Bulwark Takes - Trump’s War on the Press Just Backfired in the Funniest Possible Way

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Ready to be seen? Check that appointment off your to-do list with Zocdoc:https://zocdoc.com/bulwarktakes #sponsoredThe White House is trying to defend Donald Trump’s decision to ban major news organizations from covering the White House and the policy is already producing some pretty absurd results.JVL and Will Sommer discuss Trump’s crackdown on the press, including a Newsmax broadcast where viewers couldn’t hear the president because the press pool wasn’t there to provide audio. They also examine the upcoming court fight over White House press access, the administration’s new White House app, and the question of whether Democrats should respond by restricting access for outlets like Fox News and Newsmax.Plus, JVL and Will debate the broader problem facing the press: Trump’s escalating efforts to favor friendly media, punish outlets he dislikes, and blur the line between journalism and political propaganda.

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Vote from abroad.org. Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my buddy Will Summers. of the bulwark. And a few days ago, Donald Trump banned the press. The fake news from the outlets he doesn't like from covering the White House. And today that came back to bite him in the ass in a way that is, let's just be honest. Delicious.

Let's go to the tape. This is Newsmax. Okay. So there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe, Tim, this is one example of backfiring just. a little bit. Pick up on just a little bit.

Michael was saying and obviously the ramifications are right here. Can't hear what the president's saying. Just a little bit, Will. It feels like something

from spinal tap, doesn't it? Like, when they bring out the stonehenge and it's this big. I thought we were going to be blamed for

mammoth stone. Oh, no. Yeah. So for folks listening, that was not an error on our end. That was just Donald Trump.

talking, but because he's kicked out the press, there's no mic. And so he's just, I mean, as the newsmax anchor said, it's a little important to see Trump talking. Yeah, like the whole point of a press conference. And so it is indeed backfiring. It's a, it's kind of amazing. A little bit amazing the newsmax would cover this. My guess is they just didn't realize there wouldn't be audio. They assume that everything would be fine. There are a bunch of developments happening simultaneously, the White House has released its own app because it's 2009 or something. So there's an app for that. And according to the president of the United States, they are, oh, let me believe, download

the White House app, get real-time updates and live events streamed directly to your phone. No noise, just the news that matters most straight from the Trump administration. No noise indeed. Well, I'm a little disappointed. Why is that? Because doesn't this seem like Trump is missing an opportunity to make a little bit of money? Tell me more. Oh, well, don't you think that Trump could say without the fake news there,

I will give actual audio feeds to my true Patriot fans for only 1999 a month? or maybe, or maybe in the spirit of truth social, there will be a special gold circle club. We're for $100,000 a month. You could get access to the words coming out of the president's mouth five seconds before the rest of the world does that you could start trading on it. Yeah, for those of you too cheap to pay for the $100,000 truth social access, you can at least see him announce the new helipad.

You would have to just at that point read his lips. or like awful announcing or, like bad lip reading. So the press has been in real high dudgeon mode over this. Will, there's a court case coming on Wednesday. We're going to get a judge, Judge Kelly, hearing at 3.30 on a motion to lift Trump's ban on the White House access. We're waiting for the Department of Justice to respond. I'm sure Todd Blanche will be very dispassionate about this and will weigh in an equitable manner all of the various competing interests in this important thing. How upset are you?

I guess I'm pretty upset. I mean, on one hand, well, let's say maybe a five. You know, on one hand, it's a little tempered because I know this is a classic media elite get riled up. You know, you can't keep the press out. But on the other hand, I mean, it is true. I mean, these are major networks with big audiences and they're supposed to be monitoring the government. And, you know, it really recalls Pete Hegseth kicking so much of the media out. And then we come to find out, you know, they're covering up the number of casualties in Iran.

I mean, this is serious stuff at stake here. And, you know, reducing the number of reporters and kind of trying to scare the other ones, you know, you better behave. You'll get kicked out, too, is not good. So on the one hand, yes, I want to grant that, Will. But on the other hand, a couple things that mitigate this in my mind. The first of which is the mainstream media writ large, and I don't mean to impugn any specific person or organization, but I just mean in total, has normalized Trump to a degree which is toxic, hilarious, dangerous. Pick whatever adjective you like. And my, of, you know, my example of the week of this is last week when Donald Trump said in writing that the Democratic Party was behind a plot to assassinate him.

In a normal world, that should have been a banner headline across the front page of every paper in America. We should have had every news organization cutting into whatever they were doing. It's like because this is this is a bombshell allegation. The president of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer in our country, said that the rival political party was engaged in a plot to assassinate him. One of the most serious things that has ever happened in our republic. And instead, everyone just sort of like, oh, God, it's so embarrassing. I can't believe he's doing this.

again. Let's just move on. We know he's not serious. And I just feel like that's a disservice to the country. We ought to, you know, that should be the top question and everybody's not. Like, what other question, what other issues could there be? It's even more important than the Iran war is saying, well, gosh, okay, show us the evidence of this. Where, who are we arresting? Should we arrest Nancy Pelosi? Should we arrest Barack Hussein Obama? Who are the Democrats who were engaged in this? Because either it's true, in which case we need to arrest a lot of people and have a real serious think about where our politics is or it's not, in which case the president of the United States is a fucking lunatic. This message is sponsored by Zock Doc. If you've read false flag or watching me on Maga Monday, you know I spend a lot of time investigating other people's problems.

