This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Tuesday, and he seemed more crazed in power-mad than usual.

He imperiously refused to take a question from an ABC reporter as punishment for an ABC interview with J.D. Vance that went badly.

He boasted about cutting only democratic programs.

He confirmed he supports a vile new policy restricting media coverage of the Pentagon.

And he threatened to cut off funds to New York if Zoran Mamdani wins. We think all this suggests the urgency of this moment has only gotten more

pronounced. Trump is clearly emboldened in a new kind of way, and we're all going to have to

get much more active if we're going to stop him at this point. Brian Boitler has a piece up on his substack, off message, laying out what he thinks a

resistance that meets the moment should really look like. He's also written well on the

futility of news organizations paying bribes to Trump. So we're talking to Brian about all this.

Good to see you, Brian. Good to be back with you, man.

So over the weekend, ABC's George Stephanopoulos sharply questioned Vice President Vance about a $50,000 bribe that borders are Tom Holman reportedly may have accepted.

The ABC anchor cut off fans after he refused to answer his question. Here's what Trump said

about that on Tuesday. First of all, congratulations. Take questions from ABC fake news after what you did

with Stephanopoulos to the vice president of the United States. I don't take questions from

ABC fake news. Brian, go ahead.

So what Stephanopoulos really did was ask about reports that Holman had accepted 50,000 in a paper bag from an undercover FBI agent and asked if Holman gave the money back. Vance said,

very legalistically, Homan did not take a bribe.

Stephanopoulos then pointed out that Vance didn't answer the question, which was true.

Brian, on what planet is this not a legitimate line of questioning for a network reporter?

Only on the planet where the only way that, like, the ruling party and its loyalists will treat a media organization as something worth being treating with respect is if they decide to engage in regime propaganda alone.

...