out across the U.S. in opposition to the Iraq war. Despite fierce opposition and the largest global protests in history, as the BBC said, the recent "No Kings" protest is closing in on those numbers.

Writing for the iPaper, The Independent's editor-in-chief, Simon Kelner, said that President Donald Trump has inadvertently inspired millions to stand in opposition to his government.

"They represented a recognition that some of the things Americans believed in most deeply — the primacy of their Constitution, trust in their system as a beacon of democracy, and the essential decency and fairness of their politics — are being degraded by the Trump Presidency, and that it was time to take to the streets in their millions," wrote Kelner.

Unlike other moments that target specific issues, "No Kings" is a kind of all-encompassing campaign that is "essentially an anti-authoritarian coalition; this movement has a more European flavor to it," he said.

While there were the "Black Lives Matter" protests in 2020 and the civil rights marches in the 1960s, Kelner noted that this year "marks something of a watershed" with mass demonstrations that have become "a new reality." Meanwhile, the public doesn't "trust the system any longer to defend them against the wild overreach of a rogue US President."

Ironically, he said, it may be that Trump's biggest legacy is "that he has radicalized his nation." It's particularly rich given that the entire MAGA movement began as an anti-establishment movement.

Kelner noted that history tells the world that marches don't change regimes or even force political leaders to rethink policies. Trump mocked the "No Kings" protest and called rally-goers "whacked out." The rallies were "very small, very ineffective," Trump claimed. But the count was anywhere between 8 and 9 million people, reports said.

Erica Chenoweth, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, researched protest movements after 1900 to determine which were the most successful. What she found she calls the "3.5 percent rule."

"Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts — and those engaging a threshold of 3.5 percent of the population have never failed to bring about change," her report said. For the "No Kings" crowd to reach that, they need to turn out about 12 million people at the next march. It would eclipse the anti-Iraq war protests.

Even though the recent rallies didn't reach the 3.5 percent threshold, Kelner urged Trump World not to underestimate their significance.

"While it may seem to be an inchoate, leaderless movement, a threshold has been crossed for the American people. The willingness of this administration to ride roughshod over judicial orders defiles both the spirit and letter of that holiest of sacraments — the Constitution of the United States — and, for innately polite and quiescent people and, above all, a nation united only under that constitution, resistance would appear to be the only option," said Kelner.

"Make no mistake," Kelner closed, there are now many, many Americans who see Trump's administration as a challenge to a 250-year-old way of life. "Are we about to witness an American Spring? It’s not such a daft question."

A press secretary for the Pentagon appears to have given the game away in terms of the Trump administration's intentions with its recent change to press access rules, with one reporter explaining that her recent sworn statement "lays out pretty clearly" that the plan was to prevent journalists from doing actual journalism.

The Department of Defense is currently in the midst of a legal battle against the New York Times over its revised press policies, with a judge rolling back many of the new rules imposed since President Donald Trump's return to power. Critics have long criticized these moves as an effort to stop unflattering stories about the agency from spreading, with the Pentagon itself claiming that the move was meant to protect sensitive or classified materials from leaking.

After the judge's ruling last week, the Pentagon requested that a rule requiring escorts for reporters at the Pentagon to remain in effect while it fought to undo the other changes, arguing in a filing that "allowing members of the public unfettered access to the Pentagon poses unique and acute dangers."

A sworn statement included in a recent filing from DOD press secretary Kingsley Wilson, however, seems to indicate what the revised press access rules are actually attempting to combat, as The Guardian's media reporter Jeremy Barr noted in a post to X.

"When journalists surrendered their [Pentagon Facilities Alternative Credentials] and accompanying Pentagon access, the Department was able to observe a dramatic decrease in journalists obtaining sensitive, controlled or classified information that should never have been released to them," Wilson said in the sworn statement.

"This line from Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson's sworn statement lays out pretty clearly what the goal of their revised access policy is," Barr wrote.

A report by The Daily Beast on Wilson's statement made the point even clearer, arguing that her definition of a threat to the Pentagon appears to match the definition of journalism itself.

