The leftwing legacy media onslaught against President Trump continues unabated. The negative stories are unprecedented for a thrice-elected US president (and yes, 2020 was clearly stolen by 15-20 million fake votes plus much more). We should not accept relentless negative press against President Trump without vigorous pushback because the legacy media are simply an arm of the Democrat Party these days; they lost their objectivity and impartiality long ago. The DNC political strategy exploits the legacy media as a main player in the continuous propagandizing of Democrat narratives and gaslighting.
Media gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where legacy media networks propagate messages designed to get audiences to question their own reality, memory, or perceptions. It often involves tactics like denial, lying, contradiction, topic avoidance, perpetrating hoaxes, operating a media echo chamber that repeats identical words and phrases, or trivializing the audience’s feelings to gain control or avoid accountability for their lies. For example, talking heads saying “You’re imagining things” or “That never happened” or “Trump-Russia collusion” when confronted with direct (and frequently damning) evidence to the contrary.
Gaslighting can erode self-esteem and create dependency on the manipulator while creating the conditions for mass formation psychosis. This is a hypothesized psychological phenomenon where large groups of people, under conditions of fear, social isolation, or crisis, adopt shared beliefs or behaviors that may be irrational or delusional, often driven by a unifying narrative or authority. A perfect example of mass formation psychosis is “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which is a psychological conditioning that results in irrational, exaggerated, or obsessive criticism of Trump, his actions, or his presidency while reacting with disproportionate hostility and losing any objectivity whatsoever due to personal or ideological bias. To ignore undisputable facts is insane, and TDS sufferers are indeed mentally disordered.
On 3 May, the NY Post’s Michael Goodwin explained the impact of the leftwing legacy media on political discourse in America perfectly:
Make no mistake — the monopoly they hold is extremely valuable, both financially and in the power it gives them to set the terms of the national debate.
If, for example, the large legacy outlets — of which there are only about 20 — declare that something the president said or did is outrageous or dangerous, that view will dominate national and even international coverage.
Big TV and radio networks, small town papers and everything from comedy shows to many churches and synagogues will echo the same narrative.
Opposing views will die in darkness.
Now consider the following assessments of legacy media coverage over the past eight years:
Harvard Shorenstein Center (2017): A study of Trump’s first 100 days found 80% of coverage from major outlets (e.g., The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC) was negative, compared to 20% positive. This was based on stories with clear positive or negative tones, excluding neutral reports (about one-third of total coverage). Coverage was significantly more negative than for predecessors like Obama (20% negative), Clinton (28%), and Bush (28%).
Pew Research Center (2017): Examining the first 60 days, Pew found 62% of news stories about Trump had a negative assessment, with only 5% positive. This compared to 20% negative and 42% positive for Obama, 28% negative for both Clinton and Bush. The study noted coverage focused more on Trump’s character and leadership (74%) than policy (26%).
Media Research Center (MRC): MRC, a media watchdog organization not corrupted by the Democrat Party, reported higher negativity:
- 2017: 89–91% negative coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news from January 20 to April 9, based on over 1,000 stories.
- 2018: 90–92% negative coverage across the year, with 92% negative from June to September.
- 2020: 95% negative coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC, per a study from January to April.
Fast-forward to the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. MRC assessed legacy media coverage of the administration from January 20 through April 9, including weekends. Key findings included the following:
The networks’ highly negative coverage of President Trump stands in stark contrast to the mostly (59%) positive coverage they provided Joe Biden four years ago.
While TV coverage of Trump’s last term was heavily focused on an array of personal controversies, this year’s coverage has mostly been about serious policy issues, led by tariffs (361 minutes), DOGE (310 minutes) and immigration (233 minutes).
The networks’ spin on Trump’s tariffs faced 93% negative coverage, while the DOGE cutbacks to government were greeted by 97% negative spin.
Even on immigration, the issue where the public gives the President his highest ratings, the networks’ spin was 93% negative. Out of nearly four hours (233 minutes) of evening news airtime devoted to immigration, these newscasts spent just 3.5 minutes letting viewers know just how much Trump has reduced border crossings.
Besides Trump himself, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced 89% negative press, DOGE’s Elon Musk was hit with 96% negative coverage, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth received a unanimous 100% bad press from the networks.
Compare that negative reporting to concurrent Rasmussen polling of US likely voters on key policy issues:
- Trump’s job approval on 2 May was 50% (!!)
- 62% support Trump deportation policies
- 47% believe Trump’s economic policies are better than Biden’s
- 43% support Trump tariff policies
Imagine what the numbers would be without the 90-plus percent negative media coverage! It is undeniable that the legacy media are gaslighting on behalf of the Democrat Party. Here is what Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, had to say about it during an interview with Sean Hannity on 2 May (emphasis added):
There are three great centers of resistance. The propaganda media, which will lie all the time, the fake district judges, and the fake Congressional Budget Office. Those are the last three great centers of resistance.
And they’re going to do anything they can to defeat Trump and the Republicans, including lying about virtually everything.
GUEST COLUMN IN DAKOTA SCOUT TRASHES TRUMP
The constant barrage of anti-Trump and pro-Democrat narratives in the legacy media affects Americans everywhere, including here in South Dakota. Those few Democrats (and NeverTrump Republicans) who choose to vocalize their anti-Trump opinions are renowned for parroting MSNBC and CNN headlines without providing any original analysis of their own.
