Brian Stelter: The biggest scandal of Trump 2.0 is no scandal at all on MAGA media

[Dennis Donovan]

Brian Stelter - The biggest scandal of Trump 2.0 is no scandal at all on MAGA media

By Brian Stelter, CNN
Published 10:46 AM EDT, Tue March 25, 2025

The revelation that President Trump’s aides endangered national security by chatting about a military strike in a Signal chat that included a journalist is embarrassing for everyone involved – which is why it’s a big test of MAGA media’s power to deny, dismiss and deflect.

The president’s favorite media outlets are mostly downplaying the story and deriding the reporter who was invited to the group chat, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. On X, Elon Musk and his acolytes are cracking jokes about the scandal. And some pro-Trump outlets are trying to ignore it altogether.

It’s all reminiscent of Trump’s first term, when real news stories were rejected by right-wing opinion outlets time and time again. And as we learned back then, the president’s media consumption has a huge impact on the personnel and policy decisions he makes.

So far, the advice he’s getting from his Fox News friends is to weather the current storm.

Many pro-Trump media figures are taking their cues from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who sounded like he reverted to his former role as Fox host when he blasted Goldberg as a “discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes.”

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[unblock]

1. There's really no such thing as a right-wing scandal or gaffe if you ask the media

Seriously, the last major scandal for them was poppy bush raising taxes. Mostly, the media notes a story, goes "wow" or "remarkable" then shrugs and moves on. In rare occasions, Republican relatively quietly pays the price, invariably in a way that reflects on them personally and is never an indictment against the party as a whole, such as with George santos.

Republicans believe in never owning up to anything, and the media catapults the propaganda that it's not a problem if you never exhibit any shame.

Of course, the media only sees it this way when it comes to republicans. Democrats must be brought down and destroyed if they deviate from perfection by one iota.

[Blue Owl]

2. We must not let these stupid mouth breathers drag us all down because of their idiocy