"The Pentagon has a new theory of national security: journalists can be dangerous if allowed to roam freely," the outlet explained. "The argument leans heavily on a sworn declaration from Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson, who painted a dark picture of reporters lurking near power, watching who comes and goes, and asking inconveniently well-timed questions. For many people, this is the definition of journalism."

Those closest to President Donald Trump are not in a good place, and they are coping with memes.

On Monday, Dasha Burns, the White House bureau chief for Politico, took to X with a lengthy thread detailing the dire mood and private panic rippling through "Trumpworld," revealing that she pressed various sources for what memes and GIFs they would use to describe how they are feeling about the president's multiplying scandals.

"VIBE CHECK: I asked Trumpworld for memes that illustrate the mood at the White House right now – as the president is blockading the Strait of Hormuz, feuding with Pope Leo and memeing himself as Jesus (or a doctor?)," Burns wrote to kick off the thread.

Alongside that intro, she shared a GIF from the classic British sitcom, The IT Crowd, in which a character attempts to remain focused on work while a fire burns just a few feet away from them. Burns attributed the meme to "an admin official."

Independent of each other, "two people close to the White House" sent Burns the same famous meme featuring a cartoon dog sitting at a table while surrounded by a house fire, with text reading "It's fine. Everything is fine."

Someone credited as a "White House ally" sent Burns a presumably sarcastic GIF of Trump giving a speech while claiming that "my personality is going to keep us out of wars."

Another source, credited as "a GOP operative close to the White House," sent an image featuring a painting of Jesus holding his head in frustration, alongside the text, "Time to flood the Earth."

Burns wrapped up the thread with two images she received from a "person close to the White House," who sent the photo of Trump holding up a fist after his assassination attempt to describe how they would tell people they are feeling about things, and a photo of actor Jonah Hill looking exhausted in a movie alongside the text, "I guess bro," to describe how they are actually feeling.

Politico's Monday Playbook feature noted that Burns requested comment in meme form, given that they are dominant within the "communication style of Trump world."

President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch and others has been thrown out of court.

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida, an appointee from President Barack Obama, ruled that “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed."

The judge also said that Trump could file a new amended lawsuit if he wishes, but he only has until April 27 to do so.

Last year, the WSJ reported that there was a book celebrating trafficking Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. In the book, Trump submitted a little skit of a conversation about "secrets" the two shared. It was within a drawing of a woman. Trump alleged it was false, but the page was revealed showing that the drawing did exist.

As an appellate lawyer, Gabriel Malor said, "Trump can replead."

Economist Teresa Fort commented, "There needs to be some penalty for bringing lawsuits that will be dismissed like this. There is a huge cost for defendants to deal with them."

A few people suggested that the WSJ sue Trump.

"Since most everything Trump does is illegal or a lie, fighting back pays off. He banks on the fact that his victims can’t afford to do so. Those who can, win," said Michael Curry.

"Stupid defamation lawsuits are a real threat to free speech. The story was true. It was well documented. And the President still managed to make a newspaper pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to report it," wrote lawyer Andrew Fleischman.

He explained that the WSJ was denied legal fees because Trump could still amend his complaint and suit.

"I am still surprised they did not raise the failure to give five days notice before suing, which has been successful in Florida federal district courts," said Fleischman.

He also recalled, "Republicans used to be all about tort reform. But many lack the stomach to support a federal anti-SLAPP to deter these stupid lawsuits until our litigant in chief shuffles off this mortal coil."

"In dismissing (without prejudice) Trump’s lawsuit vs WSJ over that Epstein birthday card, the judge shows why a reporter — asking someone for comment and quoting their response fully — is a smart legal, as well as ethical, thing to do," explained journalist Bill Grueskin.

"Yeah, tough to prove actual malice over a newspaper printing a real document you signed," quipped reporter David Weigel. "And lied about," added lawyer Scott Greenfield.

As President Donald Trump grapples with "back-to-back oddities" complicating his agenda, an analyst for MS NOW noted that he has abandoned one of his favorite early boasts as his White House devolves into a "poorly run mess."

Steve Benen is a longtime MS NOW contributor and producer for host Rachel Maddow. In a piece published Friday, he broke down the rough series of incidents that hit the Trump administration this week: the breakdown of his Iran ceasefire terms and First Lady Melania Trump's abrupt statement on Jeffrey Epstein.

