Trump Backs Down To Mayor Mamdani; Who Is Really Pulling The Strings On Free Press Ban?

22 Sep 2026 · 23 min · 10 chapters

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In short

The episode argues that Trump’s decision to ban certain outlets from White House access is driven by personal grievance and curated messaging, not journalism. It claims Natalie Harp—described as a close aide who shows Trump graphics of negative coverage—“looped” three outlets together after Trump was infuriated by Politico and TV clips. It also alleges media “sanewashing” enabled authoritarianism and that Republicans and media titans may eventually push back for profit. Notable examples include the “pool cameras” absence and “Trump TV” state-run streaming. The episode contrasts Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s transparent, press-included meeting style with Hakeem Jeffries’ alleged behind-the-scenes meeting with Jared Kushner.

Guests

none named as interviewees; Mamdani is featured via clips.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Trump's Authoritarian Press Ban

0:45 to 2:32

Discussion about Trump's authoritarian behavior and press censorship.

“Well, it turns out the same gal is the one that put together some analysis for Trump that led to this silencing and censoring of the free press.”

Media's Role in Trump's Regime

2:32 to 4:19

Examination of media's complicity and the implications of Trump's actions.

“So there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there.”

The Dark Vision Behind Trump's Allies

4:19 to 6:00

Insight into the motivations of Trump's allies and their dangerous agenda.

“Media outlets, what he's doing is saying, we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda.”

State-Run Media and Trump TV

6:00 to 7:58

Discussion on the implications of the White House launching its own media.

“Vance is actively, all day, every day, making this country less safe for his brown-skinned wife and his mixed-race children.”

Industry Response to Trump's Actions

7:58 to 9:29

Speculation on how industries and media might respond to Trump's press ban.

“themselves, the culmination of all of these unforced errors by these fascist collaborators, my hope is will be their demise.”

Trump's Meeting with Mayor Mamdani

9:29 to 10:28

Analysis of Trump's interaction with Mayor Mamdani and its significance.

“And then Trump traveled to New York City and, of course, fawned all over.”

Leadership and Governance Contrast

10:28 to 12:22

Contrast between Trump’s leadership style and effective governance.

“A reporter asked Mom Donnie and Trump about the press ban.”

Government Efficiency and Political Accountability

14:00 to 16:41

Discussing the importance of government efficiency and holding politicians accountable for their promises.

“But also saying that that efficiency, government efficiency is only the right wing's plight or cause is total bullshit.”

Mamdani's Approach to Politics

16:41 to 17:28

Exploring Mayor Mamdani's commitment to transparency and delivering for New Yorkers through open dialogue.

“Making government deliver for us in an efficient manner is not a Republican promise.”

Critique of Hakeem Jeffries and Kushner Meeting

17:28 to 19:39

Analyzing the implications of Hakeem Jeffries' secret meeting with Jared Kushner in contrast to Mamdani's open approach.

“Committed over the course of the campaign, as well as while being in office, that I would meet with anyone, work with anyone that could deliver for New Yorkers.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:04Good morning. Let's Rip MAGA. Right out of the gates we have Trump, the authoritarian who is really an incompetentent authoritarian who has banned the press press pull from being in the white house. Why? Well, we know he doesn't like stories about him that are true, because the truth about him is incredibly unflattering. Well, who did this? Who put the idea? Just ban him. Well, there's a gal named Natalie Harp that is completely obsessed with him. On this channel, we refer to her as the bunny boiler, who curates the news for Donald Trump every day and has for years of favorable stories from right wing lying press.

0:46And that's all he reads. Well, it turns out the same gal is the one that put together some analysis for Trump that led to this silencing and censoring of the free press. Play the clip. My colleague, Kevin Liptec and I, is that Natalie Harp, who is one of the president's closest aides, as you know, she's often in the Oval Office or on Air Force One traveling with the president and has worked with him for years now, was showing him graphics last week of negative Politico coverage. And the president was infuriated by that graphic that he was shown about Politico's coverage. He also was upset about several TV clips that he had seen of his coverage of his administration and his presidency.

