Etablerad media har länge haft en ängslighet att kalla saker vid deras rätta namn, men den falska balansen har börjat skifta.
‘The problem with false equivalence as it permeates so much of the culture of media these days is that we’re just giving voice to things that have absolutely no basis in reality and treating them as equivalent to everything else,’ former PBS Board Member Evan Smith said.
Så står det i PBS artikel Fairness to 'Both Sides' Should Not Lead to False Equivalence från 19/2 2020. Diskussionen om falsk balans är minst lika relevant i dagens USA. Detta under ett presidentval som ständigt utmanar vad som tidigare varit otänkbart, i relation till såväl konstitutionen som demokratin som sådan. Ett val där etablerad media kämpar med hur de ska förhålla sig till Donald Trump och MAGA.
‘There is nothing wrong with calling a lie a lie,’ Smith said. ‘There is everything wrong with letting it go unchallenged or unchecked. So, we in the business of journalism are in the business of truth. And facts. Those things matter.’
De dubbla måttstockarna märks fortfarande men sedan Kamala Harris blev demokraternas presidentkandidat har narrativet börjat svänga. Från den oproportionella rapporteringen om Joe Bidens ålder, till alltfler beskrivningar av Trumps fysiska och mentala tillstånd. Från normalisering och försköningar, till att oftare kalla saker vid deras rätta namn. Nedan följer ett antal talande citat från artiklar publicerade under hösten.
Fascism, rasism, antisemitism, sexism, valförnekande, desinformation, konspirationsteorier, politiskt våld med mera
Four years after launching an unprecedented attack on democracy, and leaving the White House in disgrace, Donald Trump will return to Washington, DC, as the 47th president of the United States.
Donald Trump Wins the 2024 Election, Putting Democracy on the Brink (Vanity Fair, 7/11).
‘On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump repeatedly promised to pardon some of the 1,500 people charged in connection with Jan. 6, sometimes suggesting that his clemency might extend to leaders of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and to other defendants who assaulted police officers.’
Jan. 6 Defendants Are Already Angling for Pardons From Trump (New York Times, 7/11)
A remarkable thing happened Tuesday night on an ‘election integrity’ discussion page on the social media platform X, as it became clear that former president Donald Trump was headed to a decisive victory against Vice President Kamala Harris.
It got quiet.
Republican election denial claims take a hiatus with Trump’s victory (Washington Post, 6/11).
Journalists from multiple news organizations have been denied credentials to former President Donald Trump’s election night watch event in West Palm Beach, Florida, in retaliation for their coverage of Trump’s campaign.
Trump campaign denies and revokes journalists’ election night credentials after critical coverage (CNN, 5/11)
While Florida generally makes it challenging for people in the state with felony convictions to regain their voting rights, former President Donald Trump will have no issue casting a ballot for himself today in Palm Beach.
Donald J. Trump has used misogynistic language to refer to Kamala Harris, fostering an environment among his allies and at his rallies that revels in gendered insults.
Trump, Vance and Allies Hurl Insults at Women as Race Ends (New York Times, 5/11)
Speaking on the campaign trail in Atlanta, Mr. Vance told supporters that ‘in our movement, we love every citizen of this country.’ Seconds later, he called Vice President Kamala Harris ‘trash.’
Vance Mocks Harris as ‘Trash’ in One of His Final Rallies (New York Times, 5/11)
Two Proud Boys chapters, both based in Ohio, say they'll be watching the polls on Election Day, according to posts reviewed by NBC News. The Proud Boys of Columbus recently posted a claim that they had enrolled members as poll watchers and poll workers.
Proud Boys claim they'll be at polling places as Trump ups violent rhetoric and election fraud claims (NBC News, 5/11)
Several non-credible bomb threats that briefly disrupted voting at two Georgia polling places originated from Russia, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday.
Non-credible bomb threats against Atlanta-area polling places were from Russia, secretary of state says (CNN, 5/11)
On his social media platform, Musk has posted a seemingly endless stream of political messages, many in support of Trump and far-right political narratives, generating more than 17.1 billion views since the July endorsement, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Elon Musk’s misleading election claims have been viewed more than 2 billion times on X, analysis finds (CNN, 4/11)
To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don't mind that so much.’