On Thursday, the first lady, seemingly out of nowhere, held a press conference in which she distanced herself from deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, claiming to have only met them sparingly at parties. The remarks took many by surprise, as the Epstein story had largely faded into the background amid other scandals of her husband's, with her connection hardly rising above insinuations in the first place, leaving many with the sense that she was getting out ahead of impending new revelations.

"Just as jarring as the first lady’s remarks were the circumstances under which she made them: Donald Trump told MS NOW he didn’t realize his wife was going to make these remarks, while her spokesperson told The New York Times that the president was informed in advance about her plans to make a public statement," Benen observed.

That mess came in the aftermath of Trump's collapsing ceasefire deal with Iran. After announcing the purported deal to halt the conflict for two weeks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Israel broke the terms and launched strikes against Lebanon. This, in turn, prompted Iran to close the strait yet again.

Trump had lashed out against Iran in a Truth Social post, saying that it "better not be" charging tolls for oil tankers and other ships trying to pass through the strait.

"The odd online statement made it sound as if he, the chief executive of the world’s preeminent superpower, with unlimited access to a highly sophisticated global intelligence apparatus, simply had no idea whether or not Iran was imposing tolls," Benen wrote. "Just one day earlier, the president told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl largely the opposite, saying his administration was considering a 'joint venture' with Iran that would include tolls through the Strait of Hormuz. The Republican described the possible partnership as 'a beautiful thing.'"

Benen continued: "So it was that, as Thursday came to an end, it wasn’t at all clear what his position was or which of his contradictory positions to take seriously. In a functional West Wing, this sort of thing doesn’t happen."

Benen further highlighted boasts that Trump had made about his new administration early on in his second term, asserting at the time that the White House was "running like a fine-tuned machine." In the face of these two mishaps, he noted that it was appropriate that the president had not made such a claim recently.

"At face value, the back-to-back oddities appeared wholly unrelated — the Epstein scandal and U.S. policy in the Middle East have nothing to do with each other — but the juxtaposition offered a timely reminder that the current White House is a poorly run mess," he concluded. "About a month into his first term, the president boasted that, as far as he was concerned, his White House was 'running like a fine-tuned machine.' Even he no longer makes such claims, which no one is going to believe anyway."

A recurring theme in liberal journalist Amanda Marcotte's articles for Salon is that President Donald Trump's loyalists must repeatedly "debase" themselves to demonstrate their loyalty to him. Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and ex-Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Marcotte argues, went to endless extremes to please Trump only to get fired in the end. And she regards White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as Trump's "chief gaslighter," emphasizing that she shows "unblinking shamelessness" in her over-the-top defense of the president.

Leavitt aggressively defended Trump after he threatened to obliterate the "whole civilization" of Iran in an April 7 post on his Truth Social platform. Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and author/journalist, discussed Leavitt's defense of Trump's comments during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast," posted two days after Trump's widely criticized threat.

When a reporter pointed out that Trump is threatening "to destroy civilizations," Leavitt insisted that he "absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime" — a comment host Greg Sargent described as "disgusting." Leavitt, Sargent argued on the podcast, was being totally disingenuous when she pretended that Trump was only threatening the Iranian government, not civilians.

Brooks told Sargent, "I mean, look, Leavitt is the kind of a young woman I hope my daughters will not become, which is to say that she is also perfectly comfortable lying through her teeth. And I think the single nicest thing one could possibly say about Donald Trump is that he lies through his teeth and he just says whatever random, insane, offensive thing comes into his tiny little brain at any given time. And the result of that is that it's not actually clear that Trump gave a millisecond thought to the distinction between the people versus the regime, or that he has any understanding or interest in the fact that it sort of matters."

The Georgetown law professor continued, "The nicest thing you could say about him is maybe he didn't actually mean it. Maybe what he meant was regime, but he certainly said entire civilization. That is what he said. And the ridiculousness of Leavitt acting as though this is so offensive and so mean-spirited to raise any questions about lovely President Trump's words is just bizarre in this context. We've got one person who threatened a civilization, and her feelings are hurt."

Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, stressed that while the "Iranian regime is horrible," that "doesn't give us license to threaten and perpetrate mass atrocities ourselves."