1:24And that is why he looped these three outlets together and announced that he was banning them from covering the White House on Friday. So Natalie Hart put together a show and tell for the president. These people are being mean to you and I don't like it. OK, well, that doesn't surprise me very much. But who is leaking this? Who in the White House is leaking this? Sources told CNN this. So you have within the MAGA regime people who know that this woman and the president, for that matter, are not Democratic, are authoritarian, are nuts, et cetera. And in that institution, they could all band together and impeach him or, you know, 25th Amendment, but they don't do it.

2:09No, they just leak it to the press. And so here's what we have going on. We have the biggest narcissist on the global stage right now who loves his microphone, who loves to be on camera. And now after taking the advice of an unhinged, homeschooled Liberty University graduate, the bunny boiler, this is what covering the president looks like now. Play the clip.

2:36Okay. So there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe, Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Backfiring just a little bit. I might say that was a Newsmax saying it backfired just a little bit. So here's my fundamental question to CNN, to Politico, to MSNOW, to Newsmax, to all of the people who have sanewashed this president because you're fearful of what he would do to you. You gave an itch and it wasn't enough. You covered for him, for his dementia, for his lies and put up false equivalencies like here's the president's side and then here's the opposition side when the president's side is unhinged.

3:24You covered Joe Joe Biden and his mental decline and his physical decline, spot on. Y 'all were gang up on all of that. With Donald Trump, you provide cover. And when you give just an inch to an authoritarian, it's not enough. These media outlets made their bed, and I hate it. I want to have a free press. I want to have a media that is able to cover the president, able to cover the government, shine a light on corruption, shine a light on dementia, shine a light on taxpayer-funded naps and not normalize them. But they want to, oh, we have to cover it this way or that way. And look what happens.

4:05Look at what happens. And then we have the smoky-eyed sociopath, the vice president of the United States, who has about as much charisma as a paperclip, defending Donald Trump's ban on the press. Play the clip. Media outlets, what he's doing is saying, we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda. We have to remember those three outlets account about 92 percent of the stories that they have on the president of the United States, on the administration are negative. Maybe the truth hurts, J.D. Vance, and he's the one standing there providing propaganda.

4:42And it should always be pointed out by the media every single time this man speaks that he has done a 180. He very appropriately said that Trump is America's Hitler. We've learned since then that he was trying to feed information to the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 to make sure Trump was defeated. And then what happened? What happened? J.D. Vance has no conviction, no core ethos whatsoever. He was able to be plucked by Peter Thiel, purchased, sent out to some sort of techno-fascist boot camp, and then they bought a Senate seat for him, and then they placed him in the position as the vice president.

5:26Because these people have very, very dark visions for the United States of America. As dark as Donald Trump's is, it's surface-level dark. It's these people hurt my feelings. Natalie made me a chart. You don't get to play with me anymore. the sandbox. Peter Thiel and these others, Elon Musk, then do a little Google on Curtis Yarvin, who is their kind of mentor in all of this. They want to dismantle democracy and have the country run by technology. It's really dark dystopian stuff. And so J.D. Vance is in the lane with these people, and they are going to push and buy and try to promote this guy to be the president of the United States of America, and I just want every single person, whether you're right, left, center, whatever, J.D.

6:16Vance is actively, all day, every day, making this country less safe for his brown-skinned wife and his mixed-race children. That should tell you everything you need to know, because there's nothing about me as a parent that I could ever do that would actively make my children's spaces less safe for them. J.D. Vance does it enthusiastically. And that is a real testament to this man's character. And then on top of all of this, the White House decides to go full-blown North Korea. And they have launched their own state-run media. Pop this up. Okay, this is the White House. They tweet this. It's live with a television and, of course, an eagle emoji because that's their sign of, like, we're so badass.

7:05Look at our eagles. Trump TV is streaming now 24-7, updated in real time, top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place. Not every big moment has made it onto your TV, and now it can. YouTube is hosting this, and it says Trump TV, Trump TV, Trump TV. Where are the Republicans? During Richard Nixon's crimes, the Republicans stood up and said, no, you're not doing this to our country. You're not doing this to our political party. Hit the bricks. Beat it. Scram. The Republicans surrounding Donald Trump are actively, just like J.D. Vance, making the country less safe for themselves.

