What A Day - Trump's Media Ban Backfires

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

MSNOW, CNN, and Politico are suing the Trump Administration after it banned their reporters from the White House press pool. President Donald Trump said on Friday, "I don't want them in my office," because of the news organizations' coverage. Erin Ryan talks to Will Sommer, Senior Reporter for The Bulwark and author of the False Flag newsletter, about Trump's latest attacks on the media.Show Notes: Check out False Flag – thebulwark.com/s/false-flag Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

The press is sort of the representative of Americans in many ways and kind of looking at things. And, you know, we saw this with the Pentagon, too, when they kicked out, you know, even the conservative media outlets that wouldn't sign his sort of loyalty oath brought in, like Laura Lumer and Jack Posobic and all these crackpots. It's Monday, September 21st. I'm Aaron Ryan in for Jane Koston, and this is What a Day. President Trump banned MS now, CNN, and Politico from the White House on Friday, even confiscating some of the reporters.

credentials. Former President Barack Obama, who must be exhausted at this point, had this to say about the ban during an appearance at Colgate University. I'm trying to think what would have happened if I had said, you know what, Fox News? You're out of here. It's unimaginable. So, but the point I'm making here is, is that if you have a certain cohort, let's call it 30 to 35% of the country right now, which thinks that's okay. Well, what that means is we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires. I mean, democracy requires tattletails. It's true. It's true. All right, President Donald Trump said Sunday that the comically large arch that he wants to build between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would actually be a top-grade military complex, able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition. I think G.I. Joe Fortress, except blocking the view of Arlington National Cemetery.

It's one more example of how Trump is insisting that his initiatives to leave his mark all over the nation's capital, like a dog, peeing on a line of fire hydrants, is also helping keep America safe. Trump has been calling a new White House ballroom a military complex and arguing that it's necessary for national security purposes. It's worth noting that there's an actual military base about a mile. away from the location of the proposed Trump arch. So I'm not sure that excuse will fly. Ahead of elections, presidents usually try to assuage voters fears and minimize damage to their own party. Trump has taken the opposite approach, doubling down on his unpopular policies. So crazy, it just might work. Except new polling from real clear polling has shown just how destructive his behavior has been to Republicans. Democrats have a real shot at win.

Senate races in Texas, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina. Some senators even think that conservative strongholds like Kansas and Nebraska could be up for grabs. Donald Trump once again urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop attacking Russian oil refineries telling him it's all about, quote, diesel, diesel, diesel. The Financial Times reports. And Trump wrote on social media today, quote, this ridiculous and never-ending war with Ukraine must be ended. Fun fact. Trump said he would end the war with Ukraine on his first day in office. He said this 53 times. But instead of doing that, what he did was start a new war that he also promised to end and

has not ended. Promises made, promises kept, am I right? But I want to talk about Trump's latest attacks on the media. Joining me today is Will Summer, the senior reporter for the bulwark and the author of the False Flag Newsletter. Will, welcome to what a day. Hey, thanks for having me. Okay, so the big story in media today, Donald Trump has banned three outlets, mainstream outlets, CNN, Politico, and MS now from the White House, citing the fact that he just doesn't like, doesn't like the reporting. He doesn't even make overtures that it's about the individual reporters. He just doesn't like the outlets reporting.

Can he do that? Well, you know, I think a court's going to get to decide. the three outlets now have plans to sue. They filed the lawsuit today on Monday. You know, I think it's weird. I mean, it's a lot of weird stuff about it. But partially it's weird because Trump is being so open about being like, this is punishment for what they're saying. You know, he said when he was asked on Friday about it, he said, well, you know, this is sort of a crackdown on the free press, essentially. He used the free press specifically. And so, you know, he's saying, well, you know, maybe if they learn their lesson and start saying something different, can come back. I mean, that's pretty clearly a First Amendment violation. Yeah. I mean, so why did, why did he put it that way? Like, is there a way that he could have put

it where he would have had some plausible deniability? Like, you know, when he's, when he's talking about, like, his monument construction, he's like, oh, national security. Like, that's his kind of go-to, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail excuse. But, like, why wouldn't he use a more plausible excuse? I mean, it seems like he's really just fired up. He's mad, you know, and he wants them to know that he's mad at them. You know, the Wall Street Journal reported that Natalie Harp had given, you know, obviously his sort of, you know, devoted staffer had shown him sort of a super cut of MS now criticizing him and a politico graphic. It's a little on, CNN reported it was a politico graphic that somehow made him mad. And then he said, okay, you know, get those three out

of here. So I think, you know, theoretically, he probably would have had better grounds if he said, like, you know, they're just logistically, there's not enough room. or the CNN crew takes up too much space or some kind of fig leaf argument, but he didn't go with that. Yeah, and let's talk a little bit about Natalie Harp. She's just like an emotional support staffer, I guess, we can say. Why isn't she laying low now, given all the bad press around her of late and as much as she's acted like she doesn't like the attention? Like, why not lay low? Well, you know, it's funny. I mean, as you said, kind of the emotional support staffer, you know, her brother is that they have a very weird relationship. We saw the letter she wrote him that was very devoted and, you know, kind of adoring in a weird way.

