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'I Think I'd Fall Asleep': Right-Wing Media Praise Trump Snoozing In Court

'I Think I'd Fall Asleep': Right-Wing Media Praise Trump Snoozing In Court

Donald Trump’s MAGA media propagandists are so deep in the tank for the former president that they’ve been praising him for repeatedly falling asleep during his New York City hush money trial.

Since April 15, Trump has regularly been in a Manhattan courtroom, where he faces charges of falsifying business records in order to conceal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say these payments were intended to keep Daniels’ claims that she had an affair with Trump from becoming public during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump, age 77, often mocks President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” suggesting that Biden is too old and frail to fulfill his duties. But reporters in the courtroom have repeatedly observed Trump appearing to fall asleep during the trial — most recently on Monday morning before opening statements began.

That evening on Fox News’ Special Report, chief political anchor Bret Baier suggested that news outlets are providing too much coverage of the first-ever criminal trial for a former president, and criticized them in particular for covering the spectacle of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s inability to stay awake in the courtroom.

“You know, we cover it every day,” Baier said of the trial, “and we will — all the details of each day in court — but there are some places that are obviously covering it ad nauseum and have gone through every single detail, including four times that he might have fallen asleep, everything that happens inside the courtroom.”

Meanwhile, Baier’s colleagues and their ilk spent last week attempting to turn Trump’s proclivity for nodding off in public into a virtue — apparently unphased by their years of denigrating Biden as an addled old man whose energetic speeches can only be the result of performance-enhancing drugs.

“I mentioned that Maggie Haberman posted this update from the courtroom, ‘It appears that Trump might be sleeping’ — this was on day one,” Republican political operative and Fox host Sean Hannity said on his April 18 radio show. “By the way, I think I’d fall asleep if I was there,” he added.

And Hannity wasn’t the only Trump flunky to attest that they, too, would sleep through a trial just like their beloved former president.

“I'd be falling asleep at that trial too,” Hannity’s colleague Laura Ingraham said on her April 15 Fox show.

“That’s exactly how all of us would act in, like, the ‘Intro to Gender Studies’ class at the University of Missouri,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said on his radio show.

Others praised Trump for falling asleep in court and urged him to be even more disrespectful during his trial.

“Did Donald Trump nod off for a moment? Good for him. These things are boring,” Newsmax host Greg Kelly offered on April 16.

“Trump appearing to sleep and be bored is exactly the response this Kafkaesque persecution deserves,” Fox host Greg Gutfeld said on the April 16 edition of The Five. “He is America, who, unlike this frothing infantile media, doesn't see this as some mutant form of entertainment and justice.”

“Trump should go to trial, bring a big book, big fat John Grisham novel, just sit there and read,” Gutfeld added. “Just sit there and read. That's the only response this manufactured mayhem deserves — is just contempt.”

Co-host Jesse Watters replied that he was going to send Trump’s team a copy of his new book so Trump “can open it up inside the courtroom.”

On Sunday’s MediaBuzz, Fox contributor Tomi Lahren praised Trump’s “excellent job” and claimed that journalists are “trying to distract from Joe Biden” by pointing out that Trump keeps falling asleep.

“I don't think anybody's buying it,” she said. “Good job media, but I don't think that it's resonating when you've got the current guy, President Joe Biden, in the office, who quite literally falls asleep.”

Less than 24 hours later, Trump apparently once again dozed off in court.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Bridge Accident Conspiracy Theories Highlight Right-Wing Madness

Bridge Accident Conspiracy Theories Highlight Right-Wing Madness

Early in the morning on March 26, the container ship Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, destroying the bridge and killing six construction workers. Investigations are ongoing, but authorities said early on that there was no sign that the collision was intentional. However, in the alternate universe of right-wing media, there’s no such thing as accidents.

In the days after the bridge collapse, many in right-wing media quickly embraced absurd conspiracy theories to explain what happened, blaming a “probable” cyberattack, the beginning of World War III, terrorism, the “New World Order,” and the “wide-open border.” Other conservative commentators morphed the tragedy into another casualty of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion training, or “DEI” — the latest byword, following “woke” and “critical race theory,” for right-wing anger at people of color.

