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Right-Wing Media Figures Defamed IRS To Benefit The Super-Rich

Right-wing media figures have spent years attacking the Internal Revenue Service, including spreading conspiracy theories about armed agents targeting conservatives. Now, President Donald Trump is gutting the agency in a move that experts say will benefit the richest of the rich in the United States.

According to The Washington Post, the IRS’ “burgeoning efforts to more closely inspect the taxes of some of the country’s richest people and most powerful companies are stalling because of layoffs imposed by the Trump administration."

The Post went on to report that the IRS had fired “7 percent of its roughly 100,000-person workforce in February, including at least 5,000 in the enforcement and collections divisions,” and that “tax experts say the cuts undermine the agency’s much-touted effort to crack down on wealthier Americans — who for years have faced slimmer and slimmer odds of being audited."

The Trump administration’s hobbling of the agency follows years of attacks on the IRS by right-wing media — most notably by spreading a myth that the Biden administration was planning to hire 87,000 armed agents to investigate and persecute conservatives. A Biden-era law did increase funding for the IRS, but didn’t specify the number of new employees and certainly didn’t mandate that they carry weapons. The false number comes from a Treasury Department report that suggested how many total employees the IRS could hire over 10 years to “maintain current levels,” according to PolitiFact. And, crucially, the new hires were tasked with investigating high-income tax avoiders.

Right-wing media attacked Biden-era funding for IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats

In August 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, adding $80 billion to the IRS’ budget to go after wealthy tax cheats. That month, Fox News repeated the falsehood that the IRA added 87,000 IRS agents more than 200 times, including at least 40 instances of falsely saying the agents would be armed.

Host Laura Ingraham said the IRS was the “new Gestapo,” and host Brian Kilmeade claimed “Joe Biden’s new army” is going to “hunt down and kill middle class taxpayers.” (In fact, then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin instructed the IRS not to increase audits for filers making less than $400,000 annually.)

Former Fox News marquee star Tucker Carlson repeated the armed-agents conspiracy theory at least nine times, in one instance telling his audience Biden was hiring “87,000 armed IRS agents to make sure you obey.” Earlier that month, Carlson falsely claimed that the IRS was being used “as a military agency."

Turning Point USA founder and MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk said on his radio show that the “87,000 new IRS agents will be used to go after mom-and-pop restaurants, donors to MAGA candidates, people like you,” and that their assignment was to target “dissidents."

Fox ignored IRS collection of back taxes from the wealthy — while demonizing immigrants

The attacks continued throughout the rest of Biden’s term. In January 2023, right-wing outlets rehashed the 87,000 armed-agents myth as House Republicans voted to slash IRS funding. That fall, conservative pundits cheered on newly minted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s attempts to cut IRS funding. On November 20, Ingraham again accused the IRS of “targeting conservative groups."

In February 2024, Fox News almost entirely ignored a report from the IRS and the Treasury Department that found the agency was “poised to take in hundreds of billions of dollars more in overdue and unpaid taxes than previously anticipated,” according to The Associated Press. As Media Matters reported at the time, Fox spent only 5 minutes discussing the report — which estimated the government would be able to collect $56 billion per year over 10 years — and 55 minutes criticizing a New York City program to provide migrants with prepaid credit cards that cost $53 million.

Right-wing media pushed tax avoidance for the ultra-rich, austerity for the working class

The long-running right-wing media campaign against the IRS has always had one clear goal: to protect the ultrawealthy from IRS enforcement. The Trump administration is now realizing that goal. The recent Washington Post article reported that a West Virginia revenue agent said some of the recently “laid-off employees had about 40 cases between them, each looking at people making $400,000 or more.” Some reports now estimate that the Trump administration could ultimately fire half of the IRS’ 100,000 person workforce.

The programs that Trump is eviscerating have already been successful. As of last July, the IRS had collected more than $1 billion in back taxes from wealthy individuals and families. Right-wing media figures have cheered on these cuts, which will primarily benefit rich tax cheats, as they simultaneously push for austerity measures for the working class.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

MAGA Media Knew Trump Would Wreak Economic Havoc --- And Now He Is

For months, MAGA sycophants and right-wing media personalities have been warning that President Donald Trump’s agenda to gut the federal government and institute widespread tariffs could devastate the economy, which they attempted to spin as an important step to restoring the balance supposedly missing from the strong economy Trump inherited from the Biden administration.