7:55The media that engages in sane washing this president are making the industry wherein they make hundreds of millions of dollars less lucrative for themselves. themselves, the culmination of all of these unforced errors by these fascist collaborators, my hope is will be their demise. Because one thing I know about being an American is at the end of the day, money talks. And all of these moves, dismantling the free press, you think that's going to go over? At some point, even Rupert Murdoch is going to step in, which Fox News has also taken the side of CNN, MS Now, and said, okay, we're not going to travel with the president either.

8:37You kick them out, we're not going. So are the industry titans finally going to stand up to him? That remains to be seen. But I'll tell you what, we can and we will. And we don't have to consume their products. And in these midterms, we have to send a message, not just to Donald Trump. He's a dementia duck. Biology is going to get him any minute now. Not just to J.D. Vance, who is a complete hypocrite of the highest order, not just to the Supreme Court, but to all of these businesses who have had a system curated for them in the United States of America, wherein they are able to accelerate and exploit and become billionaires and then become victims.

9:20And maybe you just might end up being a victim of the very system you are protecting right now. And we'll see how well that turns out for you. And then Trump traveled to New York City and, of course, fawned all over. Superstar Mayor Zoran Mamdani played the clip. There's a lot. And it sort of feels like a home. And it's a special place, a very special, a beautiful place when you go inside. And I've seen it with numerous different mayors. And I said some great ones and some not so great ones. So hopefully you're going to be a great one. I'll and you're off to a start. You know, Trump hangs out with all of these, I mean, truly just dipshits.

10:04There's really not a better word to describe the people in the cabinet. These people are breathtakingly ignorant and breathtakingly stupid, and they're losers, total losers. And so when even Trump, he likes winners, he likes success, and he can't deny his affection towards Zoran when he's around him. But I want you all to really lock into this moment right here. A reporter asked Mom Donnie and Trump about the press ban. Mom Donnie responds, and then I want you to focus on Trump's rambling. And I'm so sorry, but it's very important that you follow me on this thought track. Play the clip. Yeah, I told the president that we're going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn.

10:49And that is something that I believe in as everyone, no matter the opinion or the critique that we engage. And I don't know, Mr. President. It's interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me. So I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press. But no, I'm not. I'm only doing it because I think the press also is an obligation. And, you know, I won in a landslide. I won the election in a landslide. I've done great things. I've done a lot of great things. I've settled eight wars. We have the best economic numbers for the country in the history of our country.

11:23We have$21 trillion pouring in. Okay. All right. All right. All right. I wanted to listen to the whole thing, but even I. The reason why I wanted you to listen to that is because part of the fascist project is to prime us that this is what leadership is. This is how they can deliver for us materially, is that we are able to latch on to his grievances, adopt them as our own grievances. And in exchange, they serve up a scapegoat for whom we can blame all of that dipshit's abject failures. And so it's important that he goes out and continues lying on purpose and propagandizing on purpose to get the public prime that this is what government is.

12:07You can't believe in government. This is all it is. Tough titties. It's for him. Everything here is his. His grievances are our grievances. His problems are our problems. And a lot of people, I saw a poll out this morning, 29%. We can do better, though. We need to get that down in the teens. 29 % buy into this. But I want to show you a video of Zoran from two days prior, where he is speaking to mayors who came to New York City. because this, this is what government is supposed to sound like. This is what we deserve. This is what Republicans, independents, Democrats, or the apolitical deserve out of their leaders.

12:49And listen to this. Play the clip. In New York City, there are certain words that have taken on ideological associations. One of them, or certain phrases, one of them is quality of life. Over the last few decades, quality of life has come to be seen as somehow a right-wing concern. Efficiency, especially in the age of Doge, efficiency has been taken on as a right-wing concern, rooting out fraud and waste, a right-wing concern. And there has been a sense that if you are to admit to an interest in those, then you are assisting the right wing. When in fact, what I think the truth is, is that if you ignore these things, that is what the assistance is.

13:36These are in and of themselves incredibly important things that we have to deliver on and not allow there to be some kind of an ideological monopoly on who cares and who can deliver on them. Okay. That to me is just so incredibly important. silence is also capitulating. So you have a lot of corporate Democrats that capitulate to right wing framing in general. But also saying that that efficiency, government efficiency is only the right wing's plight or cause is total bullshit. Because the right wing says, oh, we're all about Doge. We know Doge costs us more money than it saved us. We know that Doge, through a lot of people, good government workers, good Americans, normal people out into the streets because they don't have health insurance anymore.