“They should’ve hired a more diverse workforce,” mocked one right-wing pundit, while others called the disaster “DEITANIC,” or claimed it was an inevitable consequence of immigration: “Invite the Third World, become the Third World.”

“DEI equals die, that’s what people need to understand,” announced Trump ally Laura Loomer, while Newsmax guest Victor Davis Hanson claimed, “we’re not hiring necessarily the best people.” DEI came up in the comments of several Republican politicians discussing the disaster, as well.

The unspoken conclusion of these baseless DEI complaints is that only white people can be competent in their jobs.

“They really want to say the N-word,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who is Black, in response to social media posts calling him a “DEI mayor.”

Earlier this year, right-wing media similarly scapegoated racial diversity in response to a series of in-flight incidents with Boeing aircraft, a company that has faced extensive criticism and federal investigations of its safety culture. Invoking right-wing complaints about DEI, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’”

Now, conservative media are dismissing the obvious explanation for the Baltimore bridge collapse — a likely accident — in favor of asinine conspiracy theories about some of their favorite talking points.

“When trust is repeatedly broken,” complained Fox’s Laura Ingraham, defending the conspiracy theories, “it shouldn't surprise anyone that during a crisis, our leaders' explanations and assurances, as much as we want them, sometimes don't carry much weight.”

The preening about “trust,” from a conspiracy theorist herself, to defend the impossibly wide array of conspiracy theories about the Baltimore bridge collapse underscores the intellectual bankruptcy of right-wing media.

“The problem is that we have a D.C. establishment that has been wrong or misleading on issue after issue,” Ingraham continued, citing “the lab leak theory” about the origins of COVID-19, CDC guidance on masks, and school closures during the pandemic alongside vague insinuations about Hunter Biden's laptop and references to a Chinese spy balloon.

“Like all conspiracy theories,” said Donald Trump Jr., “they turn out to be right, you know, in the future.”

Given the countless conspiracy theories conservative outlets have pushed over the decades — the “Clinton body count,” birtherism, “Pizzagate,” the “great replacement,” and 2020 election misinformation, to name a very few — it’s little wonder that right-wing media explained yet another tragedy with a bunch of bullshit. Why let an opportunity to spread more noxious conspiracy theories go to waste when those theories are foundational to the right-wing media worldview?

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Online 'Manosphere' Influencers Embrace Hitler And Nazism

Online 'Manosphere' Influencers Embrace Hitler And Nazism

Right-wing “manosphere” influencers including Sneako, Jon Zherka, and Myron Gaines are embracing Nazism and defending Adolf Hitler online. These influencers — who have large followings across multiple platforms — have histories of making antisemitic comments and pushing conspiracy theories about Jewish people, but their pro-Hitler and Nazism commentary marks an escalation.

Over the past year, these three figures have praised and defended Hitler, done the Nazi Seig Heil salute while streaming, and refused to disavow Nazism.

These influencers are part of the manosphere, an online community of right-wing websites, bloggers, and personalities cultivating a worldview based on conservative and regressive gender politics repackaged for the internet age.

While purporting to provide dating, financial, and lifestyle advice to men, some manosphere figures are aligning themselves with far-right personalities. Their online presence can serve as a gateway to push audiences further to the right toward more dangerous ideologies, as they often use other topics that interest young men — like weightlifting, video games, and boxing — to draw viewers in before diving into extremist content and misogyny.

Figures in this group often push extremism and antisemitism while blaming women for myriad societal woes and treating them as an inferior sex. Rhetoric from these influencers can sometimes be overtly cruel and promote hitting, degrading, and shaming women.

Sneako

  • Right-wing streamer Sneako (real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy) is a manosphere influencer and associate of pro-Hitler rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West). He has been described as “a cheap imitation” of misogynist, media personality, and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate.