Trump Says ‘I Don’t Mind’ if the Media Gets Shot (Rolling Stone, 3/11)
Trump’s latest comments were an escalation of violent language he and his supporters have used in recent days.
Trump says he doesn’t mind someone shooting at journalists at rally (Washington Post, 3/11)
Throughout his life, Donald J. Trump has bent the truth to serve his needs, never more so than on the campaign trail to win back the White House.
Trump’s Wild Claims, Conspiracies and Falsehoods Redefine Presidential Bounds (New York Times, 3/11)
Eager to reassure nervous Americans that their votes will be protected, authorities are touting unprecedented security plans designed to withstand violence and other nightmare scenarios on Election Day and in a potentially uncertain aftermath.
Panic buttons, drones, snipers among plans to guard a high-risk election (Washington Post, 3/11)
A Lieutenant for an Ohio sheriff’s Office is making headlines after some of his social media posts caught the public’s eye. […] ’I am sorry. If you support the Democratic Party, I will not help you’. […] ‘The problem is that I know which of you supports the Democratic Party, and I will not help you survive the end of days.’
Ahead of potential civil unrest due to Tuesday’s presidential election, the National Guard is on standby as a precaution in several states, including Washington state and Oregon, where hundreds of ballots were damaged or destroyed after at least three ballot drop boxes were recently set on fire, officials say.
He is quick to denigrate American cities, often those home to large immigrant populations. He does so both individually and collectively, sometimes in crude terms.
‘Cesspools,’ ‘Hellholes’ and ‘Beautiful Places’: How Trump Describes the U.S. (New York Times, 2/11)
As Ms. Harris began her day in Wisconsin at the Madison airport, she told reporters Mr. Trump’s remarks ‘must be disqualifying.’
Harris calls Trump’s violent language about Liz Cheney ‘disqualifying.’ (New York Times, 1/11)
‘She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?’ the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. ‘Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.’
Trump Attacks Liz Cheney Using Violent War Imagery (New York Times, 1/11)
Trump suggests ‘war hawk’ Liz Cheney should have guns ‘trained on her face’ (Washington Post, 1/11)
Musk, who told Tucker Carlson he might be thrown in jail if Harris takes the White House, has also suggested that members of Congress who don’t support specific Republican policies should be executed.
Elon Musk Built an Army of Pro-Trump Extremists to Spread Voter Fraud Conspiracy Theories (Gizmodo, 1/11)
Former President Donald J. Trump said at a rally on Wednesday that he would protect American women ‘whether the women like it or not’ — remarks that he cast as paternal but only served as reminders to many of his critics of his history of misogynistic statements and a civil court case that found him liable for sexual abuse.
The co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team on Wednesday night endorsed vaccine conspiracy theories pushed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and suggested the activist and Trump ally would be given federal data in order to check vaccines’ safety if former President Donald Trump is elected.
Trump transition team co-chair endorses Kennedy anti-vax theories and says he would be able to access health data (CNN, 31/10)
An 18-year-old man was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for threatening two supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris with a machete outside an early-voting site, the latest in a series of threats or attacks surrounding early and mail voting.
Trump Supporter Arrested After Brandishing Machete at Early-Voting Site (New York times, 30/10)
The anti-Muslim scaremongering is a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s political identity, dating back at least to his 2016 campaign when he said he would create a registry of Muslims and embraced an apocryphal story about Gen. John J. Pershing executing Muslim rebels in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pig fat.
What Muslim Ban? Trump Tries to Sidestep Years of Islamophobia. (New York Times, 30/10)
America PAC door knockers were flown to Michigan, driven in the back of a U-Haul, and told they’d have to pay hotel bills unless they met unrealistic quotas. One was surprised they were working to elect Donald Trump.
Workers Say They Were Tricked and Threatened as Part of Elon Musk’s Get-Out-the-Vote Effort (The Wired, 30/10)
Musk said the Jan. 6 attack was ‘in no way a violent insurrection.’
At town halls, Elon Musk works to harness his celebrity to boost Trump (ABC News, 30/10)
For Musk, the platform has become a useful political weapon of confusion, a machine retrofitted to poison the information environment by filling it with dangerous, false, and unsubstantiated rumors about election fraud that can reach mass audiences.
