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Irish Times
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The new White House influencer briefings are a terrible look
'I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to reporting . . . I'm the policy-type nerd,' said a woman to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a briefing on Monday, before asking, in notably policy-nerdish fashion, 'So what direction do you advise me to go into?' It would have been a strange question for a reporter — whose job it is to hold power to account, rather than ask power how to propagate its message — to put to Leavitt at a press briefing, but this was no reporter. It was Kambree Nelson, a 'grassroots activist turned social media influencer' and ambassador for the esteemed 'American First Policy Institute', with more than 600,000 followers on X. A woman who got most upset last year after she stopped being able to see the moon in the sky. 'Why is everyone silent about this?' she posted on X. 'They are quiet about the white sun, too' (a reference to a conspiracy theory that argues the sun has changed colour in recent years). Nor, in fact, was this a press briefing. No, this was a brand new propaganda dissemination session — sorry, a 'New Media' briefing, as the official White House YouTube channel described it — that was held on three consecutive days last week. It might have been more subtle for Leavitt to have stuck to the official title rather than introduce each session as an 'influencer briefing', which rather gave the game away as to its purpose. 'I wish more people in the legacy media were like you,' Leavitt replied to Nelson. (No doubt.) 'The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news . . . which is, again, why we're welcoming in independent voices like yours, with followings on social media, because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there.' READ MORE This isn't the first step the White House has taken in its crusade against so-called legacy media, a term popularised by Elon Musk , who described us in December as a 'nonstop psy op'. Trump has already banned the Associated Press from briefings because it refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of America' (I guess I'm banned now, too), which a district judge has ruled as unconstitutional. Last month, the Trump administration removed wire services' permanent spot in the press pool. And last week, the White House launched its own news-style website, , featuring only the most glowing coverage of the president, of course. I can see what they are trying to do here. For a start, the establishment — a term with slightly less decrepit connotations than 'legacy' — media has a major representation problem. A 2022 study by Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications of 1,600 American journalists found that just 3.4 per cent of them identified themselves as Republican , down from 7.1 per cent in 2013 and 18 per cent in 2002. More than 10 times as many, 36.4 per cent, identified as Democrats (51.7 per cent said they were 'Independent'). [ Kamala Harris's speech of condemnation and Trump's of braggadocio underscore where US is at after first 100 days Opens in new window ] Further, the establishment media have got a lot of things wrong in recent times, in particular — and not coincidentally — in the nine years or so since Trump crash-landed on to the political scene. From the covering up of Joe Biden 's frailty to explicitly reducing the objectivity of reporting to portraying those who questioned the Wuhan wet market origin story for Covid-19 as conspiracy theorists, some mainstream outlets have often seemed more interested in pushing a particular agenda than seeking the truth. But it is easy to miss the wood for the trees: just because there have been some — indeed too many — examples of getting it wrong doesn't mean that institutional media, with all its checks and balances and on-the-ground reporting that 'New Media' usually sorely lacks, can even be slightly compared with these Maga mouthpieces. [ Trump has managed to create something world has never seen: virulent Canadian nationalism Opens in new window ] And let's be clear — these new 'influencer briefings' are not, as Leavitt claimed, an attempt to 'speak to all media outlets and personalities'. I watched all three and spotted no left-leaning outlets or personalities. I did spot Sean Spicer, one of Leavitt's predecessors; bitcoin fanatic turned Trump superfan Anthony 'Pomp' Pompliano; and Arynne Wexler, 'just a nonlib girl in a crazylib world', who started with: 'I can attest to the deportations in Florida: my Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that.' To treat these 'influencers' as if they are on a par with serious journalists is not just disrespectful; it's dangerous. And holding a briefing in which only friendly propaganda disseminators are welcome might be okay in Pyongyang, but this is meant to be the capital of the free world. For a president who usually seems to have such an instinctive grasp of what makes for good optics, this is, frankly, a terrible look. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025 [ Donald Trump should kill off the myth of the first 100 days for good Opens in new window ]
