Don’t Bring a Press Pass to a Gunfight
Donald Trump hasn’t just survived the media gauntlet, he’s demolished it. He didn’t beat them on a technicality. He didn’t sneak out a split decision. He left the Fourth Estate face-down, pantsless, with “Fake News” Sharpie’d on their asses like a frat house hazing.
He branded them liars, dared them to prove otherwise—and they did, over and over, in the worst way possible. Pulitzer Prizes for hoaxes. Retractions that read like comedy scripts. Lawsuits that turned into settlement confetti.
This is no longer about Trump versus the media. This is Trump harvesting the media’s organs and selling them back to them at auction.
The Left is finally reading the writing on the wall.
And it is written in the blood of all the media pundits who tried to take Donald Trump out. The man who elevated the phrase “fake news” to Herculean heights is defeating his adversaries.
According the Newsbreak, industry watchers say Trump has emerged as the clear winner against the mainstream media. His victory comes after years of vigorous scrapping with the press and never backing down on false or misleading news narratives.
DePauw University Media Professor Jeff McCall explained,
“He knew there’d be blowback and that he’d get negative news coverage. But his news coverage has always been negative from the media anyway. So he really didn’t care about that.”
Initially, the battles raged around just the term “fake news”, with Trump winning that battle as the moniker stuck. Years after his initial declarations of “fake news”, the branding stuck. But things got worse for the media, because it stuck long enough to be believed.
The press helped immensely, as news outlets received Pulitzer Prizes for stories that were later debunked, while many others had massive retractions.
President Trump and the First Lady have both won settlements with the media, thus reinforcing Trump’s point about the media being essentially little more than a Leftist propaganda machine.
Add to this the recent media showdowns that ultimately defunded the taxpayer-financed Leftist media icons NPR and PBS. And of course the president can take credit for the cancellation of anti-Trump late-night host Stephen Colbert, as his nightly lamentations about Trump ultimately drove his ratings into the void.
“The traditional media have delegitimized themselves,” McCall pointed out, “with their lack of professionalism and their commitment to groupthink in their newsrooms.”
Jen Psaki’s show is so bad, it’s being used at Guantanamo to get confessions. – Kevin Jackson
McCall estimates that Trump’s timing has worked to his advantage, coming as trust in media has been gravely wounded. “It’s important to note that media credibility had been in decline already. That decline had begun 15-20 years before Trump came down the escalator in 2016,” he said.
The shift is occurring in so many areas with the resurgence of President Trump in his second term. Some legacy news organizations have charted a new course in the wake of the media triage happening.
For example, the new CEO of the Washington Post essentially told his organization to start reporting more fair and balanced or “it’s been nice working with you, and there is the door.” The Post’s pledge to support “free markets and personal liberties” on its opinion pages brought an emotional exodus of some staffers. But I suspect these people will find getting new jobs a lot more difficult than in the past.
Although this may not portend any seismic cultural shift, it’s a bigger step than the media has made towards the center in decades.
From “Fake News” to Fatal Wounds
Trump coined “fake news” like it was the Liberty Bell of insults—and then rang it in the media’s ears every time they tried to dunk on him. It wasn’t just a label; it was an incantation. Suddenly, every smug “bombshell” they dropped had the bounce of a wet sponge.
And it stuck. Not like a slogan, but like herpes.
They laughed when he said it. They kept laughing—right up until the point Americans stopped trusting them. And suddenly, a guy who said mean things on Twitter was looking more honest than a newsroom full of people who use “curated” as a verb.
Pulitzers and Pratfalls
The Russia hoax. The Ukraine lie. The “whipping migrants” scandal. All Pulitzer material… until the truth turned those trophies into toilet paper. You’d think a newsroom would pause, reflect. But no—they doubled down.
The media didn’t just fall into Trump’s trap—they built it, walked into it, then wrote a glowing op-ed about the view from inside.
Courtrooms: Where Media Credibility Goes to Die
Trump’s legal team turned “see you in court” into a media exorcism. He and Melania didn’t just win settlements—they won apologies. Retractions. Damning statements of “oops” from outlets that still call themselves watchdogs while licking their own wounds. The media called it “damage control.” We call it public surrender.
Defunding Propaganda with a Pen
Then came the flamethrower: Trump signed EO 14290, cutting off public funds to NPR and PBS—America’s federally funded pity parties. He didn’t even blink.
Suddenly, tote-bag Marxists were clutching their pearls, begging for donors like kids on GoFundMe after crashing dad’s Prius. Trump’s message? I’m not subsidizing the revolution you can’t even sell.
The Ratings Reaper Strikes Again
Colbert? Gone. Joy Reid? Fired. Rachel Maddow? Relegated to book tours and sad tweets. Trump didn’t just outlast the media—he outboxed, outwitted, and outlasted the very people who declared him finished.
Every late-night host who treated Trump like a punchline is now living one. It’s not political anymore—it’s evolutionary. Adapt or get canceled.
The Real Story: The Media Was Already Rotting
Trump didn’t break journalism. He just exposed the stench. According to McCall (one of the few honest professors still allowed near a microphone), the media’s decline started 20 years ago—Trump just made the rot impossible to ignore.
The public didn’t suddenly trust Trump. They just realized that he might be a hammer, but at least he wasn’t a nail gun pointed at their forehead.
The Washington Post Flinches
When even the Washington Post tells its newsroom, “Be honest or be unemployed,” you know the tide is turning. The new CEO didn’t suggest change—he ordered it. And the fragile staffers who quit in protest? Yeah… they’ll be writing BuzzFeed quizzes by Christmas.
The Blueprint Was Always There
Trump’s success in media war isn’t new—it’s just fully matured now. His playbook:
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Brand your enemy
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Trigger them into overreach
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Expose their lies with receipts
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Sue them into next week
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Watch them implode from the inside
You can follow the pattern right through these linked takedowns:
The Scoreboard Doesn’t Lie
Trump vs. Media
Round 1 – Fake news.
Round 2 – Pulitzer embarrassments.
Round 3 – Settlements and lawsuits.
Round 4 – De-funding NPR and PBS.
Round 5 – Cultural kill shots (Colbert, Maddow, Reid).
Round 6 – Washington Post folding like a beach chair.
Round 7 – Total narrative dominance.
Game. Set. Bloodbath.
And the beauty? Trump never needed the media. He just used them like gym equipment—until they snapped under the weight.
