Trump Deletes Racist Video of Obamas After Outcry; The New York Times, February 6, 2026

Erica L. Green and Isabella Kwai, The New York Times; Trump Deletes Racist Video of Obamas After Outcry

"President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, then deleted it after an outcry, including from members of his own party. 

The clip, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” was spliced near the end of a 62-second video that promoted conspiracy theories about anomalies in the 2020 presidential election. It was the latest in a long pattern by Mr. Trump of promoting offensive imagery and slurs about Black Americans and others.

The decision to delete the link from his social media site was an unusual walk-back by the president, whose own press secretary just hours earlier had brushed off criticism of the video.  

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, before Mr. Trump deleted the clip. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”"

Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections; The New York Times, February 2, 2026

 Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times; Trump, in an Escalation, Calls for Republicans to ‘Nationalize’ Elections

"President Trump called in a new interview for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in the United States, an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters as he and his allies continue to make false claims about his 2020 defeat.

During an extended monologue about immigration on a podcast released on Monday by Dan Bongino, his former deputy F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump called for Republican officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states, though he did not name them.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law, leading to a decentralized process in which voting is administered by county and municipal officials in thousands of precincts across the country. Mr. Trump, however, has long been fixated on the false claims that U.S. elections are rife with fraud and that Democrats are perpetrating a vast conspiracy to have undocumented immigrants vote and lift the party’s turnout."

How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again; The New York Times, January 30, 2026

 Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times; How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again

"More than five years after President Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his administration are still pursuing baseless conspiracy theories in an attempt to prove otherwise.

Though scores of lawsuits aiming to overturn the results were dismissed by judges in 2020 and 2021, Mr. Trump’s relentless false arguments that he won the election have led many of his supporters to believe him. And now that he is back in the White House, some of those falsehoods have become official stances of the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, F.B.I. agents in Georgia searched an election center in Fulton County, Ga., which includes Atlanta, for ballots and other voting records from the 2020 contest. The move appeared to be a significant escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of the 2020 election and his defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Here’s the reality of what happened."

After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative; Media Matters for America, January 26, 2026

MATT GERTZ , Media Matters for America; After 36 hours justifying the killing of Alex Pretti, Fox News suddenly changes its narrative

"On Sunday evening, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin published a lengthy report detailing internal dissent among his federal immigration enforcement sources regarding the narrative pushed by Department of Homeland Security leaders after Border Patrol officers gunned down Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who had been videotaping their activities, in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. 

Amid the several hundred words describing an internal schism over how DHS is messaging masked agents of the state opening fire on a man who had already been restrained, Melugin slipped in the following statement: “There is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement, as videos appear to show he never drew his holstered firearm.”

Melugin’s stark acknowledgement was whiplash-inducing for anyone who had been following Fox’s on-air coverage of Pretti’s killing up to that point, and it marked the start of a dramatic shift in the network’s treatment of the case.

Fox spent Saturday and much of Sunday blaming the victim and local Democrats for his death while excusing and even valorizing his executioners. In doing so the network was following in the footsteps of the high-ranking administration officials who baselessly argued that Pretti was a “would-be assassin” engaged in “domestic terrorism.” Melugin himself was the vehicle DHS used to launder its excuse that Pretti “was armed.” 

And notably, some Fox contributors repeatedly justified Pretti’s killing by going beyond the official comment to allege that he had drawn the gun he was reportedly legally carrying and that he even pointed it at the Border Patrol officers — the very claim Melugin said Sunday night had been disproved by videos.

The fallacy of the DHS smear of Pretti had long been clear to anyone who had reviewed videos of the shooting, triggering widespread outrage over his killing. But Melugin’s admission — and his reporting on a schism within immigration enforcement over the case — apparently provided his colleagues the permission structure they needed to abandon their narrative."

Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life; The New York Times, January 25, 2026

Talya Minsberg, Corina Knoll and Julie Bosman, The New York Times; Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life

[Kip Currier: How despicable and unethical it is to see and hear Trump 2.0 government officials like Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, and others -- whose salaries are paid for by American tax dollars and who take oaths to serve as public servants for U.S. democracy and uphold the Constitution -- wield conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated falsehoods as reputational weapons to defame and slander individuals like Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.]