Business Mayor
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Mayor
The new White House influencer briefings are a terrible look
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump's second term means for Washington, business and the world 'I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to reporting . . . I'm the policy-type nerd,' said a woman to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a briefing on Monday, before asking, in notably policy-nerdish fashion, 'So what direction do you advise me to go into?' It would have been a strange question for a reporter — whose job it is to hold power to account, rather than ask power how to propagate its message — to put to Leavitt at a press briefing, but this was no reporter. It was Kambree Nelson, a 'grassroots activist turned social media influencer' and ambassador for the esteemed 'American First Policy Institute', with more than 600,000 followers on X. A woman who got most upset last year after she stopped being able to see the moon in the sky. 'Why is everyone silent about this?' she posted on X. 'They are quiet about the white sun, too' (a reference to a conspiracy theory that argues the sun has changed colour in recent years). Nor, in fact, was this a press briefing. No, this was a brand new propaganda dissemination session — sorry, a 'New Media' briefing, as the official White House YouTube channel described it — that was held on three consecutive days this week. It might have been more subtle for Leavitt to have stuck to the official title rather than introduce each session as an 'influencer briefing', which rather gave the game away as to its purpose. 'I wish more people in the legacy media were like you,' Leavitt replied to Nelson. (No doubt.) 'The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news . . . which is, again, why we're welcoming in independent voices like yours, with followings on social media, because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there.' Read More Fox defends settlement with Dominion as a 'business decision' This isn't the first step the White House has taken in its crusade against so-called legacy media, a term popularised by Elon Musk, who described us in December as a 'non stop psy op'. Trump has already banned the Associated Press from briefings because it refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of America' (I guess I'm banned now, too), which a district judge has ruled as unconstitutional. Last month, the Trump administration removed wire services' permanent spot in the press pool. And this week, the White House launched its own news-style website, featuring only the most glowing coverage of the president, of course. I can see what they are trying to do here. For a start, the establishment — a term with slightly less decrepit connotations than 'legacy' — media has a major representation problem. A 2022 study by Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications of 1,600 American journalists found that just 3.4 per cent of them identified themselves as Republican, down from 7.1 per cent in 2013 and 18 per cent in 2002. More than 10 times as many, 36.4 per cent, identified as Democrats (51.7 per cent said they were 'Independent'). Further, the establishment media have got a lot of things wrong in recent times, in particular — and not coincidentally — in the nine years or so since Trump crash-landed on to the political scene. From the covering up of Joe Biden's frailty to explicitly reducing the objectivity of reporting to portraying those who questioned the Wuhan wet market origin story for Covid-19 as conspiracy theorists, some mainstream outlets have often seemed more interested in pushing a particular agenda than seeking the truth. Read More ITV names director of strategic partnerships But it is easy to miss the wood for the trees: just because there have been some — indeed too many — examples of getting it wrong doesn't mean that institutional media, with all its checks and balances and on-the-ground reporting that 'New Media' usually sorely lacks, can even be slightly compared with these Maga mouthpieces. And let's be clear — these new 'influencer briefings' are not, as Leavitt claimed, an attempt to 'speak to all media outlets and personalities'. I watched all three and spotted no left-leaning outlets or personalities. I did spot Sean Spicer, one of Leavitt's predecessors; bitcoin fanatic turned Trump superfan Anthony 'Pomp' Pompliano; and Arynne Wexler, 'just a nonlib girl in a crazylib world', who started with: 'I can attest to the deportations in Florida: my Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that.' To treat these 'influencers' as if they are on a par with serious journalists is not just disrespectful; it's dangerous. And holding a briefing in which only friendly propaganda disseminators are welcome might be OK in Pyongyang, but this is meant to be the capital of the free world. For a president who usually seems to have such an instinctive grasp of what makes for good optics, this is, frankly, a terrible look.
