Trump Wants to Take Over Cities. Influencers Are Giving Him the Fuel to Do It.
The Trump administration has built its own content mill to justify its law-and-order immigration agenda.
When Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem touched down in Oregon on Tuesday to meet with Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials in Portland, she was followed by more than just her staff. Her entourage included three right-wing influencers—Benny Johnson, Nick Sortor, and David Medina—who trailed her motorcade, cameras rolling, capturing footage that would ricochet from their social media feeds to the GOP’s favorite prime-time shows.
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