FAKE NEWS

Trump's War on the Press and Reality

A century ago, a strange little German man with an unusual mustache did much the same as an American man with strange hair and little hands is doing today. Trump, like Hitler before him, yelled, lied, and blamed to acquire power. Trump, like Hitler before him, continues to yell, lie, and blame to direct the stream of information.

Trump is an autocrat. Hitler was an autocrat. The goal of all autocrats is to stay in power, and to do that, they need to control the news, its sources, and its messaging.

Because if up is down, and good is bad, and real is fake, and if it’s all recited and repeated relentlessly by the Leader and the State, then it might produce enough confusion, chaos, and cultspeak for the autocrat to successfully sell his bullshit.

Fake News elected Trump. Control of Information will be one of the key battles in the war ahead.

• A couple of days ago, the Acting Secretary of Defense circulated a memo advising The New York Times, NBC News, and NPR that they will need to “rotate out” of their physical offices at the Pentagon, to be replaced there by the NY Post, OANN, and Breitbart News Network, respectively - three completely complicit rags.

• Last Monday, Trump introduced a new social media account on X called Rapid Response 47, aimed at “identifying and countering fake news.” — Yeah, right. It’s a deluge of partisan prattle put forth in real time. It has over 500K followers, including us, because hey, we have to keep our eye on the true enemy.

• The FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which enforces communications law and is now chaired by Trump sycophant and Musk ally Brendan Carr, has taken steps to weaponize its power by ordering investigations into NPR and PBS. Brendan Carr authored Project 2025's entire chapter on the FCC, entitled The Agency.

“This is yet another example of Chairman Carr rapidly turning the FCC into the Federal Censorship Commission. It’s wrong and dangerous.” — Senator Ed Markey

Of course there’s more, but our point is that Trump is modeling his “Free Press” after Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Ministry. In 2025, the information landscape that Trump and his oligarchs seek to control is a lot more than just news, media, and opinions; it’s also algorithms, artificial intelligence, and an army of hyper-partisan right-wing advocates who are like locusts. They want to influence perception and make that perception into our reality.

2025 America is Mirroring 1930’s Germany

When Hitler retook power in 1933, he did so by developing an emotionally vested following of citizens who got seduced by concepts like racial purity, Aryanization, and national greatness - which probably sounds eerily familiar. He immediately leveraged his power through Executive Order and in just 53 days, he was dictator. There were 4,700 newspapers in the German free press at the time, and Nazis controlled less than 3% of them. Hitler then set up the Propaganda Ministry and appointed Josef Goebbels as Reich Minister. Eleven years later, in 1944, there were only 1,100 newspapers left, 82% of which were fully Nazi-controlled, and many of the rest had been tamed. Some of Hitler’s greatest horrors were long hidden from plain view.

The number of other parallels is tragically staggering. Hitler also pardoned violent lawbreakers that broke the law for him. He used regulatory powers to retaliate against his critics. He directed investigations against his political rivals. He targeted and scapegoated minorities and the disabled. He marginalized women. He indoctrinated the youth. All the while, he attacked the press:

• Lügenpresse was Hitler’s term for the lying press aka Fake News.

• Gleichschaltung was Hitler’s term for coordinating all aspects of German society, including the press, under Nazi control aka MAGAfication.

• Führerprinzip was Hitler's "Leader Principle" meaning the press served the absolute authority of the Führer. To do otherwise was to be branded The Enemy of the People.

Trump 2.0 distinctly mirrors other autocratic systems, such as Putin’s Oligarchy. Hello, Bezos and Zuckerberg, to name two. What these all have in common is spewing propaganda aimed at controlling information and keeping citizens uninformed.

Of course, the world has advanced much since the 1930’s Propaganda Ministry and even since the advent of Russia’s State Media. And some of those advancements have helped produce monsters like Elon Musk who cause newer, larger problems.

A Megalomaniac with Money and a Megaphone

In the sordid scenario that is now before us, it’s Elon Musk who is the lead Nazi, even more so than Trump. Before his much-covered Sieg Heil salutes, it was already apparent that the apartheid-raised Musk, whose grandparents were members of the Nazi Party, truly believed Hitler had the right idea, and the right playbook. Musk has inferred that Hitler would have won if he had only amassed more wealth up front. LOTS more wealth. The kind of wealth that Musk has amassed, enough to overpay billions for a social media platform, offer $1M prizes as lottery payments to ordinary folk, and spend hundreds of millions on media blitzes and ground games to buy an election. Musk probably believes that had Hitler had that requisite wealth, he could have bought all the topflight scientists he’d have needed to invent the A-Bomb first, and if he had, we’d all be speaking German today. Musk’s goals are remaking America AND the world. He is presently sifting through our most sensitive data, including Social Security numbers, and wants to be able to use it against us. He has access to our Treasury’s payment system and is linking control of information with control of funds.

To be perfectly clear, Musk’s motivations are not purely American, and neither is he. He’s after world dominance. His unparalleled wealth has ties everywhere, especially China. He has personal relationships with fascist governments and their leaders. As we’ve previous suggested, Putin is possibly on his speed dial. Musk is a market manipulator turned true megalomaniac - not only desirous of controlling all information, but on putting forth disinformation too.

OS (Outspoken): I feel violated. I am so angry that Elon has taken access of my personal information, and that of all Americans - who the actual fuck does he think he is? I don’t remember seeing his name on the presidential ticket.

SS (Shallow State): Musk is so damn dangerous because he feels like he's already conquered this world. Yet he still massively craves attention, action, and power. As a drugged-out megalomaniac, what's left for him to care about but tearing down and reforming this world even more to his suiting, and conquering that too?

OS: So much of his wealth is tied up in one company. One lawmaker in Canada suggested that they, and other democratic countries should see the danger he poses and stick a huge tariff on the import of Tesla. I would love to see that, because that could really impact his wealth.

An Injured Narcissist with Immunity

Trump lost an election and led an insurrection. As a malignant narcissist, his greatest fear is humiliation. His loss was an injury. His civil judgments were big injuries. The criminal conviction was the biggest injury. Facing more charges … he gets immunity.

He was already fixated on vengeance and retaliation. But now, with that added immunity and the guardrails removed, he wants to rewrite history and in order to do that, he has to take control of the press. Trump does not want anyone to remain in government who was involved in any investigation of him or his henchmen. Same thing with the pardons - he’s undoing shit. Because then, in his malignantly narcissistic mind, he’ll try to sell that none of it ever happened. And that’s how he takes control of our reality.

SS: He only knows how to be King. He certainly doesn’t know shit about how to be President.

OS: He doesn’t know shit about most things. And he never should have been allowed to run for President a second time.

Media Capitulation

One of the reasons Hitler nearly prevailed is because the US and the West sat the war out for years, even as the Nazis expanded influence, built an empire, and committed atrocities. The media’s acquiescence to Trump may not seem nearly as dire or dramatic or direct a parallel, but they had no small impact on compromising the control of information. The centibillionaires who control information in print, TV and social media now appear to be pro-Trump.

Shallow State was among the first to speak to this on social media: “Sure, history will speak to the cult; how easily they were gaslit; how they embraced the most flawed cult leader ever; rallied around grievance; railed against their own interests; and relied on an obvious con. But the unforeseen disaster is the media's widespread normalization of a madman in the alleged pursuit of free speech and a free press, and the result will be the perversion of one and total loss of the other.”

The legacy media surrendered to maintain access, sustain ratings, and avoid wrath, and to preserve their other business interests. They kissed the ring of the madman when they stopped short of politically endorsing his opponent. They printed misleading headlines, they normalized him, and they helped him win. Now the free press they once thought was worth protecting is being stomped into submission, and the American experiment itself faces a clear and present danger.

The Legacy Press has lost its way.

SS: Bezos sold us out, cheapened and humiliated the Washington Post and even changed its slogan, and facilitated the malign control of our information, not even for Amazon, but for his space company.

OS: Don’t forget about Zuckerberg, who just paid Trump $25 million and then removed fact checking.

Trump’s Incompetence is Showing

Some of his major memos have been rescinded, some of his Executive Orders have been successfully challenged, and his tariffs are tanking the market. Remember - not everything they overload the zone with, will work. Chaos is their strategy. A US president cannot rewrite the Constitution. Trump has no mandate; he won by a sliver, and Republicans have very small majorities. Trump’s approval rating now is 10 points lower than Biden’s was in 2021. Projection of strength is still projection. It’s meant to obscure the reality of weakness.

And this is again why control of information is so important. Because, as Trump controls more information, facts become more difficult to disseminate, and his weakness is harder to see.

Dear Banters Subscribers

If the past two weeks feels like two years, and it feels as though the Dictator on Day One has been dictating for a decade, this is precisely how they want you to feel.

Yes, they’re horrible and yes, they’re cruel, and yes, they peddle chaos and yes, they produce outrage. But they’re fucking incompetent, and opposition IS being roused.

There’s some good news happening in independent media. Don’t let legacy media be your exclusive go-to source. And be sure to subscribe to Banters and tell all your friends because BANTERS CHAT is launching soon.

IN CLOSING, this Banters collaboration will continue to present a more complete picture of what we’ll face ahead with frank exchanges that never pull punches. We’re resistors. And resistance needs focus and perspective. Outspoken HATES Trump, pure and simple. Shallow State says that what he really hates, is TrumpISM, the apparatus, and the fact that truth is being trampled. For more info on who we are check out our Welcome Issue, and follow us on Bluesky and yeah, Twitter.

Credits: Original art by Outspoken