Brooks agreed, telling Sargent, "The question wasn't who's more horrible, the Iranian regime or Donald Trump, which is, that's a really tough one, frankly. But that wasn't the question. The question was about U.S. leadership and U.S. moral standing in the world and in general. Iran does not have any ability to be a global leader or have any influence whatsoever or have any moral standing precisely because the Iranian regime has done terrible things, including to its own people over many decades. It's not clear to me why we would want to join them in that exclusive club of ass nations, frankly."

Far right and pro-Donald Trump commentary sites and personalities are fracturing as the Republican president pulls away from his years of promises to focus on "America First" priorities.

Axios reported on Wednesday that the MAGA media world is falling apart amid Trump's betrayal of his most ardent supporters.

The report explained that many of these political commentators and personalities have been the source of much of Trump's power. The sprawling ecosystem of podcasters, MAGA influencers and activists amplifying the president were, at one time, 100 percent loyal. Now, that has changed, with many of the prominent figures openly rebuking him and saying he's gone too far.

It began with power player Joe Rogan and podcaster Theo Von, both of whom speak to millions of listeners. They have gone from being on board with MAGA to rebuking it.

Rogan has called the Iran war "insane, based on what [Trump] ran on" and claimed MAGA supporters feel "betrayed." Von alleged that the U.S. and Israel — not Iran — are "the f——in' terrorists."

More recently, Trump has lost support of his long-time boosters Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.

Carlson not only denounced Trump’s Iran comments as “evil,” he lent his voice to those urging officials to refuse illegal orders. Kelly has hedged a bit more, saying that she is opposed to the war but that Trump could drop a nuke on Iran and she'd still vote Republican.

Disgraced right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called Trump a “dementia risk” who should be removed from office. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene described the president’s language as “evil and madness” and called for the 25th Amendment to be used to oust him. Candace Owens went even further, labeling Trump a “genocidal lunatic” and demanding intervention.

Tim Dillon mocked “America First” as a historic con. Even some Trump-aligned influencers are voicing deep disappointment over what they view as outright corruption and incompetence. That extends beyond Iran to the handling of the investigation files around trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The revolt has only just begun, but in the first several weeks, polls are showing some shrinkage among Trump's GOP support.

One Wall Street Journal poll found that about two-thirds of Republicans still approve of Trump’s handling of Iran.

The broader challenge for Trump continues to be that criticism is coming from inside the house, and, in large part, thanks to the very people who helped build his movement. That makes it harder to dismiss them as outsiders or traitors the way Republicans have with Democrats in the past.

Although Fox News and Fox Business are decidedly right-wing on the whole, Fox News has one liberal panelist who often butts heads with her colleagues: Jessica Tarlov. And President Donald Trump angrily railed against her during a Monday night, April 6 rant on his Truth Social platform.

Trump posted, "For Fox executives only, take Jessica Tarlov off the air. She is, from her voice, to her lies, and everything else about her, one of the worst 'personalities' on television, a real loser! People cannot stand watching her. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT."

But Trump went after one of Fox News' conservative hosts, Shannon Bream, as well.

"Tell Shannon Bream of FoxNews that it's not the Save Act, it’s the Save America Act, a big difference!," Trump posted. "Also, when she insists on having lightweight Democrat Congressmen, such as Jake Auchincloss, on her not very hard hitting show, she should correct them when they spew out Democrat propaganda and lies. She never does! I always close deals, unlike the Dems, and did great with China in every way, also, unlike the Dems!"

The Daily Beast's Cameron Adams notes that it is "unclear what triggered Trump" about Tarlov and inspired him to "offer unsolicited advice to the bosses at his favorite network about his least-favorite presenter."

"Tarlov is the latest in a growing line of female journalists to be targeted by Trump," Adams observes. "On April 1, he lost his cool with NewsNation's Libbey Dean, who had asked him whether Iran would have to make a deal for him to end the U.S. military intervention. 'You're a fresh person, you know?' Trump snapped. 'We've had a lot of problems with you, haven’t we?' In March, on board Air Force One, Trump opened fire on a female reporter from ABC. 'I think it's maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet,' he said. 'I don’t want any more from ABC.'

