The ‘make me’ presidency
That’s what Norm Eisen calls it. With a Trump campaign ad redefined as a “PSA” and labeled “Paid for by the U.S. government,” “they’re flaunting the illegality,” Eisen said on “Morning Joe.”
“This is a make-me presidency,” Eisen said, meaning that Trump will run rampant until he’s made to stop.
Eisen promoted his group’s legal actions against the president and said, “Remember how many times the courts have slapped him down,” including very recently.
The make-me attitude certainly also applies to banning news outlets from the White House; refusing to allow CNN on Air Force One; and blatantly ripping off copyrighted material.
This morning Yashar Ali reported that attorneys for JMSN, the singer whose “Love Me” song was used in the first taxpayer-funded Trump ad last week, have “demanded that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and the Trump administration immediately cease using” the song.
We’ll see if there’s any response to the cease-and-desist letter. Yesterday, there was news coverage around the NFL asking the Department of Homeland Security to remove a video of Hall of Fame player Brian Dawkins.
The threatening video was “in reference to a purported caravan of immigrants approaching the U.S. border,” The AP wrote.
Dawkins also objected, tweeting, “I didn’t give permission for my name, image and likeness to be used by anybody.”
But the video is still up, and DHS general counsel James Percival taunted the NFL’s request by tweeting a picture of Bugs Bunny saying the word “No.” That meme is another way of saying, “Make me.”
Before getting back to this morning’s theme, I just have to note one thing about the “purported caravan of immigrants,” because these videos are getting a lot of traction on MAGA social media all of a sudden.
None other than Marjorie Taylor Greene dismissed the reemergence of the “caravan” storyline with this post on X: “We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now? Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working.”
MTG, of all people. It’s reminiscent of what Barack Obama said back in 2018: “Right before the election, they try to scare the heck out of you.” I wrote about how that related to “caravans” at the time…
News outlets covering Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads should be calling this content what it is: Propaganda.
And “propaganda is supposed to be illegal,” as CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf wrote in last night’s edition of the What Matters newsletter.
Republican criticism is intensifying. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said yesterday, “I like the message, but it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.” And Rep. Thom Tillis said, “I hate it. I tell you, it feels like Viktor Orbán talking to the Hungarian people. There’s no place for that sort of thing.”
>> CNN’s Kristen Holmes reported that Trump had “personally driven” the ads, “including helping select the imagery and videos used.”
Overnight, the attorneys for CNN, MS NOW and Politico made a filing with the court asking Judge Timothy Kelly to “extend his order temporarily restoring their access, describing the ban as an ‘unlawful assault on the most fundamental First Amendment freedoms,’” CNN’s Tierney Sneed reports.
The filing “said that actions the administration has taken to ‘retaliate’ against the news organizations, even after the judge ordered the White House to allow them inside, only underscore that the ‘motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike.’” Read on…
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are hosting AI execs at the White House this afternoon. CNN’s Hadas Gold and Adam Cancryn confirmed that attendees will include Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google boss Sundar Pichai, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. They say Elon Musk could attend as well.
Today’s luncheon at the White House “isn’t likely to solve any of the pressing problems facing Trump or the AI industry,” Gold and Cancryn write. “Instead, the summit is meant primarily to get the administration and top executives on the same page when it comes to the most significant safety concerns and potential ways to address them…”
“Executives from Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, USA Today Co., and The Seattle Times will be among more than 300 news publishers heading to Washington D.C. today to press Congress to crack down on ‘bad bots’ that scrape their content for AI training without permission,” Digiday’s Sara Guaglione reported.
The group of executives, which is organized by trade body News/Media Alliance, “will head to Capitol Hill and meet with senators, other members of Congress and their staff to discuss” how difficult it is to weed out or block stealth crawlers, Guaglione wrote…
Bob Chapek’s Disney memoir, “Behind the Castle Walls,” is out today. Bob Iger is “mentioned 121 times in the 272-page book,” according to Variety.
Also new today: Evan Gershkovich’s “This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story,” Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree’s “Bad Boy for Life: The Rise and Fall of Sean Combs,” Sylvester Stallone’s “The Steps: A Memoir,” and Malcolm Gladwell’s look at gun violence, “The American Way of Killing.”
And there’s more! I’m excited to read “Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — and What That Means for Your Wallet” by Lindsay Owens and “What Could Possibly Go Right?” by restaurateur Danny Meyer…
Paramount is “aggressively” bidding on an unfinished documentary about the late Sen. Lindsey Graham — and David Ellison himself is said to be “swept up in the filmmaking,” Oliver Darcy scooped in Status last night.
Filmmaker Alex Holder “captured the senator chatting freely and candidly with various associates on speakerphone, opening the possibility that Ellison’s interactions with the senator were recorded, even when he may have been unaware,” Darcy wrote.
Paramount is in “advanced talks” to acquire the film, he reported, with top lawyer Makan Delrahim involved in the negotiations. The parties involved are not commenting. Speaking of Paramount…
Paramount and the state AGs “defended their antitrust settlement on Monday from a series of criticisms raised last week by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker,” Gene Maddaus reported for Variety. “In separate filings, the two sides argued that the deal was vigorously negotiated, has ‘teeth,’ and should not be subjected to an independent ‘public interest’ review.”
Booker’s letter raised concerns about, among other things, reduced theatrical releases and the “editorial independence board” that will oversee CNN and CBS News. In response, Paramount said the settlement will create a “guaranteed, enforceable pipeline of new releases every year” and the editorial board will be “self-executing” and free from government interference.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin did not rule on the settlement but said last week that she’ll make a ruling “in due course…”
CNN and Jubilee Media — the YouTube channel famous for its viral “Surrounded” debates — are teaming up for a town hall with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern. Erin Burnett will host before a live audience made up of Texas Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.
CNN says it has also invited Talarico’s GOP rival, Ken Paxton, to do a town hall…
This Thursday, Fox News is launching a new podcast called “The Girls,” featuring “an all-female cast, with rotating guest hosts from across the company’s footprint,” THR’s Alex Weprin reported. The first episode will feature Rachel Campos-Duffy, Harris Faulkner and Kat Timpf.
Joining them will be Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist who was a top aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and has recently become a fixture on Fox for her criticism of her party’s ascendent left. “DeRosa has joined the channel as a contributor,” Weprin noted…
>> “Tonight Byron Allen is getting his own two-hour prime-time anniversary special on CBS,” a 9:00 p.m. special to mark the 20th anniversary of “Comics Unleashed” as a syndicated entry, Bill Carter writes. (LateNighter)
>> “MTV’s coverage of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards averaged a combined 8.43 million viewers on Sunday night,” and while the final numbers aren’t yet in, that “makes it the most-watched VMAs in 11 years” for now. (Variety)
>> “With ‘Stranger Things’ coming to an end,” Shawn Levy, whose production company has been set up at Netflix for the past decade, is moving over to Disney’s 20th Television. (Deadline)
>> Miley Cyrus earned “her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart in more than a decade” after “Bass Persuades” debuted at the top. (Billboard)
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.