Elon Musk Wants You to Think This Election’s Being Stolen (The Atlantic, 30/10)
Many of those who served in former President Donald J. Trump’s administration — especially his generals, ambassadors and other national security officials — have since turned on Mr. Trump.
Once Top Advisers to Trump, They Now Call Him ‘Liar,’ ‘Fascist’ and ‘Unfit’ (New York Times, 30/10)
There’s nothing subtle about the Trump agenda. He’s calling for dramatic changes that could upend daily life. Mass deportations. Unthinkably high tariffs. And enough tax giveaways to give Oprah a run for her money.
At least two headliners — Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump, Jr. — echoed the far-right great replacement conspiracy theory that imagines the end of the White race through an engineered replacement by non-White populations imported into the country. The ideology has inspired mass shooters who have killed Latinos, Jews and Black people.
Trump’s New York rally reflects a party where hate speech has become mainstream (Washington Post, 30/10)
This Nevada woman was charged with manslaughter under a law from 1911. […] From the start, deep moral questions loomed over a local justice system as it struggled to distinguish a miscarriage from an abortion, a fetus from a baby — culminating in a conviction one judge would ultimately characterize as ‘a total miscarriage of justice.’
She said she had a miscarriage — then got arrested under an abortion law (Washington Post, 29/10)
As president, Donald Trump fought bitterly with Puerto Rican officials, ridiculed them and resisted sending aid to the territory after devastating hurricanes. […] He made angry comments on social media and tossed paper towels at Puerto Ricans during a visit that few, if any, have forgotten. He even wondered privately if the United States could sell the island.
A New Insult Reminds Puerto Ricans of How Trump Treated Them (New York Times, 29/10)
Fred Trump says that, after Mr. Trump met with him and other disability rights advocates in 2020, Mr. Trump spoke with him alone and said: ‘All those people, all those costs. Shouldn’t those people just die?’
A disability rights group hits Trump with ads featuring his nephew. (New York Times, 29/10)
Musk, one of the world’s richest men, posted a video to X on Sunday in which a gladiator with President Donald Trump’s face briefly sword fights with and kicks a warrior with Vice President Kamala Harris’ face — a video whose creator appears to be aligned with neo-Nazism.
Several speakers at Trump’s event scoffed at comparisons between it and Nazi rallies. […] From the outside, sure. The rally looked like another rock concert. From the inside? Fritz Kuhn would certainly have recognized what he saw.
Another night at the Garden: How Trump’s rally echoed one in 1939 (Washington Post, 28/10)
For his near-decade on the political stage, Trump has made a fetish of plausible deniability. Mexican immigrants are ‘bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.’ He urged the mob on January 6th to ‘show strength’ and ‘take our country back,’ but only ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ He doesn’t want to be a dictator, except on Day One. The Madison Square Garden rally wasn’t an authoritarian rally; it was a mass demonstration for Americanism.
The Trump Show Comes to Madison Square Garden (New Yorker, 28/10)
Four-letter words were flying everywhere. One speaker flipped his middle finger at the opposition. Another made what was interpreted as an oral sex joke regarding Vice President Kamala Harris. Another suggested she was a prostitute. Still another discussed the supposed sexual habits of Latinos rather explicitly.
Trump Long Ago Crossed the Line From Propriety to Profanity. Then Came the Garden. (New York Times, 28/10)
The reference to vulgar language to describe Harris mirrors crude language about women, people’s genitalia and political opponents often used by Donald Trump, who recently spent a portion of a campaign rally talking about golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitals.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday opened with a standup comic who called Puerto Rico an ‘island of garbage’ in a set that also included derogatory remarks about Latinos generally, African Americans, Palestinians and Jews.
Trump’s rally opened with vulgar insults aimed at Latino, Black, Jewish and Arab American Voters. (New York Times, 27/10)
While presidents have pushed the boundaries of power, and in some cases abused it outright, no American commander in chief over the past couple of centuries has so aggressively sought to discredit the institutions of democracy at home while so openly embracing and envying dictators abroad.
Amid Talk of Fascism, Trump’s Threats and Language Evoke a Grim Past (New York Times, 27/10)
Friday night in Austin, Texas, the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, fiercely criticized The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, over a recent report about Trump’s troubling attitude toward the military, which he believes should be loyal to him personally.