14:30They don't have their salaries anymore. And a good politician is able to speak to this. We can run government more officially. That isn't just a right-wing thing. We can actually do it and we can execute it because we're not lying when we say we're going to do it. The problem with the Republican Party is they are able to lie with impunity all the time. We care about the troops. That's my favorite one. When just, I think two days ago or yesterday, Trump called people in the Pentagon that were talking about the munitions depletion, cowards and traitors. Is that caring about the troops? Is that being pro-military after he already called veterans suckers and losers.

15:16The Democrats have to reclaim these things. The Republicans don't get to claim them and lie about them and then not deliver on them. And then we just say, oh, that's a Republican issue. No, they're liars. They use these issues to inject them into the culture war, to provide to people in middle America and in places in America where both parties haven't delivered materially for them. And so what do they want to cling on to? They want to cling on, like Obama said, gods and guns. And so they cling on to this idea that, oh, I support the troops. They died for my freedom, which is a great, noble thing to support the people who serve in our military.

15:58But the Republicans don't support the troops. They start wars based on lies. And they send these young kids to the front lines and they die and then they deny them benefits. And then when they get so screwed up in the head from being in war, they get back to the United States and they have mental health problems. 30 % of our homeless population are veterans. You've heard how the Republican Party thinks about homeless people. You heard Fox. Exterminate them. Just get rid of them. the dehumanization of that? Is that supporting the troops? So we need to reclaim these really noble causes. Making government deliver for us in an efficient manner is not a Republican promise.

16:47It's not a Republican ideal. It's a Republican lie. And Zoron has come in and reminded everybody that we need politicians that are incorruptible, that do not sit down and take private meetings with fascists. When he meets with Donald Trump, it's in front of the press, open air. And by the way, Kanks, the reason the press was there is because it was Zoran's press event, not yours. Just a little FYI. But Momdani was asked how his meeting with Trump is different from Jeffrey's meeting with Jared Kushner. And here's what Mom Donnie had to say. Play the clip. Committed over the course of the campaign, as well as while being in office, that I would meet with anyone, work with anyone that could deliver for New Yorkers.

17:35And in the previous meetings I've had with President Trump, we've been able to secure the release of a New York City college student who had been detained by ICE. We've been able to move forward what has been a longstanding dream about the construction of Sunnyside Yard. And we know we have a significant way to go, but these meetings do truly assist in that path. And to me, the question always is, how can we deliver for the city? How can we deliver for the people of the city? And so having a conversation about potentially building 12 ,000 homes, about the importance of our Haitian neighbors here in the city, those are conversations that are worthwhile to have.

18:15Okay. So this is a big thing going on. There's Twitter politics and then there's real politics. And the problem with the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, meeting with Jared Kushner is number one, Jared Kushner hangs out with a lot of really bad people, primarily the Saudis that funded 9-11. He also goes around representing the United States of America, making personal business deals for himself as collateral, as a negotiating point. Hakeem went and met with him behind everybody's back. And it didn't come out until somebody in Jared's camp, I believe, leaked it to make Hakeem look like Hakeem.

18:55I don't have a problem with Jeffries or Schumer or any of these people meeting with any of these fascists, but deliver for the people and don't seed an inch. Zoran has never ceded an inch or does stuff in secret behind the citizens of New York City's back. It's transparent. And then let's look at the donations to each. Look at the donations to Zoran and look at the donations to Jeffries. Jeffries has a lot common, sadly. And I don't like this. I don't like reporting this, that somebody in my party, political party, in a leadership position has stuff in common with Jared Kushner. It sickens me, but they have a lot in common.

19:39They have a lot in common. Look at who sends money to Speaker Jeffries. And that is the problem. And that is the fundamental difference. And we must, as an electorate, demand politicians that are incorruptible, that deliver materially and call out Republican lies all day, every single day. All right. That's all we have for news at the top of this hour. Please do me a favor. Pre-order my book. It's coming. I think it's just a couple weeks away. October 6th is the release date. The pre-order has helped me a lot. It's called Not Today Fascist. And we will be back later with more news.

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