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See actual appointment openings and click to instantly book a visit. Your health matters and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. Ready to be seen? head to Zocdoc.com slash bulwark takes to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's ZOC, doc.com slash bulwark takes. And so how does kicking the press out affect that in one way or another? Well, it's just to say that like of all the things that the press, the press can be doing a lot of other things without being on premises at the White House. Yeah, and I think that's a fair point. And to be honest with you, I do think, you know, having just swung by the briefing room once in my career, I think it's very difficult to get any reporting done. I think it's kind of your, you're being kind of brought. Okay, here's our thing today. We're going to see the helipad. You know, I do think there's truth to that. I mean, I don't think this is sort of where most of the scoops happen.

Yeah, I don't think it is. And so I have, again, it's a little bit of the self-congratulatory. It's bad. I'm not saying it's not bad, you know, but, you know, in the catalog of horrors, I think it's pretty low down. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a judge telling him he can't do it. Yeah, and bringing, you know, bringing CNN, MS now, Politico, I mean, these are outlets he hates, clearly, and, you know, being forced to officially, you know, by judicial decree, tolerate them. I think it's pretty funny. Well, I mean, the good news for CNN, though, is that the Warner Brothers Paramount merger as of today is going forward. And so they will only be on Trump's naughty list for a few more months. And once Barry Weiss takes over CNN, then I'm sure they'll have their full access restored.

Right. That's a great point. I mean, we have seen him saying, well, you know, if these outlets, if they learn their lesson and start saying nicer things, they can come back. So I think he's very much leaving the door open to something like that. That's great. That's all great. Should Democrats retaliate? This is a real question.

Democrats have been asked themselves for a long time. Like, why do we let Fox News and Newsmax and whoever into the White House briefing room? They're just propaganda. Yeah. And now we're seeing, you know, the White House put out talking points today that said essentially, well, one time Brian Stelter at CNN said maybe they should ban CNN Fox News from the White House. So we're kind of justified in doing it. You know, I think you can see the, you can see why Fox would act in solidarity with the other

networks out of concern of setting that precedent. Certainly when Obama did, you know, much lesser things, oh, you don't get invited to one interview. Suddenly, you know, the other networks complained about it. So I think, you know, on one hand, you know, kind of the free speech guy in me really hopes this doesn't become a trend. On the other, you know, just like the Pentagon, I think Democrats end up in this kind of asymmetric situation where if you, the more press you allow in, the more negative stories there are naturally going to be about you, in particular these partisan outlets like Newsmax or Fox. And so, you know, if the Republicans don't expose themselves to it, why should we? Yeah, that's the real question, right? The asymmetric nature of like the liberal news media,

to whatever extent, it is liberal and slanted versus like outright propaganda networks that are so invested in doing propaganda that they're happy to eat, what was it, a $787 million lawsuit that Fox settled? And, you know, like I just don't know how you compete with that. Yeah, I think, you know, and I think the Biden administration, they called on Peter Ducey all the time, Fox's White House correspondent. You know, these, I think it's difficult, as you said. I mean, and so much of, you know, it's almost like we just accept Fox News's existence, but I think they play such a huge role in the right wing propaganda machine in terms of keeping people sort of immune to what they can see with their own eyes about Republicans. So I think a future Democratic administration might say, well, geez, you know, you kicked out the two main, I guess, liberal networks. Why can't we kick out Fox?

Yeah. I, you know, part of my dream is to put everybody under oath all the time. I feel like maybe that's the only way out of this. Like, you know, one path forward is that whenever the President of the United States or any of his official spokespeople, so people on the White House, you know, in the comms side, people who are cabinet secretaries, cabinet level secretaries, whenever they communicate with the public, they should be sworn in first. so that they feel as though they have some minimum duty to not lie actively.

You know, they can make mistakes. They can do all sorts of it. But they can't just say this guy is purple. I don't know. Maybe we should have something like that for people on news shows, too. I'm Ron Burgundy. I'm just spitball in here. Just trying to find a way out of this, Will.

Do you have any good ideas for us? I think it's challenging in particular, you know, if we consider the Trump administration has legitimized or sought to legitimize so many of these right-wing quasi-journalists, these influencers, they give them kind of the pride of place at the new media seat, they give them special briefings. And then, you know, in the next Democratic administration are, let's say the White House says, you know what, Jack Posobic, Laura Lumer, you guys aren't really journalists, you're not welcome here anymore.

Then, I mean, you know, obviously there's going to be a big outcry over that. Yeah. Except that they're not journalists. Like, that's the thing, right? I mean, and so there is a, you know, I just. just don't know how you balance propaganda versus journalism without, I mean, in a way, it's like the distinction on pornography, you know when you say it. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I think it's challenging. I mean, I think I would prefer the White House, you know, welcome everybody, you know, as many people as feasible. And even some of these cranks like Simon Atteba or these people who ask these, who essentially have no real outlet. They maybe have a website, but no real, like, legitimate reason to be there. just like to ask questions.

And, you know, I would rather have that than these crackdowns. But obviously, it sort of seems like it's trending in the other way. That's great. Well, you know, once again, the promise of the Internet, you know, it's democratized everything in ways that are horrible. Will Summer. Thanks for joining. Thanks for everybody else. We'll see you later.

Good luck, America.