Discrediting independent media is the game plan

United States President Donald Trump’s decision to bar several news organizations from White House briefings is, thanks to a court decision, teetering on the edge of collapse.

Will this defeat send the president into a rage? There is actually evidence that Trump knew this was going to be the outcome when he ordered the ban.

A federal court judge in Washington (and a Trump appointee, for the record) issued an injunction on Thursday arguing the swift decision to bar CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House was likely unconstitutional. The judge ordered the White House to restore credentials to the three news organizations immediately.

Was this just the latest in a string of judicial defeats suffered by the Trump administration as it seeks to undermine, unravel and otherwise work around long-standing legal and administrative canons of the American government? No, not really.

The awful truth is that even by making the attempt to ban legitimate, professional news organizations, Trump has won a victory with his base.

The MAGA movement is built on a culture of dislike, distrust and — ultimately — disgust with legitimate, professional news organizations. MAGA architects realized there was no way to conduct a systematic transformation of government — eviscerating institutions, undermining elections, dismantling social programs, persecuting non-White Americans — without first discrediting independent news organizations.

That was done, over years and even decades, to great success. Social media was a godsend to far-right populists as both a tool to disparage professional news gatherers and as a work-around to communicate alternative news narratives to a base eager to believe there was a conspiracy to keep politicians like Trump from seizing power.

Today, you can see the dividends all this careful spadework has produced. Trump and others from his administration have carte blanche to make unfounded claims or allegations to their base with the comfort of knowing said base will not believe conflicting narratives offered by legitimate news organizations.

Last month, Vice President JD Vance did a series of speeches and interviews in which he claimed a number of completely false accomplishments by the Trump administration. In no particular order, he claimed gas prices were coming down, along with inflation, interest rates and home prices. These accomplishments were, Vance claimed, evidence that Trump was making life more affordable.

None of that is true. The U.S. Federal Reserve recently increased its benchmark interest rate to 4 per cent from 3.75 per cent as a response to persistent high inflation.

Gasoline and home prices are also not retreating.

Opinion polling shows that Americans are more concerned about affordability now than they were when Democrat Joe Biden was president. However, while Trump’s approval rating across party lines has cratered, he continues to enjoy reasonably firm support among the hardcore MAGA base. This support has shrunk, but it remains firm enough to make the Republicans competitive in many mid-term battlegrounds.

If there is a flaw in Trump’s plan to use news organizations as chew toys for the amusement of his voter base, it is that Republican lawmakers and a significant number of moderate, but largely reliable, Republican voters are starting to lose faith in Trump’s faked “fake news” narrative.

Trump-endorsed candidates are losing primaries to participate in Congressional mid-term elections scheduled for this fall. That has fractured the moderate Republican base to the point where there is a concern they will not show up to vote.

For now, however, Trump’s attempts to thrash news organizations he claims are enemies of his administration is music to the ears of the remaining committed MAGA acolytes.

Whether they are enough to retain Trump’s grip on the Senate and the House of Representatives remains to be seen.