[Excerpt]

"He was a calm presence amid hospital chaos. A mentor who taught kindness and patience to younger friends and colleagues. A singer with a knack for dancing. A bicyclist who treasured the beauty of Minnesota.

This weekend, the family, co-workers and friends of Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration agents in a confrontation after he was apparently filming them, remembered his life, even as the circumstances of his death were debated on the national stage.

They shared photos of the Alex they knew: a smiling, bearded Mr. Pretti in the powder-blue scrubs he wore at his job as an intensive-care nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital, an outdoors lover posing with his mountain bike on a wooded trail and a student wearing a green cap and gown as he sang a solo at his high school graduation in Green Bay, Wis.

And they denounced what they saw as smear campaigns in the aftermath of Mr. Pretti’s death.

Within hours of the killing by federal agents on a Minneapolis street, Trump administration officials labeled Mr. Pretti a “would-be assassin” and asserted, with no evidence, that he had committed an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Through their own shock and grief, people who knew him struggled to rise above the lies and insults, they said, to describe who he was.

Rory Shefchek, a friend from high school who now lives in Madison, Wis., said that he hoped that Mr. Pretti would be remembered as the person he knew.

“He was a helpful, kind guy,” Mr. Shefchek said. “He was a confident, diligent and respectful person throughout his life. I hope that Alex’s story can catalyze change, as someone who believed in doing the right thing.”

Of the cellphone footage of Mr. Pretti’s death that has circulated widely in the news and on social media, Mr. Shefchek said, “We have all seen the video and our eyes don’t lie.”"

Vance Gives Deranged Excuse for Agents Killing ICU Nurse; The Daily Beast, January 25, 2026

Erkki Forster , The Daily Beast; Vance Gives Deranged Excuse for Agents Killing ICU Nurse

"JD Vance has suggested that Minnesota officials invited the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in an unhinged defense of the Trump administration’s deportation operation...

He claimed on X that local officials “created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border.”...

The vice president, who frequently makes false claims—such as alleging that Haitian migrants in Ohio are eating dogs—added, “This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.”"

ICE Agent Not ‘Run Over’ in Minneapolis: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week; NewsGuard's Reality Check, January 9, 2026

NewsGuard's Reality Check ; ICE Agent Not ‘Run Over’ in Minneapolis: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week

[Kip Currier: The fact-checking and news and information quality assessment organization NewsGuard serves as a crucial countervailing force to disinformation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.

This week, NewsGuard debunked falsehoods about an ICE agent alleged to have been run over in Minneapolis by Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by the agent on January 7, 2026.

In my recently published Ethics, Information, and Technology book, I profile NewsGuard's debunking of the utterly untrue claims of pet-eating by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which was amplified by Donald Trump and JD Vance during the 2024 Presidential election.]

[Excerpt]

"NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” highlights a false claim from NewsGuard’s False Claim Fingerprints proprietary database of provably false claims and their debunks. The claim that the ICE agent who reportedly fatally shot a woman driving an SUV in Minneapolis was run over or nearly run over by her vehicle is NewsGuard’s “False Claim of the Week” due to its widespread appearance across social media platforms and websites, its high engagement levels, and the high-profile nature of the sources promoting it. Those three factors, as well as both its significant subject matter and potential for harm, makes it our False Claim of the Week."

Five Years On, Trump Keeps Pushing Jan. 6 Conspiracies; The New York Times, January 6, 2026

Luke Broadwater and Dylan Freedman , The New York Times; Five Years On, Trump Keeps Pushing Jan. 6 Conspiracies

"Over the past year, President Trump has engaged in a steady campaign to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when his supporters, believing lies of a rigged election, smashed windows and doors and assaulted law enforcement officers.

His revisionist history is taking on new significance ahead of this year’s midterm elections — and could carry more weight if Republicans lose control of Congress, which the president has said he believes may happen.

On Tuesday, the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, Mr. Trump was again seeding doubt about the integrity of American elections. “Our elections are crooked as hell,” Mr. Trump told congressional Republicans.

Offering a glimpse into his concerns about an election loss in the midterms, Mr. Trump said Republicans needed to retain control of the House because he expected to face a third impeachment trial if Democrats won. He said he would not call for this year’s election to be canceled because critics would accuse him of being a dictator."

Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Rally and Demand More from Trump; The New York Times, January 6, 2026

Karoun Demirjian , The New York Times; Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Rally and Demand More from Trump

[Kip Currier: Contrast these remorseless January 6 pardoned insurrectionists with Pamela Hemphill, who turned down a pardon offer from Trump and on 1/6/26 apologized to the Capitol Hill police for her part in furthering Trump and MAGA's conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.]

[Excerpt]

"Five years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, several dozen rioters, including many who were jailed and later pardoned, gathered in Washington to retrace their steps and vow to keep fighting for payback, even against the Trump administration.

The “J6ers,” as they refer to themselves, have been emboldened by President Trump, who pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 1,600 people who planned or participated in storming the Capitol to protest the results of the 2020 election. During Tuesday's anniversary march, they praised Mr. Trump for setting them free, but were critical of his administration for not doing more for them.

“Retribution is what we seek,” said Enrique Tarrio, a far-right activist and leader of the Proud Boys, one of the organizers of the Jan. 6, 2021, demonstration and Tuesday’s anniversary event. “Without accountability, there is no justice.”

“I am loyal to Donald Trump, but my loyalty doesn’t extend to his administration,” said Barry Ramey, who was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the Capitol riot, an act he says he regrets. He listed Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, among Trump administration officials who “could be doing a better job.”"

White House Posts False Jan. 6 Narrative on Riot’s 5th Anniversary; The New York Times, January 6, 2026

Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer, The New York Times; White House Posts False Jan. 6 Narrative on Riot’s 5th Anniversary

"On the fifth anniversary of the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol, the Trump administration created a new page on the official White House website that represented the president’s most brazen bid yet to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 riot with false claims aimed at absolving him of responsibility.

The site blames Capitol Police officers, who defended lawmakers that day, for starting the assault; Democrats, who were the rioters’ main targets, for failing to prevent it; and former Vice President Mike Pence, who rejected falsehoods about the 2020 election, for allowing the results to be certified.

Mr. Trump has long sought to whitewash the violence and vandalism committed on Jan. 6, 2021, and reject responsibility for having instigated it. But the webpage, promoted on government social media accounts, put the official imprimatur of the White House on an astonishingly misleading account of the Capitol attack."

A conversation between Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson summed up 2025 for me – and not in a good way; The Guardian, December 27, 2025

George Monbiot, The Guardian ; A conversation between Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson summed up 2025 for me – and not in a good way

[Kip Currier: I'm grateful to Guardian writer George Monbiot for raising awareness of this January 2025 podcast conversation between podcast influencer Joe Rogan and "Mad Max" actor Mel Gibson, as this "bro banter" episode wasn't on my radar. The discussions between these two men have to be read to be believed. 

On the one hand, the abject ignorance, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theorizing is colossally astounding. Indeed, it could lead one to feelings of depression and apathy -- if one allows oneself to follow Rogan and Gibson down that road to nowhere good.

Instead, let's choose to see the conversation between Rogan and Gibson as a reminder of and motivation for how much work remains to be done to push back against wholesale untruths, cynicism, and divisiveness that people like this perpetrate on our world.

In 2026, resolve to support a library that provides access to life-changing information, visit a museum that is standing up for not erasing history and unheard voices, and choose news sources that engage in evidence-based reporting and fact-checking and which forthrightly correct and acknowledge when they make mistakes.

As a boy and even into my adult years, I recall my kind-hearted and worldly-wise late paternal Grandmother, Esther Currier, using the phrase "consider the source" when occasionally referring to a person of questionable character or integrity. Implicit in that phrase was the sense, too, of not wasting mental energy or time on someone or something of little value. As an evaluative tool, "consider the source" is as timely and useful now as it was then for deciding whether to trust what someone says or does.

So, no thanks, Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson...looking at your track records for character, integrity, compassion, accuracy, and responsibility, that's a "hard pass" on considering you as sources of reliable information.

And thanks again for the great advice, Grandma Currier -- which I note in the Acknowledgments section of my recently published Bloomsbury book, Ethics, Information, and Technology.]

