Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter.

A few days ago, we searched for the latest news from Washington, DC, on behalf of visitors who had traveled to the US from abroad. They were considering canceling their trip to the nation’s capital after hearing about President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard. So we asked Google whether DC was safe. To our surprise, the first article that appeared in the “news” tab was not from a news source—it was from the US Department of Defense. 

The article, titled “Guard Assisting Law Enforcement in Making DC Safe,” does not take the form of a press release or an official announcement. Instead, it is written in the style of a news piece. It says that the president has “declared a crime emergency” in DC and “vowed to make streets there safe again.” It depicts a photo of a civilian family smiling at National Guardsmen, and quotes an Air Force staff sergeant saying “we’re just here to help.” The article did not mention that, according to the statistics, crime in the city has fallen over the past two years.

The Trump administration is adept at capturing and holding public attention. Since January, it has filmed Teslas on the White House lawn, posted ASMR-style videos on Instagram, and used AI to make cartoon images of deportations. Publishing propaganda content that looks like news is just another of its tactics to reach audiences directly—and it seems to be working. Our analysis of a Google News dataset posted on Kaggle found a jump in the frequency of articles from the whitehouse.gov domain after President Trump’s second inauguration, and readers have noticed. 

The increased number of articles is due to the administration’s media strategy more than any changes in Google News. “For years, Google News has included news-related content such as press releases, blog posts or articles from government sites,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “There have not been any recent changes to this functionality.” 

Even as we were writing this article, the first result in a Google News search for “Smithsonian” was a White House article titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian.” The results that follow include articles from the New York Times, The Atlantic, and MSNBC News about the White House’s efforts to exert influence over the Smithsonian’s museum exhibits.

The juxtaposition of independent media and government publications in news feeds may lead readers to see them as similarly reliable. “I think it’s dangerous if people can’t identify what has been independently reported and fact-checked, and what is government propaganda,” says Jon Marshall, a professor at the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism whose research focuses on the relationship between presidents and the press.

During his first term, President Trump constantly accused mainstream outlets of liberal bias. But he also strategically used Twitter to issue provocative statements that would be quoted in the mainstream press. It was a tactic to “launder the mis- and disinformation under the credibility of the news link,” says Joshua Scacco, a professor of communications at the University of South Florida.

Trump’s strategies since have allowed him even more direct control over how he gets his messages to audiences. In 2022 Trump created his own social media platform, Truth Social. Now his administration is disseminating news-like content from government websites. The direct messaging allows Trump to control the narrative and deflect criticism. This is especially true when right-wing sources that his supporters follow are focused on topics, like the Epstein files, that are unfavorable to Trump.

Take, for example, the White House Wire, the Trump administration’s news aggregation website, which clearly mimics the Drudge Report, a site founded by his former supporter Matt Drudge. “Drudge has turned on Trump and is no longer posting favorable stories,” Scacco says. “To redirect conservatives’ attention, they’re trying to create this alternative Drudge page.”

Our analysis of the links on White House Wire over the past three months shows how the administration is prioritizing its own media infrastructure over independent news sources. The most frequent source cited is the White House YouTube channel, followed by whitehouse.gov. News outlets favorable to Trump, like Fox News and Breitbart, are also frequently cited. After Trump’s feud with Elon Musk in May, there was a sudden drop-off in links to X. 

By creating his own sites, Trump strengthens his visibility and prominence in the media ecosystem and ensures that he doesn’t have to rely on platforms like X and the Drudge Report. He also skirts accountability from the independent press. 

Presidents of every era, from Theodore Roosevelt to Joe Biden, have sought to avoid the press and speak directly to the people, noted Marshall and Scacco. But Trump has launched an open attack on the press that started with untruthful rhetoric and has escalated to numerous lawsuits and the banning of news organizations like the Associated Press and, more recently, the Wall Street Journal from the press pool in retaliation for unfavorable coverage. These are unique threats to press freedom.

The White House serving as its own media outlet is concerning. But this isn’t just about news. Last week, the White House launched a TikTok account; it already has half a million subscribers. Meanwhile, the White House YouTube channel hosts trendy videos like “Lo-fi MAGA Video to Relax/Study To,” which features hypnotic beats set to images like a cartoon Trump working at a McDonald’s.

“They’re just another content creator competing with content creators,” Scacco said.

Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.