But at the same time, like, she seems to be riling him up based on this reporting that CNN also confirmed. I mean, this idea that, you know, she's in this kind of weird Trump whisperer role. She writes a lot of the posts on truth social that now apparently, I mean, I think perhaps it is like a comfort move for him to attack the media. He knows Republicans are going to like it, at least to some extent, even if it's not like a suaging diesel prices. concerns for that. But, you know, he's like, well, you know, I can always beat up on the media and it's going to make anyone who cares about it looks sort of like an East Coast media elite look out of touch. Yeah, let's talk.

I want to come back to that in a second, but I want to stay on Natalie Hart for a little bit. You know, seeing the reporting from, you know, there was CNN reporting that matched the Wall Street Journal's reporting about Natalie Hart being the one to kind of rile him up here. The fact that these Natalie Harp stories keep leaking from the White House indicates to me, and as somebody who's worked in, like, newsrooms before, somebody in the White House really doesn't like Natalie Hart. Somebody in the White House is, like, leaking these stories. Do you have any theories about who it might be? Oh, gosh. I mean, I think there's probably a lot of people.

I mean, it seems like factually she's very powerful, you know, given her closeness to Trump. And he's seen, I mean, she claims, you know, he essentially saved her life by, you know, approving some cancer treatment. So he loves people who are devoted to him and you have this undying loyalty. But, you know, one could imagine, you know, just speculating like Susie Wiles or, I don't know, maybe Don Jr. is jealous of the attention. Who knows? It could be all kinds of people. But you're right that, I mean, these are like really extensive leaks about someone in a White House that doesn't leak really at all as much as the first Trump administration did. You know, before it was like, I felt like, you know, Wright's Previs would call, you know, Maggie Haberman or, you know, just whoever would call someone with a readout on a meeting right out. after it happened. Whereas this, it's really rare, but we're getting this Natalie Hart thing, like beat by beat. We see the letter that she wrote and all this stuff.

Yeah, I like to play. That's like one of my favorite parlor games to play is like, who is the source on this and who's mad? That's a, that's a fun one in a time that is very deeply unfun. Let's go back to talking about the like First Amendment implications of banning the press because, I mean, there's the castle intrigue elements of it. But a common critique that I have seen of mainstream media, and I'm sure you've seen it too, is that the media's kind of navel-gazy and obsessed with itself. Why is this particular story of these news outlets being banned from the White House of interest beyond people who like reads Ateo and know who David Fulkenflick is? Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, like true media sickos, I think like ourselves,

are obviously going to be the most intrigued here. But I do think it's an important story beyond that. I mean, number one, these are massive outlets that reach and sort of represent a lot of Americans. And the idea that the president can say, well, I don't like what you're saying, so you no longer have a view into the way the government works. You know, it's clearly, you know, threatening the idea that there's any sort of accountability to Americans. I mean, the press is sort of the representative of Americans in many ways and kind of looking at things. And, you know, we saw this with the Pentagon too when they kicked out, you know, even the conservative media outlets that wouldn't sign his sort of loyalty oath brought in like Laura Lumer and Jack Posobic and all these crackpots. This idea that, you know, you don't do. deserve to know what the government is up to, that the president has sort of his own, you know,

sovereignty and can do whatever he wants and, you know, how dare you ask about it. And then I think also there's a chilling effect on the other media outlets, this idea, particularly smaller ones where, you know, these people are very reliant on if your job as a White House reporter, you know, and then you're banned from the White House, you know, what are you going to do? I think this idea, well, maybe I shouldn't ask a rude question at the press conference to probing of a question. I shouldn't. Maybe I'll kind of dull the edges on a particular story so I don't get kicked out. We do kind of know what happens when mainstream media outlets are banned from government entities that they should be covering. Because as you mentioned, the Pentagon, can you give our audience a sense of like how coverage of the Pentagon has suffered and whether information about the Pentagon is getting out despite the fact that most mainstream reporters have been banned from covering it?