Donald Trump’s Dogwhistles Are Unmistakable (The Atlantic, 27/10)
Americans expect certain qualities in their president. Loyalty. Honesty. Decency. Respect for the law. Commitment to the equality and dignity of all people. Donald J. Trump thoroughly fails to embody any of these qualities.
Editorial: Donald Trump is unfit (Times Union, 26/10)
In the months after Donald Trump was thrown off social media for inciting a mob assault on the Capitol, a little-known technology mogul moved decisively into the former president’s inner circle. […] These alliances are particularly striking in light of Republican accusations that the country’s premier technology companies favor Democrats.
How a tech mogul backed by JD Vance now bolsters Trump’s fortune (Washington Post, 26/10)
Said Trump, other countries are 'dumping people into our country they don’t want because they’re too dangerous and too expensive.'
At Penn State, Trump reaches out to college voters and describes immigrants as ‘garbage’ (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 26/10)
Long before he became one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors and campaign surrogates, South African-born Elon Musk worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California, according to former business associates, court records and company documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally (Washington Post, 26/10)
[I]n 2022, a local cryptocurrency multimillionaire named Robert Beadles and a growing movement of election denialists helped elect a second commissioner who expressed doubt about the 2020 results, Mike Clark.
The Army of Election Officials Ready to Reject the Vote (New York Times, 25/10)
Anti-abortion groups have pushed to use the Comstock Act to ban abortion pills. They also say that the law would criminalize the delivery or receipt of medical instruments used in abortion. […] […] ‘We don’t need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books,’ Jonathan F. Mitchell, an anti-abortion lawyer, told The New York Times earlier this year. ‘There’s a smorgasbord of options.’
How the Country’s Understanding of Abortion Could Change if Trump Wins (New York Times, 25/10)
[A] bunch of the people who think Trump meets the definition of fascist plan to vote for him anyway. According to the ABC-Ipsos poll, 8 percent of those who think he’s fascist say they’ll vote for Trump.
Half the U.S. thinks Trump’s a fascist. One in 12 of them support him. (Washington Post, 25/10)
Thirteen former Trump administration officials released an open letter on Friday amplifying warnings from John F. Kelly, Donald J. Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, that the former president would rule like a dictator if he returned to office.
13 Ex-Trump Aides Back Kelly’s ‘Dictator’ Warning, Saying Trump Seeks ‘Absolute, Unchecked Power’ (New York Times, 25/10)
Donald Trump has described at length the dangerous and disturbing actions he says he will take if he wins the presidency. […] We have two words for American voters: Believe him.
Trump Is Telling Us What He Would Do. Believe Him. (New York Times, 25/10)
At one point, Putin asked [Elon Musk] to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said to people briefed on the request.
Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin (Wall Street Journal, 24/10)
Despite Trump’s tendency to link migrants and crime during his rallies, there is evidence that immigrants — documented or undocumented — tend to be more law-abiding than people born in the United States. Crime, including homicides and assaults, is also falling nationwide.
Trump compares undocumented migrants to trash at insult-fueled rallies (Washington Post, 24/10)
‘And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. This is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this. You’re getting a vigorous spanking because you’ve been a bad girl.’
Tucker Carlson Tells Crowd Trump Will Give Country a ‘Spanking’ (New York Times, 24/10)
On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly threatened to strip broadcast licenses from three big television networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC – in retribution for moderators fact-checking him and running mate JD Vance during debates and for news coverage that Trump claims is unfair.
[U]nder oath in a court deposition earlier this year, Flynn for the first time on record acknowledged there was no evidence to support a key part of some election fraud claims — that an executive at Dominion Voting Systems helped rig the 2020 election through the company’s voting machines.
Sell the Steal: How Michael Flynn built a business and MAGA following out of election denialism (CNN, 24/10)
House Republicans on the committee with broad jurisdiction over national elections have hired at least two former Donald Trump campaign officials involved in the 2020 fake electors scheme as the GOP-led panel gears up to take center stage in an unknown post-election landscape when Congress returns in November.
House GOP committee that oversees elections hired two former Trump officials involved in 2020 fake elector scheme (CNN, 24/10)
An event with Latino supporters quickly swerved off topic as Trump bashed solar farms as a threat to rabbits and pushed falsehoods about electric vehicles.