The Daily Beast reporter adds, "In February, the president laid into CNN's Kaitlan Collins, 33, when she asked him what he would like to say to the survivors of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."

President Donald Trump’s media ecosystem for a long time depended on major online brands like The Daily Wire and Blaze Media, but as one of their fellow conservative publications pointed out, Trump’s coalition is dissolving — and with it, the base of support upon which many of these media outlets once stood firm.

“Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is in trouble on YouTube, losing significant numbers of subscribers—with Shapiro himself down a whopping 80,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to a new survey of political channels by researcher Kyle Tharp,” wrote The Bulwark’s Will Sommer on Monday. “It’s more proof that dissident and increasingly anti-Trump voices like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have the energy in right-wing media. Shapiro, by contrast, is stuck defending an unpopular war with Iran.”

Sommer noted that even Shapiro’s attempts to offset losses to his political brand by crafting mainstream motion pictures has failed.

“Deadline reports that the set of the Daily Wire’s upcoming film Run Hide Fight Infidels is in chaos, with black mold on the site, a tree branch hitting a crew member, and actor Jonathan Majors falling out of a window during a recent shoot,” Sommer wrote. “Undeterred by crew complaints, producers say they won’t negotiate on safety ‘with communists.’ By communist, they mean unionized crew members.”

Sommer also took shots at Blaze Media, an outlet owned by Glenn Beck, which is facing problems because of a journalist associated with them who spread an incorrect story about the January 6th coup attempt.

“Back in November, the conservative media outlet the Blaze claimed that reporter Steve Baker had the scoop of the century: compelling evidence that the pipe bombs planted outside Republican and Democratic headquarters on January 6th were laid by a Capitol Police officer,” Sommer wrote. “Blaze founder Glenn Beck declared it would be ‘the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last hundred years.’ Republican members of Congress like Anna Paulina Luna and Thomas Massie championed the story, saying it was proof the deep state was behind January 6th.”

Yet the story proved not to be true, with Blaze Media retracting it in December, and Sommer wrote that Baker “was fired on Wednesday morning, as the publication faces the possibility of a massive libel judgment over the story.”

Beck has a long history of extravagant behavior, perhaps becoming most famous for dramatically crying during many of his speeches. Beck remains a stalwart in the conservative movement, although Shapiro has wavered somewhat at times. In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Shapiro admitted to David Remnick that he does not believe Trump is entirely honest and that he has concerns about the Trump family’s involvement in cryptocurrency schemes.

"I raised red flags on my show, consistently, about how I thought this was wrong. If the name were Biden instead of Trump, people would be screaming bloody murder," Shapiro told Remnick. "And this was not beneficial to President Trump’s agenda, either. So, sure, that concerns me."

Speaking with this journalist for Salon Magazine in 2019, Shapiro also admitted that he has been singled out for hate by some of his own far right supporters because of his Jewish background.

“I’ve gotten enormous amounts of hatred from the alt-right, and while folks on the far left try to lump me in with the alt-right, that is the height of absurdity on every possible level,” Shapiro said. “I mean, it’s honestly one of the most reprehensible things that I’ve experienced personally, people trying to lump me in with people who have legitimately threatened to kill my children … so that’s always a party.”

President Donald Trump said that his administration is on the hunt for "a leaker," he said, who revealed that one person was rescued and another was still missing from a downed aircraft in Iran.

"And as you probably know, we didn't talk about the first one for an hour and then somebody leaked something, which we'll hopefully find that leaker. We're looking very hard to find that leaker and talked about, 'There's somebody missing.' They basically said that we have one and there's somebody missing," said Trump.

"A leaker leaked!" Trump exclaimed, noting that they revealed "national security" information.

According to Trump, his administration will put the journalists in jail if they don't turn over their source.

'Well, they [Iran] didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. So whoever it is, we think we'll be able to find it out because we're going to go to the media company that released it, and we're going to say 'national security,' give it up or go to jail," announced Trump. "And we know who and you know who we're talking about because some things you can't do because when they did that, all of a sudden the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life."

"The person will go to jail if he doesn't say," added Trump.

Video footage from people on the ground in Iran was uploaded to social media showing the plane wreckage.