[Excerpt]

"Looking back on this crazy year, one event, right at the start, seems to me to encapsulate the whole. In January, recording his podcast in a studio in Austin, Texas, the host, Joe Rogan, and the actor Mel Gibson merrily dissed climate science. At the same time, about 1,200 miles away in California, Gibson’s $14m home was being incinerated in the Palisades wildfire. In this and other respects, their discussion could be seen as prefiguring the entire 12 months."

Dan Bongino Admits to Lying During His Pundit Days; The Atlantic, December 8, 2025

David A. Graham , The Atlantic; Dan Bongino Admits to Lying During His Pundit Days

"The suspect, Brian Cole Jr., reportedly recently told investigators that he was a Donald Trump supporter who believed Trump’s bogus claims of fraud in the 2020 election. But various people in conservative media and politics have insisted for years that the pipe bombs were actually planned or placed by the government in order to make Trump look bad—which was why no one had been apprehended.

One of the most prominent backers of that claim was the podcaster and radio host Dan Bongino. Even the Fox News host Sean Hannity, one of the administration’s most sycophantic pundits, had to point this out during an interview on Thursday night, noting that before joining the FBI, Bongino had called the bombs an “inside job.” Bongino’s answer was astonishing.

“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day I will be back in that space—but that’s not what I’m paid for now,” he said. “I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”"

The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine; The New York Times, November 29, 2025

Santul NerkarAnnie Correal and Colin Moynihan , The New York Times; The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine

[Kip Currier: For any wondering how and why this individual could or would be pardoned by Donald Trump right now, read the full New York Times article and especially the excerpts below...

Corruption, Conspiracy Theories, and Self-Projection.]

[Excerpt]

"He once boasted that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” He accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him.

At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernández in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America’s poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries.

Last year, Mr. Hernández was convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. It was one of the most sweeping drug-trafficking cases to come before a U.S. court since the trial of the Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega three decades before.

But on Friday, President Trump announced that he would pardonMr. Hernandez, 57, who he said was a victim of political persecution, though Mr. Trump offered no evidence to support that claim. It would be a head-spinning resolution to a case that for prosecutors was a pinnacle, striking at the heart of a narcostate...

When he was sentenced in 2024, Mr. Hernández spoke for almost an hour in court, airing conspiracy theories and grievances as he portrayed himself as the victim of “political persecution.” In a lengthy letter, Mr. Hernández quoted Edmund Burke, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Bible...

For many Hondurans, his conviction was a rare taste of justice. A woman in a crowd outside the courthouse celebrating his punishment had held a sign that read “No clemency for narcopolitics.”

But on Saturday, Mr. Trump said in a statement to The New York Times that “many friends” had asked him to pardon Mr. Hernández: “They gave him 45 years because he was the President of the Country — you could do this to any President.”"

Doctor Critical of Vaccines Quietly Appointed as C.D.C.’s Second in Command; The New York Times, November 25, 2025

Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times; Doctor Critical of Vaccines Quietly Appointed as C.D.C.’s Second in Command

"Dr. Ralph Abraham, who as Louisiana’s surgeon general ordered the state health department to stop promoting vaccinations and who has called Covid vaccines “dangerous,” has been named the second in command at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce the appointment, and many C.D.C. employees seemed unaware of it. But the C.D.C.’s internal database lists Dr. Abraham as the agency’s principal deputy director, with a start date of Nov. 23. The appointment was first reported by the Substack column Inside Medicine."

CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on debunking vaccines-autism link; The Washington Post, November 20, 2025

Lena H. Sun,  The Washington Post ; CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on debunking vaccines-autism link

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repudiated its past insistence that vaccines do not cause autism after decades of fighting misinformation linking the two, blindsiding career staff and delighting anti-vaccine activists.

The agency’s website on vaccines and autism, updated Wednesday, now makes several false claims about a connection, echoing longtime rhetoric from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a lengthy history of disparaging vaccines and linking them to autism.

Career scientists at the agency responsible for information about vaccine safety and autism had no prior knowledge about the changes to the website and were not consulted, according to five agency officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation."

Trump shares false claim Obama earned $40m in ‘royalties’ from Obamacare; The Guardian, November 9, 2025

Robert Mackey, The Guardian ; Trump shares false claim Obama earned $40m in ‘royalties’ from Obamacare

"Donald Trump promoted the false claim that Barack Obama has earned $40m in “royalties linked to Obamacare” in a post to his 11 million followers on Truth Social on Sunday.