Trump attacks Harris with racist stereotype, eyes ‘extreme power’ as president (Washington Post, 24/10)
One voter’s mistake has been transformed into a voter fraud conspiracy theory, catapulted into the national spotlight by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
No, a Voting Machine Did Not ‘Flip’ a Vote in Georgia (New York Times, 23/10)
A former deputy Palm Beach County sheriff who fled to Moscow and became one of the Kremlin’s most prolific propagandists is working directly with Russian military intelligence to pump out deepfakes and circulate misinformation that targets Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to Russian documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post.
American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show (Washington Post, 23/10)
A letter from the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related [federal] law violations, went to Musk’s political action committee, according to people briefed on the matter.
Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal (CNN, 23/10)
President Joe Biden believes his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is a fascist, the White House said Wednesday – the clearest sign yet of what Biden believes is at stake with the election less than two weeks away.
Biden believes Trump is a fascist, White House says (CNN, 23/10)
John Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that he believed that Donald Trump met the definition of a fascist.
As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator (New York Times, 22/10)
Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents, NPR has found.
The Republican nominee’s preoccupation with dictators, and his disdain for the American military, is deepening.
Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’ (The Atlantic, 22/10)
Each town hall that Donald Trump holds presents a new and unique way of failing to show empathy for his supporters' concerns. […] Viral reactions from audience members help illustrate how poorly Trump responded to a former supporter who was looking for a reason to support him again.
The distinct tragedy of Trump’s trainwreck town halls (MSNBC, 22/10)
Donald Trump and other GOP candidates are increasingly targeting transgender people in the election campaign’s closing days, invoking them at rallies and pouring millions into advertising tying Democrats to transgender rights.
Republicans lean into anti-transgender message in closing weeks (Washington Post, 22/10)
As presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck and neck in polls. But if the race were solely about their policies, Harris would win handily. That’s because voters — whether they know it or not — overwhelmingly prefer the vice president’s agenda to the former president’s.
Voters prefer Harris’s agenda to Trump’s — they just don’t realize it. Take our quiz. (Washington Post, 22/10)
Elon Musk’s influence over the federal government is extraordinary, and extraordinarily lucrative.
U.S. Agencies Fund, and Fight With, Elon Musk. A Trump Presidency Could Give Him Power Over Them. (New York Times, 22/10)
Arnold Palmer's daughter, Peg Palmer Wears, reacted to former President Donald Trump's vulgar comments about her late father, calling them ‘disrespectful,’ ‘inappropriate,’ and ‘unacceptable.’
Researchers say such tactics are hallmarks of a Russian propaganda operation dubbed "Storm-1516", uncovered by Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub last fall, that manufactures purported whistleblower videos and other faked evidence and then tries to make them go viral, according to NBC News.
Musk’s ‘joke’ [about somebody assassinating Vice President Kamala Harris] is steeped in a conspiracy theory that Washington is controlled by what he called ‘the uniparty’ or ‘the machine,’ which he darkly — and without evidence — links to the recent attempts on Trump’s life.
Elon Musk ‘Jokes’ in a Church About Someone Killing Kamala Harris (Rolling Stone, 21/10)
America for the first time in its history may send a criminal to the Oval Office and entrust him with the nuclear codes. What would once have been automatically disqualifying barely seems to slow Mr. Trump down in his comeback march for a second term that he says will be devoted to ‘retribution.’
For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment (New York Times, 20/10)
Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer’s penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris.
At a Pennsylvania Rally, Trump Descends to New Levels of Vulgarity (New York Times, 19/10)
The former president oscillates between bullying and ingratiation as he tries to influence dictators, would-be immigrants and newspaper editorialists.
Weekend Interview: Trump Tangles With the Journal’s Editors (Wall Street Journal, 18/10)
By casting migrants as agents of ruin and destruction, the Republican nominees are peddling a raft of specious claims that underline the extent to which nativist sentiment has become central to their campaign.
Trump’s Claims That Blame Migrants: False or Misleading (New York Times, 18/10)
Asked by a member of the audience gathered at the event in the Philadelphia suburbs about supposed ‘cheating’ in 2020, Musk delivered a somewhat rambling response filled with basic inaccuracies and blatantly false claims about US elections.