Yeah, I mean, I think what happens, what we saw with the Pentagon is probably what the White House would love to do, which is kick out any reporter, even ones on the right who basically isn't willing to sign away their First Amendment rights, replace them with kind of the stock pool of right-wing influencers and quasi-journalists. In the case of the Pentagon, at least one of those people has now turned out, one of the people who was brought in, data Republican, has turned out to secretly be a Pentagon employee. So, I mean, it is really like a subversion of any kind of, like, journalistic norms. You know, we've seen the White House try this. They have these new media briefings where they bring in various conspiracy theorists. They have the new media seat where they kind of highlight typically a right-wing influencer. So, I mean, I think clearly there's this desire to, you know, push out some reporters, scare some others, and then, you know, replace them with these people who are sort of a sort of a sort of Potemkin or kind of

of like a pseudo press corps. Yeah, people playing the press on TV, like from central casting, just like President Trump likes. But, you know, in response to this banning, there's been some solidarity demonstrations from the media in addition to the lawsuit that you mentioned. The pool is not covering Donald Trump's trip to the U.N. General Assembly because I think CNN was the pool outlet that was assigned to it. And now they're banned, so they're just not going to go. So do you think that the threat of not being on TV for a goddamn day will encourage Donald Trump to maybe rethink what he's doing without having to go through the courts? Yeah. And I mean, you got to give a shout out to Fox News here.

I mean, they've demonstrated solidarity here by pulling, you know, from the cable pool along with the other networks. I think that, I mean, this could be a real issue for Trump. As you said, this is a guy who loves to be on TV. Now, there's still a White House TV feed that people can pull from sort of a government-provided one. But I think, you know, that has like weird ethical implications. This is without the pool feed, a lot of local TV stations. They'll have to pull the government one. And I think a lot of people might just say, well, you know what, maybe we don't have to pull from

the feed this time. Maybe we can talk about another story or we don't really have to have Trump's image on. Maybe we'll get a Trump critic on to talk about them instead. And so, you know, there are certain right wing, very small right wing media outlets like real America's voice that are saying, you know, we're stepping up. We're providing the feed now. But, you know, I mean, look, it's not Fox News. It's not CNA. Yeah, I mean, thinking about that, it feels like Donald Trump has set up maybe a heads-eye wind, tails you lose situation, where it's like, okay, on one hand, yeah, he wouldn't be on TV.

But the positive side for him of not being on TV is being able to do all this stuff without anybody noticing or witnessing. So do you think that him not being on TV could ultimately be a good thing if he was trying to do something nefarious? Yeah, I mean, I do think there's that. aspect. I mean, it sort of reminds me of when Trump got banned from Twitter. And suddenly people were exposed a lot less to his crazy posts. And, you know, because people weren't on true social. So in the same way, I mean, I think that, you know, cutting off Trump's sort of nonstop feed could hurt him. But I think this is a guy who, I think particularly now where he's facing these like really challenging issues, the war in Iran, rising gas prices. I mean, I think he would love to get up there on TV

every day and say something, you know, kind of crazy or distracting or, you know, you know, and some dogs we'll get into. But like that kind of churn the culture war in a way that distracts people from gas prices. So I think he would love the attention. All right. Well, I hope that that weakness in his personality is going to like predict what's coming next year. Because, man, I do not need to see the Supreme Court side with Donald Trump or figure out some way to do some like mental backflips in order to make this work for him. We'll get back to my conversation with Will Summer in just a moment.

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Head to FreshBooks.com slash podcast to get started. That's 90% off under $3 a month for four months at at freshbooks.com slash podcast. Let's get back to my conversation with Will Summer. Well, pivoting a bit. Politico recently ran a story detailing some concerning behavior out of Israel. And for once, the concerning behavior does not involve horrific human rights violations. This time, it's just good old-fashioned corruption, which feels kind of quaint in this day and age. David Milstein, who's serving as an advisor to Mike Huckabee, who's the U.S. ambassador to Israel,

he was caught soliciting donations from Israelis to help him pay for his wedding. via QR code that he sent on a mass email. And to make matters worse, his father-in-law is Mark Levin, who is one of Donald Trump's favorite blow hearts. What's your reaction to this story? The Mark Levin stepfather revelation in this story was really a treat. As you said, I mean, this is a case where, you know, you have this important embassy official working for the U.S. in Israel.