The Independent
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
White House is now holding press briefings specifically for MAGA influencers. It's going just how you'd expect
For the second day in a row on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing exclusively for members of what she called the 'new media,' claiming she was fulfilling a promise she made at the start of the Trump administration to speak to 'all media outlets.' Of course, as she laid bare at the start of Monday's presser, these sessions are mostly a way to take softball questions and applause lines from a host of MAGA sycophants who are absolutely ecstatic to be given the opportunity to sit in the White House and play reporter. 'This is our first official influencer briefing,' Leavitt said at the start of Monday's event. 'Millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news, and we are embracing that change, not ignoring it.' As has been the case with the 'new media' seat she added to the standard White House briefings and rotating press pool, which has been disproportionately but not exclusively filled by right-wing media personalities, Leavitt packed the 'influencer' room with provocateurs and YouTubers who are extremely sympathetic to the president. During Monday's briefing, for instance, the press secretary was directly asked to give the room marching orders. 'I'm kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I'm not the headline news girl. I'm the nuts-and-bolts, I'm the policy-type nerd; so what direction do you advise me to go into?' American First Policy Institute ambassador Kambree Nelson wondered. 'Like the White House files that y'all send out every single day? Because that's what people are used to. When they wanna ask me questions, they wanna know the nuts and bolts of everything.' Leavitt, meanwhile, reacted by telling Nelson – who boasts 625,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and was once convinced the moon had disappeared – that she wished 'there were people in the legacy media that were like you' and 'cared about the facts' of Trump's accomplishments. 'The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news at night,' Leavitt added. 'We are doing our absolute best to message that. Which is, again, why we're welcoming independent voices like yours with followings on social media.' That was merely the tip of the iceberg. MAGA influencer Arynne Wexler actually got the first question during Monday's briefing, and she wanted to kick things off by praising the White House for rounding up migrants in her home state. 'Thanks so much, Karoline, both for having us and for granting me the first question here. And I can attest to the deportations in Florida, my Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that,' she declared before asking Leavitt what the administration planned to do to 'those who continue to defy the executive orders' regarding trans athletes. Right-wing pundit Rogan O'Handley, otherwise known as DC Draino, was perhaps the only one on Monday who came even semi-close to asking a tough question. One of the handpicked influencers who received the 'Epstein Files' binders from Attorney General Pam Bondi in February, which ended up containing no real new information about deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, O'Handley wanted to know when the FBI and DOJ would be releasing more documents on the disgraced financier. 'And also, when might we start seeing some arrests from the client list?' DC Draino wondered. Describing the attorney general as a 'bulldog', Leavitt claimed Bondi is 'working on this diligently' but that she didn't have a specific timeline she could share on any additional release, which has been a point of contention with much of the MAGA base – especially considering how much Bondi overhyped the initial document dump. In the end, O'Handley accepted the press secretary's response and did not attempt to follow up, even though he received no assurances from Leavitt other than Bondi always 'keeps' her promises. At the end of Monday's briefing, which also included former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer asking Leavitt why legacy media wasn't outright being excluded from the White House, the room erupted in applause as Leavitt wrapped up the meeting. 'Thank you, I'm going to walk off now,' she said as the influencers clapped and cheered. Returning for Round 2 on Tuesday, Leavitt turned to right-wing TikToker Debra Lea, who commented about the '100 incredible days' of the Trump administration before wondering what policies Trump will roll out in the next couple of months 'in order to secure the 2026 midterms for the Republican Party and keep his approval ratings historically high.' In the meantime, MAGA podcaster Brenden Dilley wanted to know if the press secretary would play a game of 'Trump trolling or Trump truthing' when it came to the president's repeated proposals to annex Greenland, run for a third term in 2028, and make Canada the 51st state. 'Sure, let's do it. I love it,' Leavitt excitedly responded, letting Dilley know that Trump was 'truthing' when it came to both Canada and Greenland but 'trolling' on the running in 2028. 'Although the hats are flying off the shelves,' she added, referencing the Trump Organization's latest merchandise drop. For the most part, both briefings were essentially a large-scale version of the questions many of the other 'new media' members have asked during the standard pressers Leavitt has held in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Which is to say, they are essentially public displays of fealty from willing propagandists. Earlier this month, for instance, a 'reporter' from the media outlet run by election-denying MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell gushed about how the 78-year-old president looked 'healthier than ever before' before asking Leavitt: 'Will you guys also consider releasing the president's fitness plan?' And it was just last week that Tim Pool, the pro-Trump podcaster who unwittingly took vast sums of money from a Kremlin influence operation, teed up an opportunity for Leavitt to fume about the mainstream media. 'Many of the news organizations that are represented in this room have marched in lockstep on false narratives such as the 'Very Fine People' hoax, the Covington smear, and now what's being called the Maryland Man hoax, where an MS-13 gang member adjudicated by two different judges, I believe, is just simply being referred to as 'a Maryland Man' over and over again,' Pool asked. 'I'm wondering if you can comment on the unprofessional behavior.' The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White House Briefing Gets Weird When ‘New Media' Member Asks What to Cover