Sneako is also an associate of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He spoke at one of Fuentes’ antisemitic rallies. He is banned on TikTok and YouTube and has promoted the abuse of women.

Sneako recently interviewed Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony at an event for former President Donald Trump. Several attendees also pointed out that Sneako is one of Fuentes’ associates.

On several occasions, Sneako has praised, defended, and embraced Adolf Hitler and Nazism.


While probing a German woman about her sex life in a stream uploaded to X, Sneako made antisemitic comments and said he wanted to do the fascist Roman salute “so bad.”


“How about we role play,” Sneako said. “I’ll be the Nazi and I’ll shove you in the oven like a dirty Jew.”

  • On X (formerly Twitter), Sneako posted a picture of Hitler and wrote, “this nigga had aura.”
  • During a livestream on the right-wing video hosting platform Rumble, Sneako said that “the Nazis had drip” and that the swastika is “aesthetically pleasing.”
  • While livestreaming with influencer Adin Ross, Sneako refused to call Hitler evil.
  • Sneako wrote on X that people should not “bash” Hitler for killing Jewish people and wished him a happy birthday.

Jon Zherka & Myron Gaines

Zherka instructed a group of women to do a Nazi Sieg Heil during a livestream and say “heil Hitler.”

  • In a bizarre livestream video posted to Reddit, Zherka melted down after finding out a woman he was hanging out with is Jewish. “You rule the world and all the banking,” he said to the woman while pretending to hit her.

After the woman said “I don’t like Hitler,” Zherka asked, “The fuck is wrong with you?” He later added, “I’ll regret this, dude.”

Zherka ended the livestream by saying “Hitler was a good guy.”

  • Zherka again did the Nazi Sieg Heil alongside Fuentes and manosphere influencer Myron Gaines (real name Amrou Fudl) during a livestream. Gaines then pretended to be Hitler’s ghost.

Antifeminist influencer Hannah Pearl Davis was also featured on the stream.

  • During a stream with Sneako, Zherka identified himself as a Nazi while attacking a man’s appearance.

“You look like a Nazi that became a Nazi just to fit in,” Zherka said. “Like, you’re not actually one of us.”

  • Gaines previously defended and praised Hitler on his Fresh & Fit After Hours podcast.

“Though he did things that were morally incorrect, he definitely did a bunch of things correct for his country. That’s a fact,” Gaines said.

Influence on young people

  • Reporting shows how easily toxic rhetoric from manosphere influencers can infiltrate the minds of young audiences, even among users as young as 11.

And some of the videos these manosphere influencers share, showing them meeting their fans, demonstrate just how young some of these viewers are.

  • In one clip, young Sneako fans repeat his toxic rhetoric back to him, saying, “Fuck the women,” and, “All gays can die.” He seems to half-jokingly ask the camera, “What have I done?”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Right-Wing Media

Right-Wing Media Escalate 'Civil War' Threat Over Supreme Court's Border Decision

In response to a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire Texas laid along the border with Mexico, right-wing pundits are claiming the Biden administration has sparked a second American Civil War. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, two members of the court’s conservative block, sided with the three liberal justices in ruling for the federal government.

The issue stems from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to stretch razor wire over dozens of miles along the state’s southern border, a cruel policy that has failed in its stated objective of deterring unauthorized border crossings. The Biden administration opposes the measures, and has ordered the Border Patrol to remove the barriers. The stand-off between Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard escalated earlier this month, with federal officials blaming Abbott for the deaths of a mother and her two children who drowned in the Rio Grande. (Texas authorities dispute this version of events.)

For his part, Gov. Abbott pledged that Texas will “continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.” Although it may appear that Abbott is in direct defiance of the Supreme Court, the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick explained that the ruling overturned an “order saying Border Patrol COULDN’T remove Texas razor wire to process migrants. It didn’t affirmatively rule that the Border Patrol COULD remove Texas razor wire.” Or, as the New Republic's Matt Ford put it, the Supreme Court “lifted an injunction” on the Department of Homeland Security, so there's “nothing in this case for Texas to obey or defy at the moment.”