And he sends out this QR code, which already, it's like, couldn't we do a, what, a Zol? Registry or something. Like, it's that impersonal. Hit me on Venmo. And he said, look, I'm accepting donations in U.S. dollars or Israeli shekels. So it's kind of clear, like, Israelis welcome to donate. And I mean, this is, I mean, I guess to his credit, it seems like after, I guess after Politico asked, you know, did you clear this with the State Department that you're soliciting, you know, foreign citizens in a government you're working in, or a country you're working in for donations. And he said, oh, you know, never mind. Oh, I just meant it for a couple people, Americans only. Not really how it read, actually. And then, you know, Mark Levin, I mean,

Mark Levin is kind of one of the great cranks of right-wing media in terms of just yelling, particularly about the media. And like, every time I tune in, he's ranting about some reporter. And so in this case, he says, you know, oh, politic crap and, you know, they're after by my steps on and all this stuff. Oh, my God. Yeah, the Mark Levine of it all is really interesting. I mean, can you spell it out a little bit to people who might not know why this is bad? I mean, I never agree. I feel like I'd never say this, but like to cite Joe Kent, it sounds like Mark Levin and Ambassador Huckabee both have direct lines from like the Israeli government to the president or they're both very influential. Can you kind of flesh that out for our audience?

Yeah, I mean, this kind of plays into this sort of ongoing Maga Civil War we've seen over Israel since October. seventh. And in particular, since Trump took office and Charlie Kirk was assassinated, so you have these teams of people and you have maybe Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Joe Kent on one end, very Israel critical, sometimes verging on going into anti-Semitism. And then Mark Levin really is as Republicans, pretty young Republicans get wearier of Israel. Mark Levin has become like one of the most prominent pro-Israel voices on the right along with Ben Shapiro. And so you got Mark Levine, this guy's stepfather. You've got Mike Huckabee, his boss, who is extremely pro-Israel to the extent that he met with Jonathan Poller, the convicted spy, who's now living in Israel in sort of a crazy,

weird diplomatic protocol breach. You have these people who are, and now that they're underling, or in this case his stepson, is basically, you know, just throwing it open. Hey, anyone want to give me some Israeli money? Hey, you know, I mean, it's pretty remarkable. People in the political story, you know, familiar with counterintelligence, we're saying like, this is nuts. Just to be saying, you know, hey, you know, I know I'm supposed to be representing my government in this country. But if you want to toss me some cash, that's cool by me. Between David Milstein and Donald Trump Jr. in the ProPublica story that broke the other week about the Russian oligarch who was in the motorcycle gang paying for his wedding.

Yeah. Which one do you think is the most compromised Trump figure currently? Do you think it's Milstein? Do you think it's Donald Trump Jr.? Which one do you think is probably in the bigger trouble? Well, you know, I would have to say Don Jr. because, you know, not to give David Milstein credit here, but we don't know if he got any money. We don't know that some, you know, Israeli businessman rented him a private island as this Russian guy did for John Jr. But, I mean, the Don Jr stuff is crazy. I know supposedly he's paying the money back. You know, it kind of doesn't count if you've been caught already. And they're kind of like, all right, I guess I'll pay it back. But, you know, it does seem as though like this, the Don Jr. thing was really like, well, yeah, I don't know.

This guy wanted to pay for it. So why not? So I feel like this norm is really being eroded of not just like being on the take for foreign governments or businesses. Yeah. I mean, you know, I never quite realized just how rich an arena a wedding is for like foreign influence. Like, is this a thing that happens elsewhere? Do people pay for each other's weddings? Do people solicit donations under the guise of getting married?

Is a wedding like a money laundering operation? Well, it's weird, too, in the Don Jr. case because the idea that he's, he paid for some of it. Like, he doesn't appear to have paid for, like, the funfetti cake that ProPublica talked about, but he paid for the island, you know, the fireworks. And so is it sort of like an add-on, you know, hey, you know, I noticed you're having your wedding in the Bahamas. If I come, you know, we can upgrade to the fireworks. Yeah. Oh, God, what never, never a dull moment. Will Summer, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me. That was my conversation with Will Summer, senior reporter for the bulwark and author of the False Flag Newsletter.

Before we go, what does it mean for Democrats to actually win in the South? In this bonus episode of Longplay, Dan Pfeiffer and hosts Jennifer Palmieri and Aaron Haynes dig into key southern races. They tackle some of the biggest questions facing us in the midterms as more and more races are becoming competitive in the South. Check out their conversation in your Longplay podcast feed or watch on YouTube. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a review. If you're running for office, never eat a corn dog or make a sex joke on camera.

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Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Aaron Ryan. And if Nebraska is better than sex, Senator Kennedy, you're doing it wrong. Why today is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Emily 4, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Adam Lippert, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press.

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