Media gives crazy legitimacy to Trump’s ‘assurances’
Here’s an idea, journalists: How about reporting his track record?
To understand what the legacy media has been up to in recent days, it helps to think of The Emperor's New Clothes, but with an added element. In this case, picture reporters running around the crowd, interviewing people about how lovely the emperor’s (non-existent) clothes are.
That's what we’re seeing as big news agencies come together to form a narrative: that GOP lawmakers decided to support the “One Big Beautiful Act” after President Donald Trump gave them “assurances.”
“Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Lisa McClain, of Michigan, said GOP holdouts were persuaded to vote in favor of the bill after being assured that ‘actual tax savings would be done and we would continue to do more savings,’” NBC tells us.
Though some GOP “moderates” worried that the law’s cutbacks to Medicaid would jeopardize hospitals, “It was personal assurances from Trump—and from Vice President Vance—that swayed members like Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.),” The Hill reports.
And, according to PBS, “Per multiple holdout members, Trump gave assurances about how he would implement the bill and tighten benefits, stepping up checks for possible undocumented immigrants.”
Ah, yes, Trump’s “assurances.” What would we do without them? Actually, we already know the answer to that. Because his assurances don’t assure anything.
As I explain in my podcast and newsletter They Stand Corrected, which fact checks the news, truth requires two things: facts and context. Sure, it’s impossible to fact check what will happen in the future. But the media can and should provide crucial context right now by telling news consumers about the president’s track record in making promises.
What did he vow would come of his financial policies last time around? “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt,” he said in 2016, before winning his first term. “I think I could do it fairly quickly…. I would say over a period of eight years.” By early 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic could be blamed for economic destruction, the debt was already up to $23.4 trillion.
“Over the next ten years, our economic team estimates that under our plan the economy will average 3.5% growth and create a total of 25 million new jobs,” Trump said in 2016. In that same speech, he went further, saying “I think we can do better” than 4% growth. None of that happened. During his first term, GDP growth topped off at just under 3% growth in 2018, just as it did under President Barack Obama in 2015.
As for jobs, “the U.S. economy was slowing down even before the pandemic. The U.S. added less than 2 million jobs in 2019—the lowest annual growth since 2010,” factcheck.org reported. As Bloomberg put it, “Job growth was slightly slower in Trump’s first three years before Covid than it was during the last three years of the Obama administration.”
The list goes on. In 2016, Trump repeatedly vowed to shrink the trade deficit–yet another failed promise even before Covid. But the trade deficit also does not automatically indicate the strength of the economy, as I explained in a recent episode.
Every president makes failed promises. Just about every politician does so. (It could be literally every politician, but I can’t fact check whether every local official who has ever run for any office pulled through on everything.) But Trump’s record of bombastic promises with no follow through is exceptional.
The media knows this. Many of them did reports in 2021 about the failed promises of his first term. In covering his latest “assurances,” all they have to do is reach back and look at their own previous reporting. But in this era, legacy news agencies routinely rush to report whatever people are saying. What Americans need most—facts and context—aren’t provided.
Though many people who read this newsletter are probably aware of Trump’s record, many other Americans are not. In advance of the election last year, 51% of Americans said they believed Trump keeps his promises, and more than one in five (22%) said that describes Trump “very well,” according to Pew Research.
So it’s no wonder lawmakers are able to get away with passing along Trump’s “assurances” to their constituents. They’ve learned how this works. They can describe this president as wearing the bigliest, most regal suit ever made. And, thanks to the media, millions of people will be none the wiser.
Josh Levs is host of They Stand Corrected, the podcast and newsletter fact-checking the media. Find him at joshlevs.com.
Thanks for running my latest column, The Contrarian. More on all this and lots more over at theystandcorrected.substack.com!
Yes! Real journalism isn’t just about recording and transmitting what sources say, but as you say here, providing context in which to understand what is being done or said. Yes to all your points.