February 26, 2025

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

More Americans Trust Trump Than The Media to Be Fair And Accurate As Trump Battles Radical Activist Media

By Manzanita Miller

In a catastrophic blow to an already crumbling industry, a new poll released this week finds that more Americans trust the Trump Administration to state the facts fairly and accurately than trust the media to do so.

The poll, released by YouGov, finds that just 29 percent of Americans say they have a fair amount or a great deal of trust in the media to state the facts “fully, accurately, and fairly”, while 44 percent say they have at least a fair amount of trust in President Donald Trump’s Administration to state the facts fully, accurately and fairly.  

Think about that – less than a third of Americans think the press is capable of doing the only job it has, and Americans say by fifteen points the Trump Administration is doing a better job of informing the public accurately.

This comes at a time when the press has declared all out war on the Trump Administration, and Trump is fighting back. After suffering eight years’ worth of relentless attacks on his every move and a media machine fixated on propping up his globalist opponents, President Trump is holding the purposefully deceitful media accountable.   

After a series of politically-charged journalist “recommendations” from its widely used AP Stylebook began to circulate, the Associated Press (AP) was met with pushback from the Trump Administration. Trump’s team banned the outlet from certain White House access after the AP refused to use the term “Gulf of America”.

The Associated Press pushes a left-wing worldview, urging journalists through its Stylebook to do away with the term “illegal immigrants”, stressing the use of the term “gender affirming care” for transgender surgeries, and urging journalists to capitalize the word “Black” but not “white” when referring to racial groups.

The AP is suing the Trump Administration in response to the White House ban, but so far, the law has been on Trump’s side. A federal judge on Monday declined to order the Trump Administration to immediately restore access for the embittered news outlet. 

Trump is locked in a legal battle with CBS News after asserting the network’s “60 Minutes” segment, which aired during the election season last year, violated the Texas consumer fraud statute by using a heavily-edited Kamala Harris statement about the war in Gaza.

In a successful lawsuit against ABC News, ABC was forced to shell out $16 million to President Trump after he filed a defamation suit over an ABC news anchor inaccurately declaring a jury’s verdict in the E. Jean Carroll case.      

Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is also launching an investigation into Comcast, over its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda, after President Trump signed an executive order ending DEI and declaring such initiatives violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.   

For their part, the American People largely share Trump’s skepticism and outright mistrust of the mainstream media, with poll after poll showing how far public trust in media has fallen.

The press dug their own graves when they abandoned actual reporting and became activists for a radical left-wing agenda most Americans oppose.

A mere four percent of Americans have a great deal of trust in the media to state the facts fully, accurately, and fairly, according to YouGov data. This is down from an already dangerous 11 percent who said they had a great deal of trust in the media during Trump’s first term.

While partisanship is a factor with more Republicans than Democrats mistrusting the mainstream media, trust has eroded on the left as well. In 2017, 23 percent of Democrats said they had a great deal of trust in the media to state the facts fully, accurately, and fairly, but that has fallen to only 8 percent. 

A YouGov poll released earlier this month shows Americans say by an alarming 27 points – 43 percent to 16 percent – that the mainstream media wants to see President Trump fail in leading the country. Fifteen percent of Democrats, 40 percent of independents and 73 percent of Republicans firmly believe the media has a direct interest in seeing President Trump fail.

Another YouGov poll released in December found a mere eight percent of Americans strongly agree the media “generally acts in the best interests of Americans”. The poll also showed Americans say by 23 points – 58 percent to 35 percent – the media does not generally act in the best interests of Americans.

This was not always true. According to Gallup’s tracker of public trust in the media going back to the 1970’s, public trust has eroded decade by decade.

In 1976, 76 percent of Americans had a good or fair amount of trust in the media, but that was down to just 31 percent in 2024, the lowest number on record for Gallup. The second lowest number on record was 32 percent – right after Trump won the 2016 election and the press launched its all-out war against him. 

The time for treating activist journalists and media outlets as if they are anything less is over. Members of the press need to make up their minds whether they are objective journalists or activists for the radical left, and if it is the latter they can expect public trust in their coverage to continue to erode.

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/02/more-americans-trust-trump-than-the-media-to-be-fair-and-accurate-as-trump-battles-radical-activist-media/

Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze But It Is Futile, Come Sept. 30 The DOGE Cuts Are Inevitable

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By Robert Romano

On Feb. 25, U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Loren AliKhan placed another injunction on President Donald Trump and the White House Office of Management and Budget from pausing any federal funding to departments and agencies pending review of federal contracts and other financial assistance awards that depend on executive branch approval to see if they comply with federal law and executive orders issued by Trump.

According to the injunction, the plaintiffs in the case — the National Council on Non-Profits, who represent a consortium of non-profit organizations that were receiving and depend on federal funding to operate — would suffer “irreparable” harm if any funding freeze were left in place, including being unable to meet payroll.

