In the last month, right-wing media figures have labeled a wide range of people and entities they associate with the Democratic Party — from
Isabella Corrao, Jane Lee, and Helena Hind at MMFA:
In the last month, right-wing media figures have labeled a wide range of people and entities they associate with the Democratic Party — from former President Barack Obama to mainstream media figures and critics of the Iran War — as “traitors,” in some cases explicitly demanding they be tried for treason and put to death. This rhetoric showcases the right's escalation and propensity for more extreme reactions during the second Trump administration.
Right-wing media hacks attack those opposed to the Iran War or the Trump Regime as “traitors”, mimicking the same campaign under Bush 43 that tarred Iraq War critics.
See Also:
MMFA: Right-wing media's last ditch defense of Trump's Iran war: Blame the press
Some right-wing media figures are jumping on board with the Trump administration's newest effort to support MAGA allies despite numerous questions about its legality; a few are voicing light skepticism of the plan.
This week, the Department of Justice announced that the Trump family had agreed to drop a legally questionable $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the fund's intended recipients are “victims of lawfare and weaponization” by the federal government. Critics of the move are calling the idea a “slush fund,” and The New York Times called the deal “highly unusual” and wrote that the fund is “a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies.”
Some right-wing media figures have been praising the fund, calling it a great idea and complementing Trump for his “patriotic” use of the number 1776 while ignoring the more problematic details of the fund.
Newsmax host Carl Higbie staunchly defended the fund, claiming that Trump has “dropped — he dropped — his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.776 — 1776 — billion-dollar fund set up for truth and justice compensation for people who were victims of Biden's weaponization of government” and that “Trump and his family will get $0 in exchange for just simply an apology from the IRS and a fund set up for every other person who Biden targeted.”
[...]
Even a few right-wing media voices have been lightly skeptical of the move.
On Fox's Special Report, guest anchor Trace Gallagher admitted that “who gets the money and where it comes from is a bit unclear.”
Special Report's reporting on the topic also included clips of Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) asking for clarity on where the money is coming from and “the legality of creating a fund that Congress hasn't had anything to say about.”
The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro touched on the matter, saying on his show, “I'm generally against slush funds, to be clear. I do not like them. I think there are other ways of pursuing redress for grievances in this fashion. However, many of the myths that you're hearing about it are overstated.”
Megyn Kelly said on her podcast about the fund, “I don't like it,” explaining that she'd rather see individual suits. But she also made false correlations between this move and Obama's Keepseagle fund, saying, “This was created by Barack Obama,” and, “The same media that's now ripping Trump to shreds for doing it said nothing, nothing when Barack Obama started it. … So I really have no tolerance for their cries and protestations about what Trump is doing.”
Right-wing media pundit class largely goes along with Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund” slush fund scheme, with a few dissenting.
As President Donald Trump’s war on Iran extends into its sixth month, some figures on the right are recalibrating their messaging from an original demand for maximalist victory to something much more modest.
Although the war has created some fractures in right-wing media, at the outset of the conflict it had no shortage of boosters — either Iran hawks or MAGA hacks. Now, as the Iranian government has survived months of bombing and operationalized its previously unrealized control of the Strait of Hormuz, some of those pundits are scaling back their ambitions.
MAGA influencer and right-wing media weathervane Benny Johnson provides the clearest example of this trend. On March 12, Johnson, who initially was both skeptical of the war and giddy with the promise of U.S. world domination, offered a particularly Trump-ian rebranding proposal.
[...]
Johnson’s about-face may be the most dramatic rhetorical retreat, but he’s not alone. Newsmax host Carl Higbie, who endorsed bombing Iran “back to the stone age” in late February, spent months praising the Trump administration’s plan for the war only to recently change his tune.
[...]
Like Johnson, The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles has alternately expressed hesitancy about the war while also defending the Trump administration from accusations of “hypocrisy.” Still, on March 10 he was willing to dismiss the concerns of right-wing critics of the campaign to that point.
“As I’ve said from the beginning of the Iran war — very, very high stakes for President Trump,” Knowles said. “But as of now, all the ‘panicans’ predictions have been wrong. Like, all of them.”
But more recently, Knowles acknowledged the war’s deep and growing unpopularity in a monologue about the House of Representatives passing a war powers resolution in opposition to the conflict.
[...]
This shifting rhetoric shows the delicate balancing act right-wing media are engaged in: The hawks want to escalate and the hacks want to continue to ingratiate themselves with the administration, while even Trump voters are growing more opposed to another forever war.
A few MAGA media sycophants, such as Benny Johnson and Carl Higbie, have begun to express some doubts about the Iran War quagmire.