Elon Musk peddles debunked 2020 election conspiracies at first solo town hall supporting Trump (CNN, 18/10)
More than a dozen Republicans who were ‘fake electors’ in 2020, including several facing criminal charges, are serving as former President Donald Trump’s official electors in battleground states this year, according to a CNN survey.
At least 30 election deniers and 2020 fake electors serving as Trump electors this year (CNN, 17/10)
So, what’s the bottom line on the pros and cons of Trump’s tariff proposals?
Cons: The tariffs would impose large burdens on middle- and lower-income families. They probably wouldn’t significantly reduce the trade deficit and might actually hurt American manufacturing. And unilateral U.S. tariff action would wreak havoc by fracturing the world trading system.
Pros: I [Paul Krugman] can’t think of any.
How Trump’s Radical Tariff Plan Could Wreck Our Economy (New York Times, 17/10)
The conversation was contentious, with [Bloomberg News editor in chief John] Micklethwait — quite understandably! — pressing Trump on the details of his economic proposals, proposals that are viewed by economists as inflationary and debt-increasing.
The myth of Businessman Trump has collapsed (Washington Post, 16/10)
For weeks, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has faced repeated questions on the campaign trail about whether he believes former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. On Wednesday, he flatly answered ‘no.’
‘Let's call this charade what it is: a last-ditch attempt to deceive voters,’ said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, calling it an ‘insult to women everywhere that he thinks they'll fall for his bogus attempt to rebrand on abortion.’
Trump calls himself 'father of IVF,' doubles down on 'enemy within' remarks in town hall (ABC News, 16/10)
Whereas Musk might actually face some pushback from shareholders or market regulators for stretching the truth or failing to deliver on his promises, he’s free to promote conspiracy theories and far-right talking points with impunity on his own personal social media megaphone, X.
Elon Musk expands his empire of misinformation (CNN, 15/10)
Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances. He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more. […] He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘retarded.’
A Frustrated Trump Lashes Out Behind Closed Doors Over Money (New York Times, 14/10)
They did not want to hear about ‘one really violent day’ or about the deep state or the Marxists or the fascists or any of the other radical or antidemocratic visions that Mr. Trump describes in baroque detail at his rallies. They just wanted him to tell them that he would be good for business.
The Trump Voters Who Don’t Believe Trump (New York Times, 14/10)
Donald Trump and his campaign have waged an aggressive campaign against fact-checking in recent months, pushing TV networks, journalism organizations and others to abandon the practice if they hope to interact with Trump.
Trump wages campaign against real-time fact checks (Washington Post, 14/10)
Trump just suggested that he was essentially making up numbers for his proposed tariffs as a threat to get countries to make more products in the United States. ‘Until now I’ve said 200’ percent, he said in his Fox News interview. ‘I’m using that just as a figure. I’ll say 100, 200, I’ll say 500, I don’t care.’
Election Live Updates (New York Times, 13/10)
The supposed threat migrants pose is the core part of the former president’s closing argument, as he promises his base that he’s the one who can save the country from a group of people he calls ‘animals,’ ‘stone cold killers,’ the ‘worst people,’ and the ‘enemy from within.’
We watched 20 Trump rallies. His racist, anti-immigrant messaging is getting darker. (Politico, 12/10)
‘No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump,’ the general told Woodward. ‘Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.’
Trump is ‘fascist to the core,’ Milley says in Woodward book (Washington Post, 12/10)
It’s hard to discern degrees of bad, but the former president’s lies about the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of two major hurricanes pummeling the Southeast have been particularly insidious.
Yes, this is what Donald Trump really sounds like. No, you cannot ignore it. (Washington Post, 12/10)
In recent weeks, Trump reiterated he wants to be ‘dictator’ for a day, urged police to be more violent, and claimed migrants are predisposed to murder.
Trump Plans to Amp Up His Violent, Bigoted Rhetoric in Closing Pitch to Voters (Rolling Stone, 12/10)
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, who has faced renewed questions about the 2020 election since refusing at the vice-presidential debate this month to acknowledge that former President Donald J. Trump lost, falsely suggested on Saturday that the election had been ‘rigged.’
On the Trail, Vance Is Dogged by Questions About Trump’s Loss in 2020 (New York Times, 12/10)
Mr. Vance repeatedly refused to acknowledge former President Donald J. Trump’s defeat and went to even greater lengths to avoid doing so than he did during the vice-presidential debate earlier this month.