This came after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a Jan. 27 memorandum to departments and agencies ordering a “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs” that were barred by the orders, a memorandum that had an injunction immediately placed upon it by the D.C. District Court on Jan. 28.

In an X post on Jan. 29, White House Press Secretary Leavitt stated that while the memo had been rescinded, the executive orders, which require a review of whether funding is in accordance with the law, remained in place: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction.”

The initial injunction had applied to OMB’s direction for a pause on “all open awards” but did not apply to the “issuance of new awards” or “other relevant agency actions that may be implicated by the executive orders.”

Rather than fight out in court whether OMB could issue a pause for open awards — a process that would likely take longer than the time remaining in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 — the White House simply opted to rescind the memo while continuing implementation of the executive orders.

But, the court slapped back, citing Leavitt’s X post, and emphasizing that the President’s executive orders remained in place — effectively enjoining those orders from taking effect wholesale.

Blasting the judge’s decision was Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning in a Feb. 25 statement, saying AliKhan had “taken upon herself to stop the elected President of the United States from enacting his policies because she doesn’t agree with them,” adding, “This local federal judge’s activism which she presumes to inflict on the entire country is an exact case study for the Supreme Court to finally act and end the lowest federal court judges from imposing their views nationwide, effectively wielding more power than individual Supreme Court Justices.”

At issue are contracts that had been put into place by former President Joe Biden’s administration earlier this fiscal year before Trump was sworn into office.

Here’s the twist. When the current fiscal year ends, none of it will matter. Come Sept. 30, a whole new round of contracts will be submitted but given the freeze for all new awards, might never be approved by the Trump administration. Eventually the spending will get cut. Again, the current fight appears to be over what funding remains for this fiscal year.

It’s important to note that Congress never explicitly authorized the expenditures to the non-profits in many cases, instead, it had delegated to departments and agencies discretionary funding authority to let the contracts. When the contracts expire, the organization or other entity needs to resubmit a request for funding, which can then be approved or denied by the executive department or agency.

In other words, Judge AliKhan is trying to run out the clock on the current fiscal year, compelling the Trump administration to continue paying the contracts — even if it turns out they were violating federal law or otherwise deviating from Trump administration policy in the executive orders. All the federal court needs to do is slow walk the court case until Sept. 30 and all the monies will end up being spent.

In the meantime, the entities receiving the funding are acting like there was no freeze or review of their contract being undertaken, continuing rendering the services and then submitting the bill to taxpayers.

That’s kind of like showing up to work after getting fired, doing stuff and demanding to still be paid. But come Sept. 30, it will end anyway. The outcome is inevitable. The only question is whether fiscal year 2025 with the Biden-approved contracts can be cut by Trump, OMB and the White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

That is, unless the courts then come back in the upcoming fiscal year and attempt to compel the Trump administration to renew the contracts as well. Can you imagine?

It’s just a speed bump. Fiscal year 2026 will be a rout for these contractors when the contracts, especially those the Trump administration finds run afoul of say civil rights and immigration laws, are simply not renewed. In the meantime, Congress, which is considering the budget right now, might still simply enact the cuts to the contracts now being implemented by the Trump administration. As usual, it’s simply a question of how much discretion Congress wishes to give the executive branch in letting new contracts — and reviewing existing contracts. Either way, it’s only a matter of time before the cuts happen. Stay tuned.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.  

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/02/judge-blocks-trumps-funding-freeze-but-it-is-futile-come-sept-30-the-doge-cuts-are-inevitable/

House Republican Leadership Statement on Passage of House Budget Resolution

WASHINGTON — Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Scalise, Majority Whip Emmer, and Conference Chairwoman McClain issued the following statement after the House passed its FY25 budget resolution:

“Today, House Republicans moved Congress closer to delivering on President Trump’s full America First agenda — not just parts of it.

“This momentum will grow as we work with our committee chairs and Senate Republicans to determine the best policies within their respective jurisdictions to meet budgetary targets. We have full confidence in their ability to chart the best path forward.

“While there is still much more to do, we are determined to send a bill to President Trump’s desk that secures our border, keeps taxes low for families and job creators, restores American energy dominance, strengthens America’s standing on the world stage, and makes government work more effectively for all Americans.”

Overview: 

1. Economic Growth: Grows the economy by $2.6 trillion over 10 years from 2.6 percent average growth, compared to CBO’s estimate of 1.8 percent growth
2. Discretionary Spending: Saves $829 billion
3. Mandatory Savings: Provides a floor of at least $1.5 trillion with a goal of $2 trillion in mandatory savings over 10 years
4. Debt Ceiling: Increases by $4 trillion covering two years
5. Key Priorities: Extends President Trump’s signature tax cuts and provides funding for border security and national defense

FY25 Budget Resolution text is available here.

To view online: https://www.speaker.gov/2025/02/26/house-republican-leadership-statement-on-passage-of-house-budget-resolution/