"Bit hard to follow Trump recounting of the rescue mission," foreign policy reporter Laura Rozen wrote on X. "Trump repeatedly talking about sand and contingencies."

"It's a F-15E, it is a two-person fighter jet. It doesn't take a leaker to realize there were two people to find," wrote "Task and Purpose" editor Nicholas Slayton on BlueSky.

Others wondered if Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could be the leaker. The secretary was found to be sending classified information via Signal to his lawyer, wife, a group of Trump officials and a reporter who was also quietly on the chat.

Another suggested that Trump could have been the leaker because he "can't keep his mouth shut."

An unflattering photo of Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was pulled from circulation this week, per a report from Status, after the White House made its displeasure known.

While the report about its removal first emerged on Tuesday, the photo itself dates back to a press briefing in late November, just before Thanksgiving. During the meeting with reporters and photographers, Leavitt entered the room holding her young son, Nicholas, and introduced a turkey named Waddle, who would be taking part in the traditional turkey pardoning ceremony with President Donald Trump. This prompted a playful round of questioning — “Waddle, why are you getting a pardon? What did you do wrong?” — and flurry of photographs.

"Among those many pictures of the Thanksgiving spectacle was one in particular that incensed the White House — setting off a remarkable chain of events, with the image ultimately being pulled from the AFP and Getty Images wire photo libraries..." Status explained in its report.

The photo in question, taken by AFP photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, was shot from a low angle and features Leavitt smiling as she holds her son. Waddle the turkey can be seen, slightly blurry in the foreground. Available reports on the situation have not clarified what about the photo prompted Leavitt and the White House to lash out against it as "unflattering."

Whatever motivated the displeasure, the White House eventually reached out to AFP, which confirmed to Status that it was "made aware" that the administration was unhappy with the photo and removed it from circulation. This also resulted in it automatically being removed from Getty Images.

AFP’s director of brand and communications, Grégoire Lemarchand, stressed that the decision to remove the photo was "an internal editorial one, based on our standard quality and selection criteria," and that there was no pressure from the White House to do so, despite its unhappiness over the snapshot of Leavitt.

“During high-volume events like White House briefings, our desk often receives a large influx of photos directly from the photographer’s camera, which are moved quickly by the editor on duty to ensure timely delivery,” Lemarchand told Status.

This marks the second recent incident in which a prominent member of the Trump administration reportedly lashed out at an unflattering photo. Earlier this month, photographers were barred from attending Pentagon press briefings, allegedly as a reaction to photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he was unhappy with.

Brenda Carr, head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Donald Trump, "said the quiet part out loud" during a recent discussion of the MAGA takeover of mass media at CPAC, per a new analysis from MS NOW.

Writing in a piece published Tuesday, MS NOW senior editor Anthony L. Fisher said that Carr "may be the most try-hard" out of all the "sycophants" in Trump's orbit, something he lived down to while speaking at last week's CPAC in Texas, where he "unwittingly admitted that the administration’s goal is the Orbanization of America, and that he takes pride in trying to make that happen." Fisher made reference to the far-right Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, whose consolidation of power was infamously helped along by wealthy allies acquiring media outlets and squashing negative coverage.

Carr brought up various examples of longstanding news outlets either getting their funding slashed or coming under the control of Trump's conservative allies, with Fisher noting that "because Carr is arguably the most eager-to-please attack poodle in Trump’s kennel, he couldn’t help but reveal what MAGA considers 'winning.'"

“Look at the results so far. PBS defunded. NPR defunded,” Carr said. “[Stephen] Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership. And soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership as well.”

"It’s obvious why Carr, a hyperpartisan culture warrior, would consider these 'wins,'" Fisher wrote. "And his assessment matches the zero-sum Trump worldview: Somebody wins, somebody loses. Still, a more savvy player would have hidden the ball a little better. The defunding of PBS and NPR were done for nakedly political purposes (Trump’s executive order was literally called 'Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media'), but in crediting Trump for the upheaval at CBS and CNN, Carr blew off the flimsy facade that the changes were strictly made for business and journalistic reasons."

