Every White House aims to control its messaging, and the second Trump White House has pushed these efforts into new territory by asserting more control over the White House briefing room setup and over who gets prime access to the administration and its microphones.
Cutting the authority of the White House Correspondents Association, a media cooperative that advocates for journalism best practices and which previously assigned seats to reporters in the room, the White House has moved new entities into prime positions and in effect downgraded outlets it finds less favorable.
Explaining the change as a sensible reaction to the disrupted media landscape where podcasters, influencers and Substackers have built audiences that rival, in size, the reach of many legacy media properties, the Trump administration continues to add new media personalities to the mix.
It is a move that wins applause from MAGA adherents, who believe legacy media is complicit with the so-called “deep state.”
Predictably, the change also incites deep concerns among traditional media outlets which portray their reporting standards and continued access to the seats of power as essential to a functioning democracy — and an antidote to propaganda.
Those mainstream media concerns were on full display this week as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called on MAGA newcomer Rogan O’Handley — AKA ‘DC Draino’ — introducing him with a short biography that described him as “a former Hollywood entertainment lawyer who got fed up with the far left ideologies of California and now posts conservative political commentary online for more than seven million followers across all platforms.”
Pathetic. https://t.co/uQE3RUNV3Q
— House Homeland Security Committee Democrats (@HomelandDems) April 28, 2025
After Leavitt’s introduction, O’Handley — pre-identified as a figure with an ax to grind — began his time in the spotlight by citing a litany of MAGA talking points. During Trump’s first 99 days, O’Handley said, “we’ve seen a coordinated assault on the rule of law by radical judges who are thwarting his agenda with an unprecedented number of national injunctions.”
[NOTE: Correlating with those injunctions is the fact that Trump has issued an unprecedented number of Executive Orders — more than 135 — as compared to just 33 during the first 100 days of his first term. O’Handley and the larger MAGA movement are in lockstep as they label any dissent on the legality of Trump’s moves “judicial activism.”]
O’Handley, given the White House platform, went on to make more assertions that went unquestioned by Leavitt, such as “these judges are providing more due process to violent MS-13 and Tren de Aragua illegal aliens than they did for American citizens who peacefully protested on January 6.”
[NOTE: President Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan 6ers, pardons made necessary by the fact they had received due process.]
Sharing the post as seen above, the X account for House Homeland Security Democrats captioned the video “pathetic” — though they were not specific about their objection.