Paul Farhi

I write about the news media, other topics in Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New York mag., Washingtonian, etc. Formerly: Washington Post. [email protected]

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@awolk Well, fighting back isn’t going to persuade the base (those people already think reporters are evil). But it very well might alienate the non-base. Risks showing reporters to be just as touchy and childish as him. Best to fly above it. Let him be the prickly one.

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

A few years from now, people will look back on this and be amazed that it was routine.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

COLLINS: Will you stand by Pete Hegseth if he's impeached?

TRUMP: Yeah, I'll stand by him. He won two wars. Massie is a lower. Just like you're a loser at CNN.

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

It’s science:
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

[ZachInMilwaukee @ZachInMillioke]

Comments I’ve seen brought about by the Edmund Fitzgerald

- Lakes don’t get 20’ waves
- How tf would you fit a 1,000’ boat on a lake

The coastal elites will never understand the scale of the Great Lakes

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@awolk I think there’s a tradeoff between the short and longterm. Short term: Yes, it would feel good to punch back. Long term: Reporters would be viewed as combatants rather than people just trying to do their jobs. Why take the spotlight away from his behavior?

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@CONELRAD6401240 Yeah. I get that he signed it. But wrote it? Naw.

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

New: Trump wrote warm letter to Biden during White House transition in 2021: “I know how much you love the American people.” 
https://t.co/QU2ol7n6Zu

(OTOH, ask yourself if any of this sounds like it was written by Trump):

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Wait til next year: Hegseth impeachment effort is blocked by House Republicans https://t.co/TDvaArBSOG

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

No need to wait. Withdraw Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, including from Crimea. Cease all military action, return kidnapped children. War over.

[Laura Rozen @lrozen]

Kushner: “The question we get asked the most from the Europeans is, are the Russians, is Pres. Putin, really ready for peace.
From what Steve and I have heard from him, we can say, very strongly, we believe so.”

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

New: Former Trump lawyer Alina Habba Loses $50 Million Contract That Enraged Trump. Habba signed the contract with a family-owned firm weeks
before the president pardoned the family’s patriarch. @tylerpager: https://t.co/GyDvVgyYjy

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

New: Appeals court rules that Voice of America director was fired illegally by ex-boss Kari Lake. “This represents the latest Trump Admin failure to dismantle VOA…Hundreds of employees [have been] on paid leave” for the past 18 months. @scottnover: https://t.co/PVmT5Z72YQ

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

It does raise an obvious question: Why go after the assistant when the CEO made the decision?

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Hegseth notes that everything he did was "ordered by the commander in chief"

(he was just following orders, you see)

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Fragility.

[Tara Copp @TaraCopp]

A security agent for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just warned the reporters here — for Hegseth’s first press conference in 6 months — that we will be physically removed from the briefing room if we are not professional and maintain decorum. We asked if that meant no shouted questions and got no clarity. It’s the first time any of us could ever remember being threatened like this. Shouted questions are normal. “This is crazy town” one journalist said, noting the White House has never threatened reporters like that. We’re in the room, back row:

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

More: Visits to Truth Social have declined steadily over the past six months, since the start of Iran war. @TheRighting’s Howard Polskin calls the trend “a referendum on the president’s popularity. Trump is literally being tuned out.”

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Another data point in the collapse of the Trump media economy: Visits to Trump-owned Truth Social fell 39% in Oct., according to @TheRighting. This follows ratings declines at Fox News (-27%) and Newsmax (-26%) in Oct. Big slump just before the election. https://t.co/qQjNPADJLL

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@awolk I dunno. I still maintain reporters aren’t there to argue with him, that his insults, petulance and pettiness speak for themselves, that *not* responding in kind is a mark of professionalism.

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Hegseth hasn’t held a press briefing in six months, a period covering most of the war his department is running. But *now* he’s having one? What vital national security topic will he address?

[The Hill @thehill]

Hegseth plans press conference, says he’s ‘not worried’ about impeachment push

https://t.co/S3AwRr6Hsa

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@sparky6six6 No, but he’s saying here that the people who ran the war in Afghanistan theoretically should have been impeached for failing to win. He oversaw that war for four years. So is he saying *he* should have been impeached for it?

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Footnote: Trump was president during four years of the war in Afghanistan. It ended in 2021.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump deflects from Hegseth by calling "for the people that ran the Vietnam war" to be impeached instead

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@sfcpoll @lennybronner Excellent, Scott!

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

Yes. Need a post-election analysis that reverses the usual question: Why were the polls so *accurate* this time?

[Aidan McLaughlin @aidnmclaughlin]

Interesting subtext here: Trump asks “how could the polls be so wrong.” The polls forecast a Dem wave and ended up being spot on. Was someone at the WH telling Trump otherwise? It was probably the best year for poll accuracy since they nailed Obama’s victory in 08.

[Paul Farhi @farhip]

@lennybronner Huh. So…maybe the polls got the direction right but not the details?