By way of acquisitions of their parent companies, Paramount and Warner Bros., both CBS News and, in the near future, CNN, have come under the control of Skydance's David Ellison, the son of ultra-wealthy Trump donor Larry Ellison. While Ellison has insisted that CNN will remain independent under his ownership, evidence strongly suggests the opposite. Editorial control of CBS News was handed off to right-wing commentator Bari Weiss after its Ellison takeover, with the ensuing changes pushing the network in a more MAGA-friendly direction — and sending ratings into a freefall.

In addition to Carr, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also recently suggested that CNN will be forced into a more Trump-friendly direction under its impending new ownership as well.

President Donald Trump is facing pushback from conservatives, some of whom are turning on him because of his unpopular war in Iran — and others because he is not fulfilling his own professed political goals.

"At a moment when the opposition seems pretty energized, it's hard to ignore that Republicans don't seem to match the urgency,” The Federalist's elections correspondent Brianna Lyman wrote on Sunday in an editorial that juxtaposed Democrats’ high turnout for the No Kings protests with Republicans’ comparatively lackadaisical attitude. While Lyman was no fan of the No Kings protests, which she characterized as “stupid,” she also blasted Trump and his fellow Republicans for lacking the aforementioned sense of “urgency.”

As one example, Lyman wrote that “the Republican-controlled Senate has failed to confirm more than 50 Trump-appointed nominees, as reported by The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd. Add in rising gas prices amid an ongoing war, and the result is a political environment where voters are likely to feel less than enthusiastic about heading to the polls.” She also focused on the president’s bill to require increased voter ID for people to cast ballots, a measure critics argue is an attempt to rig the 2026 midterm elections.

"Republicans — with a majority in both chambers of Congress — have yet to get the SAVE America Act to Trump's desk,” Lyman said. "Yet Thune has come up with excuse after excuse, talking like he wants to pass the legislation while failing to take the measures necessary to do so."

Lyman also argued, "Thune refuses to use a talking filibuster to pass the legislation, which would require no rule changes.” By contrast, Lyman seemingly could not help but acknowledge that the No Kings protests which she deplored at least energized opponents of Trump, something that his own party has failed to accomplish.

“On social media there’s no shortage of Republicans mocking the protests — and with good reason,” Lyman said. “But however stupid the message of the ‘No Kings’ protests, the left nonetheless managed to mobilize millions of people, including current and future voters.”

A more centrist conservative, The Bulwark’s managing editor Sam Stein, has also noticed a waning of enthusiasm for Trump, in his case among the swing voters who helped him win in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think the risk for Trump here is twofold,” Stein said during an appearance on MS NOW with host Katy Tur. He identified two right-leaning podcasters, Andrew Schulz and Joe Rogan, who have turned on Trump because of their opposition to his invasions of Venezuela and Iran.

“These are the podcasts that were gateways to a whole slice of the electorate that was just politically curious — not politically active — but they did get involved in 2024, and they got involved largely on behalf of Donald Trump,” Stein explained. “Andrew Schulz, Rogan, and others activated them. But the other risk is that they're now potentially turning Donald Trump into a cultural punchline — that he's an idiot, that his supporters are dorks, that he's been fooled into doing all this stuff, and that he is a failure.”

Stein added, “Donald Trump, for better or for worse, has had an incredible ability to shape perceptions of himself and the cultural relevance that he has. And to a degree, he loses that control when these people turn on him — when his own supporters turn on him. That hasn't really happened in the entirety of his political career.”

While Schulz has some way, Rogan has been America’s number one podcaster for years, and his support for Trump is widely perceived as having helped normalize the far right politician to millions of people. Yet after Trump invaded Iran, Rogan began to describe Trump supporters as feeling “betrayed.”

“Well, it just seems so insane, based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right?” Rogan said. “He ran on, ‘No more wars,’ ‘End these stupid, senseless wars,’ and then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”

In February Rogan also warned that Trump’s ongoing cover up of documents related to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — who was close friends with Trump from the 1980s to the 2000s — looks “terrible.”

“Who knows what f — — happens with all this Epstein files s — —,” Rogan said. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier and deeper and deeper.”

He added, “Why would your name be redacted if you’re not a victim? Like, this is what’s crazy about all this. Like, how come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people?”