Dem
53
Ties
3
GOP
44
That stands for "Fool Around with the First Amendment and Find Out." At least, that's the G-rated version. There's a more adult version that you'll have to figure out on your own.
Yesterday, we wrote that Donald Trump would come to regret his decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. First, because he's going to lose this fight, in embarrassing fashion. Second, because there is value to an administration in having all press in the White House, even press whose coverage the administration does not like.
We did not anticipate, however, how very quickly Trump would suffer consequences. To start, all three outlets have already filed suit against the Trump administration, asserting that the ban violates the First Amendment. Since they have an excellent chance of prevailing on the merits, it would not surprise us if they are granted an injunction by the end of the week, allowing them to return to work while the case plays out.
That part is not too shocking. What did catch us by surprise is the show of solidarity that all of the various press outlets displayed yesterday. It is a little weedy, but space at presidential events is tight and TV crews are expensive. So, the general arrangement is that one or two outlets handle video coverage each day, and they share their footage with the rest of the press. The White House presumed that, with CNN out (and it seems that Monday was that outlet's day, though that's hard to confirm), some non-banned outlet would step forward and handle the task instead. They all refused.
It's not too hard to understand why all of the press-pool outlets—including the right-leaning Fox and the generally non-partisan C-SPAN—would stand with CNN, et al., on this. First, they all believe in the First Amendment, for obvious reasons. Second, there isn't a single outlet in the main press pool that hasn't been a target of Trump's ire. So, they all know that they could easily be next on the "banned" list. Even Fox, which plans to be around in 2029, knows that once a precedent is set, a future Democratic president could ban it.
As a result of the lack of camera coverage, Trump has already had an embarrassing fail. He is very proud of the new White House helipad, and wants to show it off. We do not know of any voters who care about the helipad situation at the White House, but maybe they are out there. Anyhow, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, accompanied by remarks from Trump. However, the remarks could not be heard because... no press-pool microphone. The only outlet there was Newsmax, which cares nothing for the First Amendment and isn't too worried about being placed on the "banned" list. But because everyone who works for Newsmax is an incompetent who couldn't get a job at a real news outlet, their microphone was not set up correctly, and so did not capture the President's speech.
Trump and his team have already come up with a "solution" to the lack of press coverage. Yesterday, at 7:00 p.m. ET, the White House launched Trump TV. Because, as we all know, nothing is more trustworthy than state-run media. It could be that, eventually, Trump TV will provide live coverage of Trump events. However, what it is right now is an endless reel of the Trump administration's "greatest hits," playing 24/7. If you believe you've blown it on this plane of existence, and that hell is definitely in your future, then you might want to sit and watch the channel for an hour or so for a preview of what's coming.
Yesterday, Trump got on his Ministry of Information social media platform to rant and rave about the lawsuit filed by the banned organizations. You can read it here, if you wish. It's barely comprehensible, though he does concede that even the Trump-appointed judge assigned to the case is likely to rule against him. He also, yet again, leans into the fact that he won all seven swing states—as if that has any relevance anymore, and as if that should somehow play a role in ongoing press coverage of him. In any case, his best-case scenario is almost certainly if CNN, et al., get that injunction. It is hugely embarrassing for him when almost the entire media establishment is aligning against him. And it's also going to be impossible to get any messaging out to anyone who isn't already a cultist if the only coverage is coming from Trump TV and the clown car that is Newsmax. If there's an injunction, Trump can back down and yet frame it as something other than a surrender. (Z)