A good example was a guest column on 20 April in the Dakota Scout, the official newspaper of Sioux Falls (the largest city in South Dakota by far). Here are a couple of excerpts:
Under President Trump and a Republican-led Congress, [the federal] deficit is ballooning — driven not by social programs or infrastructure, but by sweeping tax cuts, military expansion and costly trade wars.
[T]he Republicans want to cut [social] programs and expand spending $175 billion each for the deportation operation and for the Department of Defense. Trump is not worried about federal spending so long as various rich people get their tax breaks and his pet projects are funded…. We are left with a reduced IRS, fewer science or environmental programs and cutbacks in various federal grants going to states and cities across the nation.
As Trump positions the USA against the rest of the trading world [with his proposed tariffs], he may find that tariffs trigger down-sizing and recession in world trade at the same time costing more to grow the debt.
Balderdash!
The author claims “sweeping tax cuts.” The Republican tax plan for 2025 primarily focuses on making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions permanent (that’s not a “tax cut”; it keeps the existing rates in effect!). The plan also includes the following tax cuts that directly impact what Democrats euphemistically refer to a “working people.” Which of these does the author not support?
- No Taxes on Tips
- No Taxes on Overtime Pay
- No Taxes on Social Security Benefits for Retirees
- Deduction for Auto Loan Interest
- Corporate Tax Rate Reduction: 15% reduction for companies producing in the U.S. (a boost to onshoring!)
The author claims “military expansion.” The budgetary realities put the lie to that myth. The total cost differential between Biden’s 2024 Pentagon budget ($842 billion) and the 2025 Republican-proposed Pentagon budget ranges from a decrease of $42.2 billion (if 8% cuts are applied) to an increase of $18 billion (if additional funding is included). As a retired Navy acquisition professional, I can assure you that $18 billion is peanuts and can’t possibly fix the glaring deficiencies in combat power and military readiness wrought by Biden’s policies.
The author claims “costly trade wars.” Hmmm; how has that worked out for Americans? Fifty years of “free trade” (minimal US tariffs) has resulted in a U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world in 2024 for goods and services of $918.4 billion. Even more shocking, the cumulative U.S. trade deficit since 2000 is almost $15 trillion! Furthermore, approximately 75,000 to 80,000 U.S. factories were offshored or closed due to offshoring-related pressures from 2000 to 2024. That equates to a loss of over 5 million jobs from 2000 to 2015 alone, according to the Economics Policy Institute.
President Trump is the first president in my lifetime to try to reset the international trade imbalance (especially with communist China) and implement policies aimed at re-shoring lost manufacturing capacity back to the continental US. Cutting through the Democrat/EU/globalist/CCP fog, this article clearly explains that protectionism (tariffs) is good; some excerpts:
For 80 years, the American ruling class has been selling America off for parts. Our privileged geopolitical situation, isolated from Asia and Europe by vast oceans, our intelligent and industrious population, our ethnic homogeneity, our vast natural resources, and our open space are an immense source of wealth. For decades, the grifters and parasites were able to sell and sell and sell. They defrauded their countrymen of jobs, opportunities, and possibilities. We have indebted our children and sold off their inheritance to enjoy pleasures in the present.
Tariffs and borders will deliver the national economy we deserve.
In the short run, asset valuations and wages are inversely correlated. The more a company must pay its workers, the less profit it can offer investors. For a corporation, high wages are a liability. Yet, this logic is stupid.
In the long run, the greatest asset a company has is the workers who make it up. Without their labor and insight, the company would not exist. High wages make our civil society stronger. Workers who feel like they have skin in the game are more patriotic, more motivated, and more eager to sacrifice for the greater good.
If forced to choose between corporate profits or higher wages, we should choose higher wages. Exporting jobs abroad to cheap Chinese laborers is a form of fraud. It is a betrayal. Good jobs should exist right here in America.
Tariffs strike the right balance: they impose costs on foreign goods while channeling revenue back into the nation. The individual maintains access to foreign goods, even though this can harm domestic manufacturers, while paying into the commonwealth of the nation.
Tariffs are good. They protect the high American standard of living, make us more independent of foreign countries, and encourage innovation right here at home. Tariffs benefit us all. They are a necessary hedge to protecting American wealth.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Media gaslighting against President Trump’s sensible policies has corrupted (and is corrupting!) many Americans in support of favoring Democrat and globalist agendas that are anathema to our constitutional Republic. Rather than rail against President Trump for crass political reasons, what are the Democrats’ plans to reset international trade and US strategic manufacturing capabilities? What would that guest columnist in the Dakota Scout do? Return to the failed policies of the Biden regime?
Crickets from them, other than “Orange Man Bad.”
As for me, I will take the Trump 2.0 administration accomplishments of the first 100 days any time! Among the many posts from Republicans in Congress and the Senate posted here, this what Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN8) had to say:
In his first 100 days, President Trump has delivered major wins for the American people:
✅Secured the border.
✅Deported violent illegal gang members.
✅Unleashed American energy and lowered gas prices.
✅Reduced government waste.
✅Protected women’s sports.
✅Boosted military recruitment.
✅Brought hostages home.
Promises made, promises kept!
It is long past time to turn to independent media for news and commentary and avoid the legacy media gaslighting like the plague.
The end.