A member of the 'new media' solicited advice Monday from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asking her 'which direction' to head with her coverage. American First Policy Institute ambassador Kambree Nelson, who describes herself not as a reporter but a 'grassroots activist,' was among those present for Leavitt's briefing to 'new media' voices following her regular press briefing. Nelson revealed some information about herself to Leavitt in order to obtain some tips. 'I'm kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting,' she said. 'I'm not the headline news girl. I'm the nuts-and-bolts, I'm the policy-type nerd. So, what direction do you advise me to go into? Like the White House files that y'all send out every single day? Because that's what people are used to. When they want to ask me questions, they want to know the nuts and bolts of everything.' Leavitt seemed thrilled with Nelson's presence. 'I wish there were people in the legacy media were like you and didn't focus on the sensationalist headlines but actually cared about the facts,' she said. 'The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news at night, signing executive orders. We will do our absolute best to message that,' she continued. 'Which is, again, why we're welcoming independent voices like yours with followings on social media. Because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there.' Nelson had also echoed criticisms that other 'new media' members had made about the press. 'I've noticed—this is kind of like a repeat of 2016—that the legacy media has gone back to not reporting anything on President Trump,' she claimed, without offering any evidence for the bizarre claim. 'In the beginning, we had them reporting everything that he was doing. Now, they're kind of going back again to not reporting everything that he is actually doing.' As part of its stated plan to reach out to underrepresented voices in the media, the White House has welcomed unashamed pro-Trump reporters to the briefing room and in the press pool. The result: comments like the one by LindellTV White House reporter Cara Castronuova earlier this month. At a press briefing, Castronuova admired how the president 'looks healthier than ever before.'
The Independent
14-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
US sidelined Trump envoy after Kremlin claimed he was too ‘close to Ukraine', report says
Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia was excluded from peace talks because the Kremlin complained that he was 'too close' to Kyiv, it has been reported. In November, President Trump announced retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, 80, as one of the key players in ending the war. Click here for the latest updates on the Ukraine war A Russian official, speaking anonymously, told NBC News that this is because they had requested Washington keep Kellogg off the talks. 'Kellogg is a former American general, too close to Ukraine,' the official said. 'Not our kind of person, not of the calibre we are looking for.' A US official in the Trump administration confirmed that Russia did not want Kellogg involved. Kellogg, with over thirty years of military experience, is seen as one of Trump's most hawkish figures on Russia. His supporters say he also has the best relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has known for a few years. He visited Zelensky in Kyiv last month. When Trump announced a list of diplomats who would attend talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia, however, Kellogg was not on that list, nor was he included in the talks a month later with Ukraine. Trump's Middle East envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, after helping broker a tentative ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, has emerged instead as the alternative key player in the talks with Putin. U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio and the White House national security adviser Mike Waltz have led the talks. Witkoff has met with the Russian leader twice: first in February to set up the initial talks with Washington and then this week to discuss a 30-day proposal for a ceasefire agreed to by Ukraine. Putin claims he supports the proposal but has also said the U.S. must address the 'root causes' of the war before it can be agreed upon. These demands appear to be both propagandistic and impossible to satisfy. Putin has previously called for Ukraine's effective disarmament and Kyiv's abandonment of security guarantees vital to prevent future Russian aggression. In a paper for the American First Policy Institute last year, Kellogg suggested the US should arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses, ensuring that 'Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement'. In his relative absence, Trump suspended and then resumed military aid to and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following spats with Zelensky. Kellogg's allies say he has not been sidelined despite not attending the talks in Saudi Arabia. They claim he remains in contact with Mr Trump. Russia's foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declined to answer a question last week about whether they had sidelined Kellogg. She claimed Russia's diplomats had 'great experience of dealing with different envoys'.