With many of Trump’s policies going into effect or scheduled to begin soon, economists, analysts, and news organizations are already pointing to new indicators of a pullback in consumer spending, weak consumer confidence, worsening inflation expectations, and higher than expected weekly jobless claims as evidence that the promised economic mayhem is already beginning.

Economists and news outlets say new economic indicators show economic trouble ahead

University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers: Census Bureau data shows that “Americans responded (sharply!) to the Trump tariffs *before* they were even imposed” by importing extra goods to avoid “paying the higher prices that would occur when he was in office.” Wolfers added: “This also gives you a sense of who to blame for somewhat higher inflation in January. No, he wasn't in office yet. But suppliers know buyers need to buy ahead of future tariff-afflicted price hikes, and so likely felt little pressure to offer their usual discounts.” [Bluesky, 2/28/25, 2/28/25]

University of California, Berkeley economist Jesse Rothstein: “It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession” due to Trump’s policies. Rothstein wrote: “Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020.” [Bluesky, 2/18/25]

Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long, citing new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, wrote: “Warning sign for the economy: Big drop in consumer spending in January. Personal consumption expenditures *decreased* 0.2%.” Long added: “Look at the categories with big drops -- car parts, recreational stuff, appliances, furniture, clothing -- a lot of this is ‘nice to haves’ that people cut first when times get tough.” [Twitter/X, 2/28/25]

Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker noted that “January had the largest drop in consumption spending in four years,” and called it a “recession-type drop in spending.” [Twitter/X, 2/28/25, 2/28/25]

Former Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein: The drop in consumer spending is “concerning and consistent with consumer angst re tariffs, uncertainty.” [Twitter/X, 2/28/25]

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities senior director for federal fiscal policy Brendan Duke on the drop in consumer spending: “Do wonder if a big economic effect of the Trump Administration's attacks on federal employees and contractors is that they and their families are pulling back on consumer spending because they are *worried* about losing their jobs even if they haven't lost them yet.” [Twitter/X, 2/28/25]

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on the drop in consumer spending: “Consumers already seem worried about policy madness, and they ain't seen nothing yet.” [Bluesky, 2/28/25]

According to two surveys, consumer confidence has slumped to a level that “usually signals a recession ahead.” Two consumer confidence surveys for February, released just days apart, indicated that public perceptions of the economy have worsened significantly since Trump took office, with fears of “tariff-induced price increases” dragging down consumer sentiment in a survey published by the University of Michigan, and nagging worries about “income, business, and labor market conditions” driving down sentiment in a survey published by The Conference Board. Both surveys were weaker than economists had expected, with the University of Michigan’s index registering the highest inflation expectations since 2023, and the Conference Board’s survey falling to a level that “usually signals a recession ahead.” [The Wall Street Journal, 2/21/25; The Conference Board, 2/25/25]

CNN: “The stock market had its worst week of Trump’s presidency – the Dow lost 1,200 points over the course of Thursday and Friday” as “investors grew fearful that the weakening consumer sentiment could lead to a pullback in Americans’ shopping habits.” CNN also quoted FWDBonds chief economist Chris Rupkey telling investors, “The public’s fears have soared in just the last two weeks showing the blizzard of changes coming from the president’s desk have spilled over the line between pro-growth into the realm of pro-inflation. … Once inflation expectations start moving higher it is only a matter of time before actual inflation takes off.” [CNN, 2/24/25]

CNBC: “Weekly jobless claims jump to 242,000, more than expected in latest sign of economic softening.” On February 27, CNBC reported that “jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 22 totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000, up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000.” CNBC explained that “the level of claims matched the highest since early October 2024 and comes amid questions over broader economic growth and worrying signs in recent consumer sentiment surveys” and amid Trump “taking aggressive measures to reduce the federal workforce.” [CNBC, 2/27/25]

Bloomberg: “Trump Risks American Consumer Backlash Over Tariffs, Poll Shows.” Bloomberg reported that a Harris Poll found that “almost 60% of US adults expect Trump’s tariffs will lead to higher prices,” and “44% say the levies are likely to be bad for the US economy.” [Bloomberg, 2/27/25]