Vance, Given 5 Chances to Say Trump Lost in 2020, Takes None (New York Times, 12/10)
After publicly endorsing Mr. Trump for president in July, Mr. Musk has used X as a bullhorn to promote the candidate, one that many of the reinstated accounts then echo. […] Since coming back, the accounts have spread false claims and narratives about immigration, race, natural disasters and stolen elections”.
Twitter Barred Them. What Happened When Elon Musk Brought Them Back? (New York Times, 12/10)
The vice-presidential nominee’s story about family members’ new health coverage illustrates how Republicans inherited — and benefited — from the current system.
JD Vance’s mom got health coverage under Trump — by using Obamacare (Washington Post, 12/10)
It’s become a defining throughline of this general election. In the past, Trump has undermined the security of elections, pressed falsehoods about his own election loss in 2020 and spread misinformation about Covid-19 cures. But in the final stretch of the election, his assertions, debunked increasingly by even his own would-be allies, have had repercussions.
Donald Trump is leaning into a nativist, anti-immigrant message in the final stage of his third presidential campaign, advancing a closing argument centered on fearmongering, falsehoods and stereotypes about migrants as polls show his edge on economic issues fading.
Trump amplifies falsehoods about immigrants in closing appeal (Washington Post, 11/10)
Mr. Musk is obsessive, almost manic, about the stakes of the election and the need for Mr. Trump to win. […] He has claimed, without basis, that Democrats are trying to fill the country with undocumented immigrants who would reward them with permanent power, warning that the 2024 race could be the last free election in America.
Musk Is Going All In to Elect Trump (New York Times, 11/10)
Mr. Trump, long an admirer of Mr. Putin, has said that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was ‘very smart’ and refused to say he hoped Ukraine would win. He went so far this year as to say he would ‘encourage’ Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ in terms of attacking NATO allies that have not spent enough on their own militaries.
Inside Donald Trump’s Shadow Presidency (New York Times, 11/10)
Musk has received only praise from Trump allies for explicitly endorsing the former president […] Nor did Republicans express outrage at Musk shutting down the account of reporter Ken Klippenstein.
Republicans are trying to rig 2024 the way they claim 2020 was rigged (Washington Post, 7/10)
In a survey of 50 members of the D.C. legal establishment, many warn that Trump could follow through on his threats to prosecute his political adversaries.
Why Legal Experts Are Worried About a Second Trump Presidency (New York Times, 3/10)
Experts who monitor falsehoods and conspiracy theories have long feared that Mr. Musk would use his ownership of X to further pollute the online ecosystem. […] Almost a third of 171 posts from the X owner over a five day period were false, misleading or missing vital context.
5 Days With Elon Musk on X: Deepfakes, Falsehoods and Lots of Memes (New York Times, 27/9)
Donald Trump has embraced fascist rhetoric and made bald declarations of his desire for dictatorial powers as he seeks a return to the White House in 2024.
‘Infested,’ ‘Bloodbath, ‘Vermin’: A Guide to Trump’s Fascist Rhetoric (Rolling Stone, 24/9)
Elon Musk has used his large platform on X to promote a theory that a free-thinking ‘Republic’ could only exist under the decision-making of ‘high status males’ – and women or ‘low T men’ would not be welcome in it.
Elon Musk suggests support for replacing democracy with government of ‘high-status males’ (The Independent, 4/9)
[Trump] has told Americans who he is and shown them what kind of leader he would be. When someone fails so many foundational tests, you don’t give him the most important job in the world.
Donald Trump is unfit to lead (New York Times, 11/7)
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Trump’s recent public appearances have been strikingly erratic, coarse and often confusing, even for a politician with a history of ad-libbing in three consecutive presidential runs, a Washington Post review of dozens of speeches, interviews and other public appearances shows.
How Trump talks: Abrupt shifts, profane insults, confusing sentences (Washington Post, 25/10)
An anti-Trump political group organized a letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals, warning that Donald Trump is dangerous because of 'his symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder - malignant narcissism', which makes him 'grossly unfit for leadership'.
More than 200 health professionals say Trump has ‘malignant narcissism’ in open letter (The Guardian, 24/10)
Even by his haywire standards, Donald Trump’s latest rhetoric and behavior is erratic, autocratic and vulgar and hints at four years of unpredictable leadership that may lie ahead if he’s elected president in 15 days.
