On Monday, President Donald Trump’s media company unveiled a television streaming platform called Truth+ and announced that Newsmax — a propaganda outlet known for its pro-Trump content — will be a flagship channel.
Trump Media, which operates the social media platform Truth Social used heavily by Donald Trump, launched Truth globally on Monday, with the flagship Newsmax channel available to stream on the platform. Trump Media describes the platform’s focus as “family-friendly live TV channels and on-demand content.”
Trump Media’s CEO is former Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a MAGA loyalist.
“There is clearly a need globally for fresh perspectives on the great issues of our day, and we’re laying the groundwork to challenge the woke news monolith with hard-hitting, non-woke reporting and commentary,” Nunes said in a statement.
That appears to be MAGA-speak for “we’re going to be peddling far-right propaganda worldwide.”
That appears to be MAGA-speak for “we’re going to be peddling far-right propaganda worldwide.”
This means the president is now financially intertwined with a propaganda platform he frequently welcomes into the White House briefing room — an outlet embroiled in a legal fight over falsehoods it aired regarding the 2020 election. And earlier this year, Newsmax and MAGA-friendly outlet The Blaze were granted entry to the White House press pool, in place of HuffPost and Reuters, as part of what appeared to be an effort to add more Trump-aligned outlets.
It’s the type of seemingly corrupt setup one imagines Hungary’s illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán, dreaming of back in 2022, when he advised Republicans that having their “own media” was essential for combating liberals and constructing a society like his, which Orbán has called an “illiberal democracy.”
It’s possible that Truth+ goes the way of Truth Social and boasts only a meager base of users. But the effectiveness of the streaming platform (or lack thereof) is arguably less disturbing than the fundamental intent, which appears to be to build up the president’s propagandistic media empire.
Trump’s continued ownership of a private media company he relies on to help spread propaganda should arguably be a scandal in and of itself. And his official, for-profit partnership with a news outlet that reports on him only adds another layer of controversy.