CNBC: “The Federal Reserve’s favorite recession indicator is flashing a danger sign again.” CNBC reported: “The 10-year Treasury yield passed below that of the 3-month note in trading Wednesday. In market lingo, that’s known as an ‘inverted yield curve,’ and it’s had a sterling prediction record over a 12- to 18-month timeframe for downturns going back decades.” [CNBC, 2/26/25]

Trump supporters have been warning that his agenda calls for “hardship”

Elon Musk said during an October 25 telephone town hall that Trump’s agenda “to reduce spending to live within our means … necessarily involves some temporary hardship.” Since then, Musk has become the embodiment of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is reportedly responsible for many federal firings and spending freezes. [The New York Times, 10/29/24; The Associated Press, 2/21/25]

Musk later agreed with an X user who wrote that there will be an “initial severe overreaction in the economy” and that the “market will tumble” as Trump enacts his agenda. Musk replied on October 29, “Sounds about right.” [The New York Times, 10/29/24]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham: Trump’s agenda will be “tough for the economy. There is no doubt about it.” Ingraham added: “People have to get, as my father would have said, real work, real jobs. People are going to have to get jobs and they're going to be scrambling.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 11/20/24]

Podcaster Jason Calacanis: “DOGE is going to require collective sacrifice.” He wrote: “Getting Americans & their representatives to decline funding the government has ALREADY promised them, and that they fought hard to get, is going to be an extremely difficult task.” [Twitter/X, 11/22/24; Vox, 11/12/22]

Then-Fox contributor Tammy Bruce (now a government spokesperson): People are going to lose their jobs, “and it's going to be good, because yes, more jobs will be created in the private sector for them.” [Fox News, Hannity, 12/5/24]

Fox host Todd Piro: “Now, admittedly, we're going to have some tariffs, and that's going to raise prices. But the overall impact on the economy, hopefully, when Trump takes over, will make people feel better. And then when people feel better, the economy is better.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 12/11/24]

Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore on government jobs: “I guarantee you that number is going to be down next month, because we’re already seeing the Trump administration really shred jobs in the government sector.” [Media Matters, 2/7/25]

Fox Business host Charles Payne: “States are going to have a lot of their own sort of comeuppance, if you will” from the Trump administration cutting spending. Payne also claimed the Biden administration “tried to goose these numbers” with “a lot of money [that] was parceled out to states.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 2/7/25]

Faulkner on DOGE gutting the federal government: “There will be some fallout, because people will be losing their jobs.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/18/25]

MAGA radio host Dan Bongino: People need to “take it on the chin” and “sacrifice for a little bit” for Trump’s policies. Bongino said: “We’re just asking you to sacrifice for a little bit for the long-term prosperity of the United States. Now’s the time. … We’re all going to take it on the chin a little bit. Rich guys, poor guys, middle class guys, someone’s going to lose their tax cut. It is time to take it on the chin. We have to fix this thing now, not tomorrow.” [The Dan Bongino Show, 2/18/25]

Payne suggested it could be positive if Trump creates a recession. After a guest pointed out that President Ronald Reagan “came into office in 1981, that he slashed federal head count and actually put the economy back into the double dip recession of 1980 and 1981,” Payne responded: “I agree with you 1,000% that when you change something that's like this, lot of cash floating around, maybe there's a little temporary pain. We also end up calling it investing.” [Fox Business, Making Money, 2/26/25]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Right-Wing Media Insist It's "DEI" -- Not Climate Change -- Behind LA Wildfires

Right-wing media are trying to delegitimize climate change as a real and growing threat to the West Coast, just as that threat becomes most evident. Several unusual January wildfires have been burning in Los Angeles County since January 7. Despite the clear connection between global warming and the increasingly dry conditions that lead to fire hazards, right-wing media are following their familiar playbook and blaming what they call California’s “failed” policies for the ongoing crisis.