Trump’s wild and lewd rhetoric reaches a new extreme (CNN, 21/10)
The Republican nominee and former president was about to wax on about one of his favorite subjects, tariffs, working up to naming it by first teasing ‘the most beautiful word in the dictionary.’ Very quickly afterward, the sound went down.
The insistences from Trump and others in his orbit (like Elon Musk) that Biden’s perceived mental condition has left others in charge of running the government is particularly fraught when turned back around on Trump.
Trump’s age finally catches up with him (Washington Post, 18/10)
Mr. Trump has struggled to publicly hone his message by veering off script and ramping up personal attacks on Ms. Harris that allies have urged him to rein in.
Trump’s Meandering Speeches Motivate His Critics and Worry His Allies (New York Times, 17/10)
Trump has described his roving thought pattern as ‘the weave’ on several occasions recently, including in his interview with Micklethwait. Trump told a crowd in Johnstown, Pa., in September: ‘I’ll talk about like nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together.’
Trump’s decision to cut short the question-and-answer portion of the town hall and instead have the crowd stay to listen to his favorite songs was a somewhat bizarre move, given that the election was only 22 days away.
Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in bizarre town hall episode (Washington Post, 15/10)
Trump’s health has been a subject of speculation since he first released a short statement as a candidate in 2015 that said he would be ‘the healthiest individual ever elected’ to the office — a letter that his then-doctor later said that Trump himself had dictated. The veracity of subsequent reports were also widely questioned.
[Trump] rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought — some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth.
Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age (New York Times, 6/10)
If he wins, Mr. Trump could enter the Oval Office with an array of potentially worrisome issues, medical experts say: cardiac risk factors, possible aftereffects from the July assassination attempt and the cognitive decline that naturally comes with age, among others.
Trump Promised to Release His Medical Records. He Still Won’t Do It. (New York Times, 3/10)
Trump, 78, often speaks in a digressive, extemporaneous style that thrills his fans at large-scale rallies. But Tuesday’s event, in front of almost entirely reporters, was especially scattered and hard to follow. […] Trump spoke slowly and appeared tired.
Trump mixes up words, swerves among subjects in off-topic speech (Washington Post, 2/10)
[The media] can come across like the proverbial blind man feeling an elephant. The scale and strangeness of the object is impossible to grasp. Trump’s words are therefore summed up in abbreviated — and coherent-sounding — form. The media’s leftwing critics call this ‘sanewashing’. A better term might be ‘Trumped’.
Trumps ageing is as real as Biden’s (Financial Times, 1/10)
The level of incoherence and repetitive speech in Mr. Trump’s answer, given his age and family history, should be profoundly concerning, yet his mental state remains the Thing That Must Not Be Named of the 2024 campaign as far as corporate media are concerned.
Trump Insults Harris’s Mental Fitness, Adding to Questions About His Own (New York Times, 1/10)
Tuesday’s presidential debate was, among other things, an excellent real-world test of the candidates’ cognitive fitness—and any fair-minded mental-health expert would be very worried about Donald Trump’s performance.
Trump’s Repetitive Speech Is a Bad Sign (The Atlantic, 12/9)
[Trump] floats from one subject to another seemingly at random, often baffling listeners looking for a main point, a pattern that experts call tangentiality that increases with age. And he throws out wild assertions with no basis in fact.
As Debate Looms, Trump Is Now the One Facing Questions About Age and Capacity (New York Times, 9/9)
Trump has been embedded in the public consciousness as a rule-breaker for so long that it can be easily to forget how far he is from fulfilling the basic requirement of a politician to speak clearly. Trump’s speeches seem to be growing more discursive and difficult to comprehend by the day.
If President Biden held a news conference with 162 lies, resorted to laughable fabrications, sounded as bad as Trump did on X and scheduled so few appearances, a swarm of investigative pieces exploring his fitness and commentary asking whether he should leave the race would have ensued. Still, the pretense of normality persists.
Trump’s decline: His interviews and lies get worse (Washington Post, 16/8)
The poll results are the latest sign that Trump will now face the same scrutiny about his age and cognitive ability that plagued Biden before he pulled out of the race.
Donald Trump's Health Is of Increasing Concern to Voters (Newsweek, 6/8)