Trump faces legal reckoning as desperate plea for love breaks federal law
Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Subscribe to her free Substack, The Haake Take.
Thursday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly putting an end to Trump’s White House media ban was lamentable for the speed with which it was issued. An exhausted nation was enjoying a break from Trump’s vitriol dominating every channel but, alas, the reprieve was short-lived.
On September 24, only three days after banned outlets CNN, MSN, and Politico sued, Kelly ordered the White House to ‘immediately return, reinstate, and restore’ their access to the White House. The judge said the banned media outlets had met the legal thresholds for a temporary restraining order, which he put into effect for 14 days. “This is a high bar,” Kelly wrote, “but Plaintiffs have met it.”
At argument, Trump’s DOJ made a laughable attempt to call his press ban a “matter of national security.” The DOJ argued that the three banned news organizations engaged in a “non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents” that “threatened national security and spread falsehoods.” Those incidents included publishing construction details about the East Wing bunker, reporting on who is really funding the White House ballroom, and reports detailing how U.S. munitions stockpiles were affected by the administration’s mistakes in Iran.
Kelly rejected the DOJ’s “national security” explanation as an after-the-fact justification. The judge noted that Trump had not used a national security argument when he announced the ban, but instead focused solely on what Trump called negative coverage of his administration.
Trump TV: when a man gasps for attention like a fish out of water
On the day of the hearing Wednesday, after Kelly had failed to immediately rule, even though the ban was a textbook example of government censorship, I was hopeful the judge would drag his decision out, because other major news networks had suspended their shared pooled television coverage of Trump in solidarity with the banned networks. The media boycott left Trump with comically reduced media exposure as even The New York Times and The Washington Post stopped publishing new Trump images.
The media blackout was so effective, it seemed perhaps Kelly, a Trump appointee, might have a partisan motive in prolonging it: to help Republican candidates in competitive races by reducing Trump’s face time. A delayed ruling meant continued diminished Trump coverage, also a welcome balm for our collective mental health.
But taking airtime from a creature formed by Reality TV and media attention was like taking a fish out of water. Deprived of 24/7 media attention, Trump’s pitiful wet flopping on the deck prompted his staff to create a quick and embarrassing replacement: Trump TV, a 24-hour YouTube livestream of White House coverage — curated, of course, by the White House.
Trump calls himself the “King of Ratings,” but Trump TV debuted to hilariously small numbers, peaking at around 8,000 viewers and frequently dropping down to a few thousand. As of Thursday morning, under 500 live viewers were watching. The internet blew up over the fact that a YouTube stream of a black screen and box fan had more viewers than Trump. One of the funniest sentences ever written, thank you Roxanne Cooper of Alternet, said it all: “Trump TV was similarly crushed by random ambient streams of people getting pedicures.”
And now, a blatantly illegal campaign ad
Trump’s lesson in humility would be funny, but Trump has taken State TV to the next illegal level. Fox News is now airing a new partisan ad promoting Trump, “paid for by the U.S. government.” The 30-second video combines rapid cuts of Trump, American flags, and military aircraft, alongside claims about tax cuts, manufacturing, and policing. Images of Trump are accompanied by a choir singing, “Love me,” repeatedly. It ends with Dana White saying, “He is the toughest, most resilient person I’ve ever met, and nothing was going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country he loves.”
Spending tax dollars on political campaign ads has long been illegal under federal law. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees, as well as local government employees under federally funded programs, from engaging in political activities of any kind while they are on the clock. The General Government Appropriations Act also prohibits the expenditure of any tax dollars to produce partisan content. Ads that glorify an official or an administration, like singing “Love me” against a backdrop of militaristic Trump images and brags, blatantly violate both laws.
Internet reaction was swift and correct. Occupy Democrats' Grant Stern tweeted, “Dear Leader is using YOUR tax dollars to make this insane propaganda with a musical track that says 'Love Me' on repeat.” Author Brendan Noble asked, “Why is the U.S. Government paying for cult-level media like this? 'Love me' over images of Trump feels like some weird psychological play. Regardless, it's propaganda with our tax dollars.”
The cost of the absence of truth
The ad is an obviously illegal use of taxpayer dollars, and a legal reckoning will come at some point, IF the 90 million voters who stayed home in 2024 care more about the price of gas than they cared about Trump’s J6 coup attempt. But more dangerous than Trump’s continued abuse of power is the fact that Trump appears to believe his own falsehoods.
Much noise has been made about Trump’s assistant Natalie Harp, who follows him around with a portable printer. It’s widely reported that Harp shows Trump only favorable news stories, positive polling, and praise. Trump inhales that disinformation and regurgitates it back to a press pool allergic to hard questions because they are owned by Trump’s corporate backers.
Steady flattery may make the job more palatable to a man getting tired of politics, but it’s dangerous. Trump can’t make informed decisions if he only hears information he wants to hear; advisors with nefarious intentions can also shape information to manipulate him. But that’s what seems to be happening: Trump believes we are winning the war in Iran because Hegseth tells him we are; he believes the economy is strong; he thinks world leaders respect him, even as they mock him and move toward alliances excluding the U.S.
Unfavored media outlets’ crucial role is correcting Trump’s misinformation on everything — the war in Iran, the economy, even foreign trade. They may have returned to the White House, but the extreme danger of a president so insulated from the truth that he believes his own propaganda remains.