Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America. Before we get into today’s stories, take a few seconds to tap that ❤️ and restack this edition. That’s how we break through the algorithm and reach the people who need these stories the most.
Donald Trump’s attempt to shut media outlets out of the White House has already resulted in embarrassment, with the president spending a Monday afternoon event talking to himself with no one able to hear him. California’s governor and attorney general are now getting widespread criticism after caving to pressure and allowing a pro-Trump billionaire to control even more of the media. A former Harvard psychiatrist says the president is behaving like a “toddler” because he feels “helpless.” And ICE has quietly started disappearing thousands of immigrant detainees from its internal tracking system, making it nearly impossible for their lawyers and families to find them.
Before we dive in, independent media needs your help now more than ever. Just 72 hours after Trump banned several media outlets from the White House — including Raw America — one of his biggest donors is now poised to take over CNN. This is all happening while Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Elon Musk’s X are intentionally blocking our stories from reaching our own followers on their platforms. A small cabal of billionaires owning most of the media is antithetical to a free society. Raw America will never bow down to an oligarch, but we can only survive if readers like you decide independent media is worth funding. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a paying subscriber to Raw America, today is the day. We can’t do this without you.
Trump held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday for his new White House helipad. There was a photo-up set up that included a crowd of people in hard hats and safety vests, but nobody could actually hear what the president said.
The White House’s own feed couldn’t pick up his voice over the sound of the Marine One helicopter idling, and the audio was little more than garbled noise. All this is because the White House press pool is effectively boycotting covering Trump without officially saying so.
The president announced Friday that he was removing CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, slamming them as “fake news.” The rest of the press corps, including Fox News, NBC, ABC, and CBS are all standing in solidarity with their colleagues, and suspending their own coverage of Trump until he reverses the ban.
Even far-right network Newsmax admitted this stunt blew up in Trump’s face. On Monday, host Bianca de la Garza said on air that the sound issue at the ceremony was a clear sign that Trump’s censorship plan was “backfiring.”
The three outlets in question filed a lawsuit Monday arguing Trump’s ban violates their First Amendment rights. Their lawyers said no president gets to strip outlets of their rights just because he doesn’t like their reporting. The legal precedent they’re citing was created from the 2019 * Karem v. Trump* case, which was filed by Raw America White House reporter Brian Karem.
Trump continues to insist he’s not attacking the free press, only the “fake news” that he compared to cancer. But all this time, Trump’s attempt to control the story by controlling who’s in the room is overshadowed by the other, much bigger story: no one can hear the story you want to tell if there are no microphones in the room.
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Up until recently, California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of state AGs who were suing to prevent the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger from going through. But thanks to Bonta — who reportedly faced pressure from California Governor Gavin Newsom — Calfornia opted for a settlement, prompting the other states to give in as well. And people are furious.
This deal creates one of the largest media conglomerates on the planet, which will be run by David Ellison, son of billionaire Trump megadonor Larry Ellison. The combined company after the merger will control roughly 30 percent of theatrical film distribution and basic cable licensing in the U.S. It also puts CNN under the same ownership as Paramount, which already owns CBS. To add insult to injury, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund will also get a piece.
Alvaro Bedoya of the American Economic Liberties Project stated that this settlement is the result of billionaires bribing, censoring and bullying their way to the top, and declared the deal a “massive betrayal.” Now a media empire tied closely to the president will own one of its biggest rivals.
Free Press co-CEO Jessica González said Bonta went back on his promise to protect consumers and workers, and called the outcome a sad day for anyone opposing runaway media consolidation. Actor Mark Ruffalo also chimed in, saying Newsom just handed Trump and his billionaire friends a huge win.
In addition to Newsom, Xavier Becerra, who is the Democratic nominee in this fall’s race to replace him, publicly called for a settlement, pointing Paramount’s threat to flee to Texas if the merger got blocked. That was considered a largely empty threat given how much of a load-bearing operation Paramount’s California studios are for the company.
The deal apparently comes with some concessions, like “independent editorial boards” for CBS and CNN, though nobody’s explained yet how those would actually work or who would enforce them. But what’s clear is that judges had ruled in favor of plaintiffs at every stage, and that things were looking promising for the states ahead of the March 2027 trial. But now the skids have been greased for yet another billionaire-led media takeover.
This kind of media consolidation is exactly why we need independent journalism. Raw America is committed to being the one thing the billionaires can never buy, but we can’t do that without support from our readers. Subscribe today for just 22 cents a day and help keep independent media alive.
Dr. Bandy Lee, a forensic and social psychiatrist who has taught at both Harvard and Yale, is comparing Donald Trump’s recent behavior to that of a “toddler.” She added that the president’s actions are likely coming from a place of “helplessness.”
Lee cited the recent example of Trump claiming he was carried out of a pile of rubble by firefighters on 9/11, when in fact he was miles away from Ground Zero. She argued that the president’s need to insert himself into virtually every major event shows that he has an incredibly fragile sense of self, saying: “this is what toddlers do.”
She went on to say that very young children need to feel like they rule the world because it helps them cope with how dependent and powerless they actually are. That’s normal for a two year-old, but much less so for an 80 year-old man who is the president of the United States.
Lee also lamented that there’s no institutional mechanism to stop a president from acting on his worst impulses, pointing to his recent social media posts that seemed to show him launching nuclear weapons.
The White House predictably dismissed her comments as armchair diagnosis from someone who doesn’t agree with the president’s politics. However, Lee is far from the first mental health expert who has sounded the alarm over Trump’s erratic behavior. She’s one of dozens of physicians who signed a letter earlier this year calling for Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. A recent YouGov poll found 48 percent of Americans believe Trump is experiencing some level of cognitive and/or physical decline.
The Associated Press recently confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly removed thousands of immigrant detainees with final deportation orders from its public database as of September 15th.
Lawyers who’ve spent years combing through that system to find their clients say people are just vanishing from it now with no advance notice or explanation. This is especially significant because detainees still have legal options even after a final removal order, including filing habeas petitions asking a judge to step in to stop deportation.
But if a detainee’s lawyer can’t even find out where their client is being detained, they can’t file anything on their behalf, as they need to submit the habeas petition to the federal district with jurisdiction over the state where an immigrant is being held. One lawyer representing Somali detainees held at Guantanamo Bay said the change could make legal challenges effectively impossible. And maybe that’s the point.
There were nearly 16,000 people booked into ICE custody in July alone who had final removal orders. Advocates are saying this system appears to be intentionally designed with the goal of making people disappear from the system altogether.
California’s AG may have given up, but we’re just getting started. Raw America has plans to force the White House’s hand on its ban of our reporter, Brian Karem. We’re also doubling down on both our on-the-ground coverage from Washington and our live interviews of newsmakers where you can get in-depth answers to the questions the legacy media outlets won’t ask. **But none of this is possible without readers like you stepping up to keep this work going. If you’ve been considering becoming a paying member of the Raw America community, today is the best day to do it. **
I’m British Chris, with Raw America. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media. Once again, tap the ❤️ and restack this post so we can break through and reach more readers.
