President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was filled with falsehoods and bigotry and featured Republicans working to suppress dissenting voices—but in the mainstream media, these issues were largely glossed over, and the spectacle was presented as mostly normal, despite the decidedly abnormal state of the union.
The Republican roster of guests at the address included hateful right-wing influencers and bigots, there to amplify key Trump themes, like transphobia and opposition to immigration. They stood in stark contrast to the Democratic guests, which included federal workers purged at the command of Trump’s billionaire benefactor Elon Musk, who loomed over Trump from the balcony.
Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas set the tone early when he ripped a sign reading “This is not normal” out of the hands of Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico as Trump walked by. The hostility to dissent skyrocketed as House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered the removal of Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, who protested during Trump’s speech, noting that the president does not have a mandate for his extremism. House Republican leaders are now pushing to unjustly censure Green over his protest.
But in the headlines of the mainstream media, everything was more or less normal, and Trump was the belle of the ball.
Democratic Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York holds a protest sign with fellow Democrats as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 4, 2025.
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The New York Times: “A Combative Trump Says ‘America Is Back’ and Taunts His Political Rivals”
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The Washington Post: “Defiant Trump signals full speed ahead on divisive policies”
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Politico: “Trump celebrates disruption and defies backlash”
Other major outlets echoed Republican annoyance at Democratic protests. NBC said Green’s statement “overshadowed” other protests, while CNN highlighted that members had “ignore[d] party guidance.”
The tone of the coverage is even more remarkable when compared with the right-wing New York Post (owned by Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch): “Trump hails his whirlwind, six-week ‘common sense revolution’—as downbeat Dems protest address to Congress.”
The so-called “liberal media” is essentially in lockstep with the most pro-Trump media conglomerate around.
The tone of the coverage does not reflect the reality of the moment. Trump is engaged in an unprecedented right-wing attack on core American institutions, including the departments of Education and Veterans Affairs, the FBI, and even the U.S. Postal Service.
The mainstream press has clearly decided to bend their collective knees to Trump. In some instances, this has even gone to the point of open payoffs, like when Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’s company Amazon paid big money for a documentary on Melania Trump while Bezos flipped the paper’s opinion page into a libertarian-only zone.
The minimal coverage of Trump’s absurdities and of Republican attempts to squash opposition voices is turning “sanewashing” from an election sideshow to the main event—and freedom suffers because of it.
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