This simmering confrontation is the new backdrop for an old story. During election years, conservative media outlets generally ramp up their attacks on immigrants. Separately, over the last year, conservatives have become increasingly comfortable calling for, threatening, or warning about a coming civil war in the country. Responses to the recent court ruling have married these two trends.

As the news broke on January 22, conservative YouTube streamer Tim Pool said it “looks like a Fort Sumter-esque type scenario,” referencing the first battle of the Civil War, adding that “it does feel like it could be escalating to this federal versus state conflict.”

That evening, former Fox News star Tucker Carlson posted on X (formerly Twitter), asking: “Where are the men of Texas? Why aren’t they protecting their state and the nation?”

The same night, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) wrote that “the feds are staging a civil war, and Texas should stand their ground.”

Then on January 23, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon appeared to favorably reference that post, saying “as Clay Higgins said” there is “kind of a civil war between the federal government and the state of Texas.”

Hours later, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk fantasized about Gov. Abbott openly defying the court’s ruling at the barrel of a gun.

“So someone says right here, ‘Charlie, what would happen if Texas ignores the ruling? Will the government go to war with Texas?’” he asked.

“The federal government would come in, and some people would say, ‘Well, that's the seeds of a civil war.’ Is that what you want? Where does this end?” Kirk added moments later. “By the way, I'm all on board.”

“If we had an actual governor of Texas that was willing — 100% defy this,” Kirk continued, before advising Abbott on the logistics.

“If you're going to defy, here's how it works: press conference flanked by your most loyal Texas Rangers. ‘I am ignoring the Supreme Court's decision,’” Kirk said, adopting Abbott’s point of view. “‘I will enforce the border of Texas. If you're going to arrest me, you have to go through the Texas Rangers.’”

“If we had more governors on the border, it would be even more powerful,” he added, implicitly invoking the Confederacy. “Get every red state on board. Fly in every Republican governor.”

On Wednesday afternoon Abbott issued a statement invoking “Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself,” which he claimed is “the supreme law of the land.” Throughout the day, at least nine governors backed Abbott on X, even if they fell short of Kirk’s demand that they travel to the border. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp all posted their support for Texas, as did Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

In the same episode, Kirk told his audience that they had “better buy weapons,” and “have a lot of guns at your disposal.”

That afternoon, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh echoed Kirk. “Red state governors will need to ignore the Supreme Court and do what needs to be done to protect their citizens and the border,” Walsh said. He later added, “The last civil war was unimaginable until it wasn't.”

In the early evening, Bannon returned to the topic with guest Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “That Supreme Court decision that was made has now put the federal government at war with the state of Texas,” Greene said.

“If they fund a war in Ukraine when Zelensky is raising the white flag, asking for peace talks in Switzerland, and they weaken our border policy while the federal government is at war with Texas, that is truly, possibly the start of a civil war in this country,” she added.

Blaze TV’s Steve Deace also invoked the memory of the Civil War. “Basically, the Supreme Court has told Texas your choices are: be invaded or secede,” Deace said.

On January 25, Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade adopted the same framing on Fox & Friends.

“It feels like almost like a soft civil war,” Kilmeade said. “You’ve got all the Republicans saying, ‘Can we secure our borders?’ the Democrats saying, ‘I want this to go away’ and blaming Republicans, the President against the governor of Texas — the most independent state in the union. I mean, this is getting a little crazy.”

Fox News sounded little different than the fringe. “This is a constitutional crisis,” said conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a video titled: “Supreme Court Decision Provokes Civil War in Texas.”

The story was the same in the right-wing blogosphere, too, with conservative news site PJ Media asking, “Is Joe Biden Mounting a Civil War at the Border?”

Conservative influencer Jordan Peterson posted: “So is it the case that @TheDemocrats are truly ready to go to war with Texas?”

While right-wing media figures fantasize about a new civil war, their rhetoric has real implications for immigration policy. They are stoking xenophobia and nativism, and endorsing cruel policies that are already injuring and killing some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.