The fictional claim that the former US president receives royalty payments for the use of his name to refer to the Affordable Care Act, which he signed into law in 2010, has been repeatedly debunked since at least 2017, when it was featured on America’s Last Line of Defense, a satirical website that produces fake news reports designed to generate engagement from outraged conservatives.

The updated version of the claim shared by Trump on Sunday fooled many of his supporters in February, when it was posted on Facebook by America’s Last Line of Defense, and on the Dunning-Kruger-Times, a satirical site run by the same man, Christopher Blair, the Maine-based “godfather of fake news”.

On Sunday morning, Trump posted a screenshot of an earlier post with an image of Obama and the text: “BREAKING: DOGE halted a yearly payment of $2.5 million to Barack Obama for ‘royalties linked to Obamacare.’ He’s been collecting it since 2010, for a total of $40 million in taxpayer dollars.”"

How RFK Jr. Mastered Fake Science—and Screwed Us in the Process; The Bulwark, August 10, 2025

JONATHAN COHN , The Bulwark; How RFK Jr. Mastered Fake Science—and Screwed Us in the Process

"The year is 2035 and the world is dealing with another pandemic, only this time it’s even worse. A bird flu strain has made the leap that scientists have long feared, evolving into a virus that spreads as quickly as COVID-19 but kills at a much higher rate. Businesses and schools have shut down. Economies have crashed. The infected are overwhelming hospitals.

In a virtual press conference, officials announce that there is hope, because the same kind of vaccine that got us through COVID will work this time as well. The catch is that it will take a few more months to develop and produce. And the death toll, already in the millions for the United States alone, is rising fast.

A reporter on the zoom call asks: Why will it take so long? Well, the officials explain, we had a chance about a decade ago to prepare for this by creating a ready-to-deploy vaccine platform that would have shaved months from the process. But our predecessors who were in charge back then killed the funding. So we don’t have that head start.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ABOVE SCENARIO is hypothetical—except the final part about the funding. That part happened last week.

On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Trump administration was canceling about half a billion dollars of federal contracts with companies and institutions that have been working to develop the next generation of mRNA vaccines.

MRNA stands for messenger RNA, the naturally occurring genetic material that cells use as their guide for making proteins. Vaccines with mRNA have a synthetic version of the material, with “coding” instructing cells to manufacture proteins that are part of viruses or other hostile elements, so that the body’s immune system can learn to recognize and fight them."

Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement.; The Washington Post, August 4, 2025

 Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post; Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement

"Zuckerberg fired professional fact-checkers, leaving users to fight falsehoods with community notes. As the main line of defense against hoaxes and deliberate liars exploiting our attention, community notes appear — so far — nowhere near up to the task."

Trump Attacks ‘Past’ Supporters Upset Over Epstein Case; The New York Times, July 16, 2025

Erica L. Green, The New York Times; Trump Attacks ‘Past’ Supporters Upset Over Epstein Case

 "In a blistering social media post Wednesday morning, President Trump took aim at his supporters who are upset with the administration’s handling of files related to the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose connections to wealthy figures have been a subject of intense interest among vocal portions of his base.

Mr. Trump distanced himself from those who have criticized him, calling them “PAST supporters” who had “bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker.”

Mr. Trump also claimed that outrage over the Justice Department’s decision to not release additional information and close the investigation was just the latest “scam” cooked up by Democrats.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work,” he wrote, “don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”"

Far-right conspiracy theories spread online in aftermath of the Texas floods; The Guardian, July 9, 2025

Ben Makuch, The Guardian; Far-right conspiracy theories spread online in aftermath of the Texas floods

"Disasters and tragedies have long been the source of American conspiracy theories, old and new. So when devastating flash floods hit Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, and as the death toll continues to rise, far-right conspiracists online saw their opportunity to come out in full force, blurring the lines of what’s true and untrue.

Some people, emerging from the same vectors associated with the longstanding QAnon conspiracy theory, which essentially holds that a shadowy “deep state” is acting against President Donald Trump, spread on X that the devastating weather was being controlled by the government."