Earlier this week, CNN reporter Kristen Holmes asked Donald Trump whether his plan to scale back military exercises with South Korea came at the behest of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (whose government Trump called “unthreatening and respectful”). Trump didn’t answer Holmes’ reasonable question about his shameful betrayal of an American ally in service to the murderous dictator. Instead, he attacked her.
“You’re fake news. You’re loud. You’re a loud, boisterous person. You’re fake news,” he said. And he kept going as she tried to follow up.: “Be quiet. Be quiet! Be quiet. You’re a fake reporter and you report fake news.”
Later, CNN execs stuck up for their journalist, noting that Holmes “did her job”
by asking Trump “a tough, relevant, and newsworthy question on behalf of the American people.” They also noted that “personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press.”
Trump’s repeated attacks against journalists—and particularly female reporters—are not new. Nor are his tedious lies about “fake news,” intended to degrade the public’s trust in the media and convince the public to rely on what he is saying.
But as his deadly lies multiply, his effort to silence dissent and deny the public the truth becomes both more intolerable and more necessary to reject. It also reveals his increasing inability to handle criticism—which helps explain his desperate hunger for dictatorial rule where no one dares question the Great Leader. Trump depends on a protective bubble in which he’s never wrong and never fails, a fantasy world where America is the “hottest” country in the world, respected by all and no longer a “laughingstock.”
Which is why tough questioning by reporters that penetrate his bubble of lies is so important. In response to another reporter’s question about the lack of food on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East. Trump spun a fairy tale about a retired admiral telling him that the Lincoln is “beautifully maintained” and lied that many sailors have served “much longer” than the 250 consecutive days the Lincoln’s crew has been stuck on board without touching land.
Yet the combination of the military press that first broke the news of troubled sailors attempting to jump overboard and detailed reporting of family members describing food shortages and unsanitary and other deteriorating conditions on the aircraft carrier belied Trump’s fantasy. This attention has accelerated the return of the ship and some 5,000 sailors to their home port in San Diego.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff also demonstrated this week why tough and knowing criticism by elected officials can cut through the untethered Trump’s facade of lies and ongoing corruption and criminality. Here’s what Ossoff had to say at a campaign rally in Atlanta on Sunday:
While the sailors on the [USS Abraham] Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
There’s a lot there, but it’s telling that the phrase that has triggered a White House and MAGA freakout is “travel with Natalie.” That’s Natalie Harp, of course, the 35-year-old aide who has been involved at all hours of the day and night in Trump’s venomous and unhinged posting—engaging with sensitive information despite lacking security clearance for a full year. Her own brother has described her as possessing an “unhealthy obsession” with Trump.
In a sign that Ossoff’s observation struck a nerve, Steven Cheung, Trump’s nasty communications operative, spewed this ugly response on X. “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country.”
Cheung was not alone in dishing out insults that further degrade the office for which he serves. The anonymous White House “Rapid Response 47” account on X also dished out poison in response to CNN’s Kristen Holmes other question to Trump about Ossoff’s remarks. Calling her a “disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession,” the account targeted her children and said, “They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive.”
Gosh. All of a sudden, Trump’s White House cares about protecting women…or at least Ms. Harp. Some observers have suggested they may also be protecting another woman, Melania Trump, who likely does not like the spotlight on the sycophantic Natalie and the questions about her relationship with her husband.
I’m not here to speculate about the specifics of said relationship. I honestly don’t care. But what I do care about is how she’s succeeded in feeding her malignant boss all manner of material for hateful, untethered posting; this exacerbates the danger of a White House occupant disconnected from reliable information and triggering bad decision-making.
For his part, Sen. Ossoff was not backing down (even after long-time Democratic strategist David Axelrod weakly opined that the Harp comments “distracted and detracted from the power of the message). Quite the contrary. Ossoff understood that his remarks had drawn blood.
“It’s been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week,” he said on Wednesday, telling MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell that the Harp issue is not about personal innuendo. “These White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayer, with immense power in positions of public trust.”
He made clear to O’Donnell that the issue goes well beyond this one aide: “Whether it's Natalie Harp printing out Donald Trump's daily dose of delusion and flattery, or [senior trade and manufacturing adviser] Peter Navarro steering taxpayer-funded loans to Trump family investments, or [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth deluding the president daily into deepening this quagmire in the Middle East, no one cares about their feelings."
I could not agree more. In fact, it’s never been more important to turn up the heat—to cut through, to draw blood and weaken the power of a regime that is counting on a passive people as it pursues its destructive agenda.
So as we head toward the midterms, the last thing we need is reluctant Democrats, legacy reporters fearful of crossing Trump and losing access—or voters intimidated by a regime that will surely try every trick to discourage them from expressing their views at the ballot box.
Be quiet? No, speak out. This is our constitutional right. A fundamental freedom that we can never relinquish if our republic is to survive.
Each of us must do everything we can to ensure that the size of the November turnout proves that real Americans will not be cowed by a degrading dictator hell bent on silencing our voices in order to hold onto power.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, it’s more important than ever to support the survival of democracy and the expansion of independent media. While most of my posts are free, paid subscribers get full access to the comments sections, exclusive online chats, live video forums, recordings and more.
Shout it from the roof tops!
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud.