Less than three months into his second term, President Donald Trump and his administration have revived tactics from his first term, including what critics describe as direct attacks on the press, public misinformation, and a strategy of “disinformation overload.” While critics argue that these moves endanger democratic discourse, Trump and his allies maintain that they are fighting back against media censorship and bias.
Trump, his administration, and his supporters’ recent claims span a wide range of topics, including the economy, immigration policy, and his ongoing legal battles. Trump has justified his pardons of hundreds of individuals convicted in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack by stating that “They didn’t assault; they were assaulted”—yet observers have pointed to video evidence and court rulings to the contrary. He has also criticized Canada, a NATO ally, stating that fentanyl has been “pouring across the border.” However, critics were quick to point out that less than one percent of fentanyl traced in the United States was sourced from Canada.
These actions have had tangible impacts. In early March, the Trump administration canceled 5,200 contracts, amounting to 83% of the total programming of the United States Agency for International Development, following a six-week review initiated by administration officials. The review was prompted by claims that billions of dollars had been spent inefficiently or in ways that conflicted with American interests.
The audit, overseen by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, drew criticism both for its lack of transparency and for citing unverified or disputed information as a basis for cancelling certain programs. The sweeping cancellations disrupted humanitarian relief efforts and led to warnings from diplomats and aid organizations about potential impacts on global food security, public health, and U.S. alliances. Critics contend that the spread of misinformation about foreign aid expenditures contributed to one of the largest rollbacks of American development assistance in recent history.
According to the numbers, these statements follow a pattern seen during Trump’s first term. According to a Washington Post fact-checking tally, Trump made 30,573 “false or misleading claims” between 2017 and 2021—an average of 21 per day. Today, cabinet officials and advisers amplify or originate such claims themselves.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in her first official briefing, stated, “I commit to telling the truth from this podium every single day.” Minutes later, she announced, “DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” calling such a program a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.” The New York Times quickly debunked the statement, with critics calling it “a preposterous claim, improbable on its face.” Millions of dollars in grants had indeed gone to preventing sexually transmitted diseases—but in Mozambique, not Gaza.
Despite the correction, the claim circulated widely. Within 24 hours, posts referencing the alleged “condom aid” had over 111 million views on X, according to analytics from Tweet Binder by Audiense. A conservative website, Front Page Magazine, labeled them “terror condoms,” falsely linking the claim to past Hamas tactics. Mentions of “condom” and “Gaza” appeared across podcasts, radio, and television programs with a combined reach of 53 million people, according to data from Critical Mention. The International Medical Corps, which manages medical aid in Gaza, confirmed it had never provided condoms or family planning services there.
Nevertheless, Trump declared on Feb. 19 that “we spent $100 million on condoms for Hamas fighters,” repeating the debunked claim.
The media has directly questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s statements, but has been met with criticism. During a 2023 town hall, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins challenged the president on his statements regarding the 2020 election, prompting Trump to interrupt her, calling her a “nasty person” in a campaign event earlier this year. The moment was widely circulated on social media and followed by a wave of online harassment directed at Collins by Trump’s supporters.
These developments come amid a larger national debate over misinformation and institutional credibility. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, only 31% of Americans expressed “a great deal/fair amount” of trust in mass media, a steep decline from previous decades.
As trust in national media outlets has declined over the past few years due to increasing political polarization, alternative channels have become a growing source of news, including both accurate reporting and deliberate disinformation. At a University of Washington Faculty Lecture, scholar of disinformation Kate Starbird described the current landscape as a “machinery of bullshit” engineered for scale and political effect.
“[It] has become intertwined with digital media, has been effectively leveraged by right-wing populist movements, and is now sinking into the political infrastructure of this country and others,” she said.
Recent developments involving TikTok have also heightened concerns about political influence over social media platforms. After the app was briefly banned in America in early 2025, it was reinstated with messaging crediting not-yet-inaugurated President Trump for its return. Critics have warned that signs of Trump’s growing ties to TikTok’s leadership, including the public appearance of CEO Shou Zi Chew at Trump’s inauguration, could allude to potential government consolidation of control over online content. Observers have argued that if political figures like Trump gain unchecked influence over what information remains visible on major platforms, “the very foundation of democracy is at risk.”
At the same time, Trump and his allies have claimed that they, not the mainstream media, are being censored. In 2023, Trump stated that he had been silenced by major tech platforms, citing his suspensions from X, Facebook, and YouTube following the Capitol attack, calling them “illegal, unconstitutional censorship.” All three platforms have since reinstated his accounts.
The presidential administration’s actions have also focused on agencies tasked with safeguarding the truth in public discourse. Meta announced that it would end its third-party fact-checking program across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—replacing it with a crowdsourced tool modeled after Elon Musk’s “Community Notes” system on X.
Some Trump allies openly embrace this strategy. In February, conservative Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “We are waging a 21st-century information warfare campaign against the left… Someone says something on social media, Musk retweets it, Rogan podcasts it, Fox broadcasts it. By the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it… We’re actually talking about expressing information; they are suppressing information.”
Framing their efforts as a response to perceived bias, many conservatives argue that major tech companies and traditional media outlets have suppressed right-leaning viewpoints under the guise of combating misinformation. They point to events such as the removal and downranking of the Hunter Biden laptop story on Twitter ahead of the 2020 election as evidence of political bias, accusing former Twitter executives of “being terrified” of Joe Biden not winning the 2020 election and of colluding with the FBI. Republican lawmakers have accused Twitter and Facebook of making content moderation decisions that unfairly disadvantage conservatives, fueling calls for reform.
Additionally, initiatives like “Project 2025,” supported by Trump allies, outline plans for a second-term agenda that would reduce government partnerships with tech platforms on content moderation and limit federal agency efforts to monitor disinformation. Although Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from the initiative, many of his supporters argue that these changes are necessary to curb large tech companies from “suppressing free speech, eroding traditional conservative values, corrupting America’s youth, and pushing left-leaning ideology.”
The result of these dynamics, according to the New York Times, is a political environment where Trump and his allies are winning a “war over the truth.”
Sophia Ghafouri ’27 (sghafouri@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.