Californians are struggling to control ongoing fires, as U.S. communities are ill-prepared for year-round extreme weather
- The two largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, have collectively burned over 164,000 acres of Los Angeles County. Nearly 173,000 people are under evacuation warnings or orders in LA County, at least 25 people have died, and over 17,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed. The Palisades fire was 19% contained and the Eaton fire was at 45% containment as of publication. [Los Angeles Times, 1/14/25; Cal Fire, accessed 1/15/25; ktla.com, 1/14/25; NBC Los Angeles, 1/14/25]
- Like in many other cities, LA’s municipal water system is not designed to handle multiple massive fires at once. Reports that the hydrants being used to put out the fires were running low spurred misinformation about water shortages due to a lack of reservoirs or related to California’s water policies that divert water from Northern California to Southern California. These rumors proved to be misleading: Even though there is enough water, there isn’t enough pressure to get water to go where firefights need it most. As the LAist has noted in the past, “Fire hydrants have also run dry in the case of other wildfires that spread to urban areas, including the 2017 Tubbs Fire, 2024’s Mountain Fire and 2023’s Maui wildfires.” [Media Matters, 1/10/25; The LAist, 1/9/25, 8/15/23]

Right-wing media misleadingly told viewers that climate change had no impact on the fires and has simply been a distraction from more important problems
- In reaction to a CNN segment that questioned why more people aren’t searching for the term “climate change” on Google as the fires make headlines, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles falsely claimed, “That’s happening because there is no connection between the wildfires and climate change.” He continued: “They’re not drawing the connection between those two things because those things are unrelated.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 1/14/25]
- On Fox Business, anchor Cheryl Casone highlighted the Wall Street Journal editorial board’s attack on meteorologists for pointing out concerning weather patterns that lead to wildfires because “California has had those types of seasons” and “ a hundred years ago … nobody was talking about carbon emissions.” Calling it a “scathing, scathing attack on Gavin Newsom and the state’s failed policies,” Casone emphasized a part of the editorial that says to “look out for the word — the phrase ‘hydroclimate whiplash.’ They’re going to start blaming the seasons. The Journal points, you know, it was wet, it was wet winter, and then it was a dry summer. Well guess what? The Journal says, you know what, California also had those types of seasons in the 1910s and the 1920s.” [Fox Business, Mornings With Maria, 1/14/25]
- On Fox News, OutKick’s Clay Travis misleadingly claimed that because wildfires in California were also widespread in the 1800s, “this isn’t climate change.” According to the University of California, Davis, an estimated 4.5 million areas burned annually in California before the gold rush, but this included widespread controlled burns carried out by Native Americans. In 2020, the New York Times reported “more than five million acres charred in Oregon, California and Washington State.” The Times did not mention controlled burns, and the paper called the fires an “inescapable crisis.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/13/25; University of California, Davis, 10/1/20; The Mercury News, 8/24/20; The New York Times, 9/15/20]
- On the podcast Elijahstreams, which claims to host “prophets” and “prophetic guests,” host Steve Shultz and Christian podcast host Johnny Enlow attacked those who are speaking about climate change in connection with the fire, claiming that they’re on “the opposite side of righteousness.” Shultz, a conspiracy theorist who has pushed conspiracy theories, attacked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for voicing these concerns, saying: “So he’s saying this is global warming, I mean, not global warming — they use, this is climate change. … Isn’t it true that when you hear someone shout out that’s what this is, isn’t that almost proof that they're on the opposite side of righteousness?” Enlow also said, “The voice of ‘this is global warming,’ … that’s the big lie. If you want to know the one clear lie of every lie that’s out there is that this has to do with global warming.” [Rumble, Elijahstreams, 1/13/25; Politico, 2/18/21; Media Matters, 10/18/24]
- On Fox Business, Casone said, “I’m sorry, but this has been going on for centuries.” She continued: “The Santa Ana winds have been there for centuries. This isn’t climate change; this is the weather.” [Fox Business, Mornings With Maria, 1/13/25]

Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan called the idea of climate change impacts in California “nonsense” because John Steinbeck described drought conditions in his 1952 novel East of Eden. “If you read the great American novel East of Eden, it starts out describing the weather in California,” he said. “The weather in California has not changed. There’s seven years of drought, there’s seven years where it doesn't have drought.” He also claimed that scientists say “climate change has moved the storms to Alaska so we're not getting as many storms. Nonsense. Read the book. It was written a long time ago and yet it describes the weather just as it is.” [The Daily Wire, The Andrew Klavan Show, 1/10/25]
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh claimed that politicians mentioned climate change as one cause of the fires only because “the climate change narrative gives them an excuse to do nothing.” He continued: “It allows them to sit back and do nothing. That’s why they always want to view every problem as some kind of, you know, huge, all-encompassing systemic issue.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/10/25]
Fox host Laura Ingraham claimed there was “zero proof that man-made carbon dioxide caused these fires” and that they would be used to justify “rezon[ing] certain residential neighborhoods.” She continued: “But, perhaps, this reimagining cities will work to achieve this epic dream of theirs for more high-density housing, putting single family homes out of reach for victims and everyone but really the super rich. All to protect us — it’s for your own good from the ravages of climate change.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/10/25]
Fox host Greg Gutfeld complained about Democrats “offering platitudes” about climate change in response to the fires, and right-wing comedian Adam Carolla joked that sea levels are “not rising fast enough to put out the fires.” Carolla said, “They’ve been talking about the ocean sea levels rising for 50 years along with climate change, but the sea isn’t rising fast enough to put out the fires that they started through mismanagement.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/9/25]
Newsmax host Rob Finnerty said of the fires: “This is actually the opposite of climate change. This is the climate staying the same.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 1/9/25]
In a radio interview with Fox host Sean Hannity, former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich used climate change denial to try to legitimize his critique of environmental policy in California. Brnovich called the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change “the arrogance of human beings to think that somehow we are radically, you know, changing the environment.” He claimed that “neo-marxist socialists have latched on” to climate change “because they understand this is how you can emotionally control people” and convince them that “we need a bigger federal government, or we need less trees. We need to save snails instead of desalinizing water in Southern California.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 1/9/25]

- Carolla said on Hannity that “they want to blame everything on climate change but it's really their inaction. That's why we are in this predicament.” “We had a major fire in Malibu three and a half weeks ago,” he said. “It’s not like it was three and a half years ago. This is an ongoing issue, and Newsom likes to say it's now year-round because he wants to talk about climate change, so he’s the first guy who’s aware of it. They want to blame everything on climate change, but it's really their inaction. That's why we are in this predicament.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/8/25]
- New One America News host and disgraced former Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz claimed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was using the fires as an excuse for “photo ops” and to “blame climate change.” “Wildfires have plagued Newsom's tenure as governor, but instead of acknowledging poor forestry management practices, he's used these disasters as photo ops. He never misses a chance to parade around in his drainpipe jeans and French Laundry-issued, rosé-all-day aviators. Nor would he miss an opportunity to blame climate change, like he did in 2020.” [One America News, The Matt Gaetz Show, 1/8/25]
- Ingraham dismissed the role of climate change to disparage California leaders: “Now the scope of this loss is unfathomable. Although, thankfully, the death toll currently is fairly low, there are many more injured. But forget the climate fanatics. Because natural disasters are always going to happen. Hurricanes, floods, mudslides, droughts, and, yes, wildfires. But disasters in leadership can make what is naturally occurring even worse. And California has suffered more than it should because it has screwed up priorities from top to bottom.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/8/25]
Right-wing media often downplay climate change during destructive fires
- In the summer of 2023, which was plagued by record-breaking heatwaves and fires, right-wing media tried to convince people that concerns about climate change were overblown. When wildfire smoke from Canada choked New York in June 2023, Fox hosts mocked reports and politicians that connected the fire to climate change and blamed environmentalists and poor forest management. Right-wing media tried to convince their audience that extreme summer temperatures were “normal.” [Media Matters, 6/9/23, 7/20/23]
- In August 2023, when fires killed over 100 people in Lahaina, Hawaii, right-wing media similarly dismissed climate change. Fox host Tammy Bruce complained that “some people are already moving into a political dynamic talking about climate change” while herself posing the question, “For really an ancient land that this hasn't happened before, why did it happen now?” [Media Matters, 8/11/23, 8/23/23]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

The Decline And Fall Of The (Trumpist) 'Wall Street Journal'

Many American institutions have beclowned themselves in the past 10 years — too many to list. To count the right-leaning institutions that have not succumbed to Trumpian populism takes only one hand. But the decline of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page has been particularly galling because, compared to the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College or the Claremont Institute, it had farther to fall.

In the pre-Trump era, the paper had some integrity. While the board was broadly aligned with the Republican Party, its editorials didn't hesitate to differ with Republicans on major questions.

In the Trump era, the Journal has become, if not Pravda, then something like The Nation magazine.The Nation reliably whitewashed the sins of the Soviet Union and other communist regimes because it regarded anti-communism as a greater threat to the world than communism itself. Similarly, The Wall Street Journal has gradually become a parody of itself on the grounds that Democrats are always and forever the greatest threat to the country.

With that guiding principle, there is simply no Republican, no matter how deranged or unfit, whom the Journal will not prefer to a Democratic opponent. In 2022, the Journal advised its Arizona readers to choose Kari Lake for governor despite the fact that Lake had called for the 2020 election to be decertified, denounced mask wearing and encouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic, promised to criminally pursue journalists who "dupe the public," and pronounced the nation "rotten to the core" when the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. The Journal didn't mention most of that in its endorsement, claiming, hilariously, that Arizona's election was primarily about school choice.

This week, commenting on the drone kerfuffle, the Journal intoned that it couldn't be sure what people were seeing — but it was certain that the whole thing could be attributed to the erosion of trust in government.

Noting that "non-cranks" have reported seeing things that move strangely in the dark, the Journal quoted Jon Bramnick, a GOP state senator from New Jersey, who said, "It must be something going on that they can't tell us because they are so fearful of what the public's gonna do when they hear what the drones are doing."

You might think the paper would rebuke this state senator for getting out over his skis and encouraging conspiratorial thinking, but no, the editorial notes that "This is how deep the suspicion runs. And when that happens, conspiracy theories fill the air as much as drones do."

And guess who's responsible for this erosion of trust?

"The Biden administration has squandered its credibility to the point that it's rational not to believe what it says. Remember the Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the continental U.S.? The administration downplayed its importance while it was courting better relations with Beijing, only to shoot it down over the Atlantic Ocean."

Whoa. If you want to cite relations with Beijing as a source of mistrust, the Trump administration offers far more dire examples. While he was chasing a "great trade agreement" with Xi Jinping (the terms of which were never honored, by the way), Trump repeatedly lied about and minimized the risk of COVID-19, which had far more serious consequences for Americans' lives than waiting until the big spy balloon was over the ocean before shooting it down.

Nor did the Journal see fit to mention that Trump is, right on schedule and very on brand, stoking conspiracies of government malfeasance about the drones. He popped off: "Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge. I don't think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!"

This is not to excuse President Joe Biden's betrayal of trust in repeatedly promising that he would not pardon his son and then doing so, or misleading the public about the degree of his physical and mental decline. But for the Journal to look at the world of 2024 and conclude that the erosion of trust in government is due to Biden without ever once mentioning that Trump and his minions are the most prolific bilge spillers imaginable is to be completely without scruple.

Just in the last few weeks of the campaign, Trump falsely alleged that FEMA was purposely withholding hurricane assistance in order to funnel funds to illegal immigrants, that the Congo was emptying its prisons to send convicts to the United States and that the 2020 election was stolen.Trust is crucial to the successful functioning of society. Many social science studies have found that nations with high trust have less corruption and greater prosperity than those with low trust. It makes sense.

If you believe that most people are untrustworthy, you will rely only on those within your own family or tribe and be less likely to engage with outsiders. Trust is a social and economic lubricant. It's also, as we've learned, quite easy to undermine when people get their information from online rumors and irresponsible politicians and other actors who stoke distrust for their own political ends.

The drone affair is fluff and will doubtless be forgotten in a month if not sooner. But the spectacle of the Journal chastising the Biden administration without a solitary word about Trump and his enablers (in whose ranks they stand) is breathtaking.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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Right-wing media attacked Biden-era funding for IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats

Fox ignored IRS collection of back taxes from the wealthy — while demonizing immigrants

Right-wing media pushed tax avoidance for the ultra-rich, austerity for the working class

Economists and news outlets say new economic indicators show economic trouble ahead

Trump supporters have been warning that his agenda calls for “hardship”

Californians are struggling to control ongoing fires, as U.S. communities are ill-prepared for year-round extreme weather

There is ample evidence that climate change is creating hazardous conditions that supercharge existing wildfires in the Western US

Right-wing media misleadingly told viewers that climate change had no impact on the fires and has simply been a distraction from more important problems

Right-wing media often downplay climate change during destructive fires

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