Trump Press Sec Seethes at Media over Musk as More Bad Econ News Hits

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At Tuesday’s media briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House will now decide who attends briefings, an effort to insulate President Trump from tough scrutiny. She also offered awful spin about the developing Elon Musk fiasco. At key moments, Levitt visibly seethed at the media. And we think we know why: On Tuesday, consumer confidence registered another big drop, and Leavitt was simply unable to defend the glaring Trump-Musk failures we’re seeing. We talked to MSNBC.com columnist James Downie, author of a recent piece detailing how Trump doesn’t want to talk about the economy these days. He explains how Leavitt’s performance illustrated key fault lines in the MAGA coalition and big weaknesses that will bedevil Trump’s presidency. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.6	.
0:29.6	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:46.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
1:02.1	A lot happened at White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt's most recent media briefing on Tuesday.
1:08.0	Levitt announced that the White House will now be deciding who attends these briefings going forward,
1:11.3	an effort to insulate President Trump from tough scrutiny.
1:17.6	She also offered some bafflingly awful spin about the developing fiasco around Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. At key moments, Leavitt was visibly seething at the media,
1:23.9	and we think we know why. On Tuesday, we also saw Trump hit by more bad economic news
1:29.4	as consumer confidence registered its biggest monthly drop since 2021.
1:35.1	James Downey, a columnist for MSNBC.com,
1:38.4	recently wrote a piece observing that Trump actually doesn't want to talk about the economy these days.
1:44.0	The Levvit briefing
1:44.8	illustrated what's going on nicely, so we're talking to James Downey today. Good to have you on, Jim.
1:51.3	Good to be with you. Let's start with the big announcement. The White House has barred the
1:57.4	Associated Press from the White House press room because the AP is refusing to literally
2:02.1	parrot Trump's propaganda that is refusing to use the phrase Gulf of America. Here's what
	...

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