Right-wing media downplay harms of Trump’s 'Big Beautiful Bill' even as its impacts are felt throughout the country
Right-wing media spent months advocating for President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which paired historic cuts to the social safety net with equally unprecedented tax giveaways for the wealthy, all while funneling more money to immigrant detention than the entire federal prison system receives. Once the bill became law, many conservative pundits downplayed the harm it would inflict or simply stopped discussing it all together.
Support for Trump’s bill was essentially ubiquitous among conservatives. From the administration’s earliest days, right-wing media pushed false narratives to support the legislation, arguing that harsh paperwork requirements would only affect so-called “able-bodied men,” blaming immigrants instead of funding cuts for bankrupting hospitals, and even denying the bill cut Medicaid at all.
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors