Donald Trump’s recent rhetorical fumble in which he confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi has begun raising concerns about media coverage of the leading Republican presidential candidate's mental state.
New Republic editor Michael Tomasky, in a five-alarm missive condemning the coverage of Trump's startling weekend statement, asked readers to imagine what would have happened if President Joe Biden publicly confused a campaign opponent with a past speaker of the House.
“Things might well cascade to the point that Biden would have to stand down,” Tomasky writes. “But when Trump says it — it’s not like it’s nothing.”
His comments followed a rambling remark Trump made over the weekend contending Haley, his main Republican primary season opponent and former South Carolina governor, was in charge of security on Jan. 6, 2021 and destroyed evidence of his demands for action.
In actuality, it was Pelosi who served as former Democratic House Speaker, and Trump's claim that he offered 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol from rioters has been repeatedly debunked.
In his opinion piece Monday, Tomasky raised concerns about the press’s seeming lack of interest in the wake of this serious gaffe.
“You’d think that this would be pretty big news,” Tomasky writes. “But if you google “Trump Haley Pelosi,” you’ll see that far more outlets waited until Haley starting making hay of it.”
Tomasky then conducts his thought experiment comparing the media’s response to that of a hypothetical gaffe from Biden.
"You can easily imagine the howling that would ensue," writes Tomasky. "Fox News would be looping it nonstop."
For Tomasky, it’s further proof of a right-wing takeover of American media he argues spans from major city newspapers and cable news channels to social media sites like Rumble and Truth Social.
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“The moguls of right-wing media are not out simply to cover the news,” Tomasky writes. “They, and the editors and reporters they hire, are out to change what even counts as news because they want to remake society along illiberal, Orbánesque lines.”
There could be big problems in the short term, too, he concludes.
“If Donald Trump is losing his marbles,” Tomasky writes, “it would be good to know that before he has the power to decide that Daniel Ortega is destroying his country and we have no choice but to invade El Salvador.”
